South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell has described as “utter rubbish” a claim published on Facebook that councillors had been stopped from speaking to the public or the media.
A group which backed several unsuccessful candidates at the recent Local Government elections wrote recently:
The alleged bullying tactics within Council as told by one of our Divisional representatives of being threatened with a ‘5 months suspension’ if topics are discussed with ‘the public’ is illegal and cannot be allowed to continue. We had the repetitive spiel of ‘communication’ & ‘transparency’ each and every time over and over during their election campaign and even during the newly elected Mayor’s opening speech…. nothing has changed.
Mayor Campbell said councillors were free to speak, especially about issues affecting their portfolio roles.
He said some may request that questions be put in writing, especially those councillors that were still new to the process and “finding their feet”.
However, he admitted he would be disappointed if once Council had voted to decide an issue, councillors then spoke in the media against Council’s adopted position.
