Markets 
Allegations a south-east Queensland mayor is attempting to “gag” councillors is at the heart of a local government scrap south-west of Brisbane, as well as claims council resources will be overwhelmed by the new rules.
Under policy changes expected to pass at Ipswich City Council, its media team will be permitted to work with councillors on their own communications. Under present rules, it is only permitted to act on behalf of the mayor or institution of council.
All councillors at a Finance and Governance Committee meeting on Tuesday voted in support of the proposed amendments – made possible by new legislation – except for mayor Teresa Harding and her deputy Nicole Jonic who opposed, and councillor Marnie Doyle who abstained.
Harding used the official council media channels to put out a personal statement blasting the move on Thursday, arguing it would drain resources and be of no benefit to ratepayers.
“I have never seen an example of a council’s corporate communications team being used to draft the personal views of councillors,” Harding said.
“There have been several attempts during my time as mayor to amend this policy to serve the political interests of councillors instead of serving the Ipswich community. I am sure residents are sick of seeing this tired political tactic.
“Residents should hold significant concerns about what is being proposed here. While ratepayers will be funding this proposal, it is hard to see how it will deliver benefits for anyone other than these councillors.”
Speaking over the phone to this masthead, longtime councillor Andrew Antoniolli shot down those arguments, accusing Harding of attempting to maintain centralised control of communications.
“I just think that these fanciful deflections by the mayor are just to try and take away from the fact that she wants to … and has shown a pattern of behaviour so far of gagging her fellow councillors,” he said.
“It’s my experience that they are currently underutilised, and that the current media pressures that exist are certainly less than what they were 10 years ago.
“It’s laughable. I think we’re all growing weary of the whole debate.”
Councillor Pye Augustine similarly said she didn’t believe the resourcing argument stood up to scrutiny.
“I don’t think that holds water… I just don’t understand what her thinking is,” she said.
“We’re just trying to get a voice … as a councillor.”
Harding has previously accused councillor Paul Tully of attempting to gag her from speaking as official spokesperson on council matters. This masthead has contacted him for comment.
“There’s always a tension between mayors and their councillors,” Peter Chen, a political scientist and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, said.
“Mayors have always had that kind of institutional power that they could use politically.
“You can understand why individual councillors, particularly those who aren’t in the same political faction, want to equalise that power imbalance.
“It’s also a story about the decline of local media.”
Chen said he hadn’t heard of councils in Australia introducing similar policies, but believed it was likely to become more widespread in places where mayors did not have factional control.
“I think that now that the kind of the band-aid’s been ripped off, we’ll see others entertain this.”
While councillors in Ipswich don’t run on party tickets, Harding has strong links to the LNP – having previously run for the party at the federal level – and many of her rivals are connected to the Labor Party.
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