09-05-2025
'Six months of hell': review to sort vexatious council complaints from misconduct
Local councillors could be penalised for making "vexatious" complaints about their colleagues in an attempt to drive down grievance reports to the state government regulator.
The impending suspension of Snowy Monaro Regional councillor Andrew Thaler for three months over comments made on social media was a hot topic at the Local Government NSW rural and regional summit held in Sydney on May 8.
One of the targets of Mr Thaler's online comments, Tanya Higgins, thanked the Office of Local Government for its response to the conduct, which also requires Mr Thaler to apologise for his actions.
"We've gone through six months of hell," she told local government deputy secretary Brett Whitworth from the floor of the conference.
"I'm not an accountant or a lawyer, but I'm a woman in local government who has felt unsafe, unable to do my job the way I should be able to do it - and that is not right."
Mr Thaler was reported in Sydney media as calling Ms Higgins a "fat dumb blonde" in a March 5 video.
In a local interview published on YouTube on May 9, Mr Thaler doubled down. "I called a fat councillor a fat liar," he said in the interview, which he also linked to from his own social media with the text: 'am sorry'.
"I used the word as an intensive and a play on words," he said in the video.
But Ms Higgins also wanted to know if the Snowy Monaro experiences would influence the ongoing review of the councillor code of conduct.
"I would like some assurances that this hasn't been for nothing," she said.
"I know your team have been working really hard and I just hope there's time for this to be brought into that reform process."
Mr Thaler said he would be fighting the suspension, due to start later this month.
"No, of course it's not fair. It's a load of shit and I will be fighting it," he told ACM, the publisher of this masthead.
He accused Ms Higgins of calling him "the ugliest man alive" a number of years ago.
Meanwhile, Mr Whitworth said he hoped to establish a system in which "bad behaviour" concerns were sent to a privileges committee to be judged by a panel of peers and alleged "serious misconduct" was investigated by his office.
The review was also examining how to reduce unfounded complaints without jeopardising freedom of political communication.
"We will also need to look at what are the incentives to prevent people from making vexatious complaints," he told councillors gathered at the State Library of NSW.
"The minister has also asked me to look at ... whether there are powers that I already have under the Local Government Act to actually take action against councillors that are making vexatious complaints against other councillors."
In 2023-24, there were 1242 complaints lodged about councils state wide, 40 of those misconduct referrals.
In the past five financial years, the Office of Local Government has recorded a total of 6,223 council complaints. Of those, 189 were misconduct referrals.
There were 27 misconduct investigations in that time.
At the rural and regional councillor summit, Lithgow councillor Elizabeth Fredericks pointed to the case of Bathurst colleague Sophie Wright, who told the Western Advocate in April she had so many code of conduct complaints against her she had to withdraw from committees to find the time to respond to them all.
"Haters" were using the code of conduct to harass councillors, Ms Fredericks said.
"If you want us to be a third-level government, you need to start giving us the protection that the other two have."
Any reforms also needed to protect people's right to free communication, Mr Whitworth said.
"[The Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig] has also asked me to try and better define how that implied freedom of political communication can be understood and expressed and applied," he said.
Local councillors could be penalised for making "vexatious" complaints about their colleagues in an attempt to drive down grievance reports to the state government regulator.
The impending suspension of Snowy Monaro Regional councillor Andrew Thaler for three months over comments made on social media was a hot topic at the Local Government NSW rural and regional summit held in Sydney on May 8.
One of the targets of Mr Thaler's online comments, Tanya Higgins, thanked the Office of Local Government for its response to the conduct, which also requires Mr Thaler to apologise for his actions.
"We've gone through six months of hell," she told local government deputy secretary Brett Whitworth from the floor of the conference.
"I'm not an accountant or a lawyer, but I'm a woman in local government who has felt unsafe, unable to do my job the way I should be able to do it - and that is not right."
Mr Thaler was reported in Sydney media as calling Ms Higgins a "fat dumb blonde" in a March 5 video.
In a local interview published on YouTube on May 9, Mr Thaler doubled down. "I called a fat councillor a fat liar," he said in the interview, which he also linked to from his own social media with the text: 'am sorry'.
"I used the word as an intensive and a play on words," he said in the video.
But Ms Higgins also wanted to know if the Snowy Monaro experiences would influence the ongoing review of the councillor code of conduct.
"I would like some assurances that this hasn't been for nothing," she said.
"I know your team have been working really hard and I just hope there's time for this to be brought into that reform process."
Mr Thaler said he would be fighting the suspension, due to start later this month.
"No, of course it's not fair. It's a load of shit and I will be fighting it," he told ACM, the publisher of this masthead.
He accused Ms Higgins of calling him "the ugliest man alive" a number of years ago.
Meanwhile, Mr Whitworth said he hoped to establish a system in which "bad behaviour" concerns were sent to a privileges committee to be judged by a panel of peers and alleged "serious misconduct" was investigated by his office.
The review was also examining how to reduce unfounded complaints without jeopardising freedom of political communication.
"We will also need to look at what are the incentives to prevent people from making vexatious complaints," he told councillors gathered at the State Library of NSW.
"The minister has also asked me to look at ... whether there are powers that I already have under the Local Government Act to actually take action against councillors that are making vexatious complaints against other councillors."
In 2023-24, there were 1242 complaints lodged about councils state wide, 40 of those misconduct referrals.
In the past five financial years, the Office of Local Government has recorded a total of 6,223 council complaints. Of those, 189 were misconduct referrals.
There were 27 misconduct investigations in that time.
At the rural and regional councillor summit, Lithgow councillor Elizabeth Fredericks pointed to the case of Bathurst colleague Sophie Wright, who told the Western Advocate in April she had so many code of conduct complaints against her she had to withdraw from committees to find the time to respond to them all.
"Haters" were using the code of conduct to harass councillors, Ms Fredericks said.
"If you want us to be a third-level government, you need to start giving us the protection that the other two have."
Any reforms also needed to protect people's right to free communication, Mr Whitworth said.
"[The Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig] has also asked me to try and better define how that implied freedom of political communication can be understood and expressed and applied," he said.
Local councillors could be penalised for making "vexatious" complaints about their colleagues in an attempt to drive down grievance reports to the state government regulator.
The impending suspension of Snowy Monaro Regional councillor Andrew Thaler for three months over comments made on social media was a hot topic at the Local Government NSW rural and regional summit held in Sydney on May 8.
One of the targets of Mr Thaler's online comments, Tanya Higgins, thanked the Office of Local Government for its response to the conduct, which also requires Mr Thaler to apologise for his actions.
"We've gone through six months of hell," she told local government deputy secretary Brett Whitworth from the floor of the conference.
"I'm not an accountant or a lawyer, but I'm a woman in local government who has felt unsafe, unable to do my job the way I should be able to do it - and that is not right."
Mr Thaler was reported in Sydney media as calling Ms Higgins a "fat dumb blonde" in a March 5 video.
In a local interview published on YouTube on May 9, Mr Thaler doubled down. "I called a fat councillor a fat liar," he said in the interview, which he also linked to from his own social media with the text: 'am sorry'.
"I used the word as an intensive and a play on words," he said in the video.
But Ms Higgins also wanted to know if the Snowy Monaro experiences would influence the ongoing review of the councillor code of conduct.
"I would like some assurances that this hasn't been for nothing," she said.
"I know your team have been working really hard and I just hope there's time for this to be brought into that reform process."
Mr Thaler said he would be fighting the suspension, due to start later this month.
"No, of course it's not fair. It's a load of shit and I will be fighting it," he told ACM, the publisher of this masthead.
He accused Ms Higgins of calling him "the ugliest man alive" a number of years ago.
Meanwhile, Mr Whitworth said he hoped to establish a system in which "bad behaviour" concerns were sent to a privileges committee to be judged by a panel of peers and alleged "serious misconduct" was investigated by his office.
The review was also examining how to reduce unfounded complaints without jeopardising freedom of political communication.
"We will also need to look at what are the incentives to prevent people from making vexatious complaints," he told councillors gathered at the State Library of NSW.
"The minister has also asked me to look at ... whether there are powers that I already have under the Local Government Act to actually take action against councillors that are making vexatious complaints against other councillors."
In 2023-24, there were 1242 complaints lodged about councils state wide, 40 of those misconduct referrals.
In the past five financial years, the Office of Local Government has recorded a total of 6,223 council complaints. Of those, 189 were misconduct referrals.
There were 27 misconduct investigations in that time.
At the rural and regional councillor summit, Lithgow councillor Elizabeth Fredericks pointed to the case of Bathurst colleague Sophie Wright, who told the Western Advocate in April she had so many code of conduct complaints against her she had to withdraw from committees to find the time to respond to them all.
"Haters" were using the code of conduct to harass councillors, Ms Fredericks said.
"If you want us to be a third-level government, you need to start giving us the protection that the other two have."
Any reforms also needed to protect people's right to free communication, Mr Whitworth said.
"[The Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig] has also asked me to try and better define how that implied freedom of political communication can be understood and expressed and applied," he said.
Local councillors could be penalised for making "vexatious" complaints about their colleagues in an attempt to drive down grievance reports to the state government regulator.
The impending suspension of Snowy Monaro Regional councillor Andrew Thaler for three months over comments made on social media was a hot topic at the Local Government NSW rural and regional summit held in Sydney on May 8.
One of the targets of Mr Thaler's online comments, Tanya Higgins, thanked the Office of Local Government for its response to the conduct, which also requires Mr Thaler to apologise for his actions.
"We've gone through six months of hell," she told local government deputy secretary Brett Whitworth from the floor of the conference.
"I'm not an accountant or a lawyer, but I'm a woman in local government who has felt unsafe, unable to do my job the way I should be able to do it - and that is not right."
Mr Thaler was reported in Sydney media as calling Ms Higgins a "fat dumb blonde" in a March 5 video.
In a local interview published on YouTube on May 9, Mr Thaler doubled down. "I called a fat councillor a fat liar," he said in the interview, which he also linked to from his own social media with the text: 'am sorry'.
"I used the word as an intensive and a play on words," he said in the video.
But Ms Higgins also wanted to know if the Snowy Monaro experiences would influence the ongoing review of the councillor code of conduct.
"I would like some assurances that this hasn't been for nothing," she said.
"I know your team have been working really hard and I just hope there's time for this to be brought into that reform process."
Mr Thaler said he would be fighting the suspension, due to start later this month.
"No, of course it's not fair. It's a load of shit and I will be fighting it," he told ACM, the publisher of this masthead.
He accused Ms Higgins of calling him "the ugliest man alive" a number of years ago.
Meanwhile, Mr Whitworth said he hoped to establish a system in which "bad behaviour" concerns were sent to a privileges committee to be judged by a panel of peers and alleged "serious misconduct" was investigated by his office.
The review was also examining how to reduce unfounded complaints without jeopardising freedom of political communication.
"We will also need to look at what are the incentives to prevent people from making vexatious complaints," he told councillors gathered at the State Library of NSW.
"The minister has also asked me to look at ... whether there are powers that I already have under the Local Government Act to actually take action against councillors that are making vexatious complaints against other councillors."
In 2023-24, there were 1242 complaints lodged about councils state wide, 40 of those misconduct referrals.
In the past five financial years, the Office of Local Government has recorded a total of 6,223 council complaints. Of those, 189 were misconduct referrals.
There were 27 misconduct investigations in that time.
At the rural and regional councillor summit, Lithgow councillor Elizabeth Fredericks pointed to the case of Bathurst colleague Sophie Wright, who told the Western Advocate in April she had so many code of conduct complaints against her she had to withdraw from committees to find the time to respond to them all.
"Haters" were using the code of conduct to harass councillors, Ms Fredericks said.
"If you want us to be a third-level government, you need to start giving us the protection that the other two have."
Any reforms also needed to protect people's right to free communication, Mr Whitworth said.
"[The Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig] has also asked me to try and better define how that implied freedom of political communication can be understood and expressed and applied," he said.
