At our council meeting on 26 July, a finding was tabled from a Conduct Panel which concluded that another Councillor’s behaviour towards me did not constitute serious misconduct.
The same report describes the behaviour towards me as ‘hostile’, ‘disrespectful’, ‘unreasonable’, ‘attacking the person not the issue’, ‘inappropriate’, ‘appalling’, ‘unwarranted attack’, ‘character assassination’ and ‘aggressive’.
The grounds the panel used to assess what is considered ‘unreasonable’ conduct within a local government context relied upon a 18-year-old judgement which essentially says that while one might wish for better behaviour in politics, that is not the reality of Australian State and Federal politics and by implication, that the behaviours of this councillor are not ‘unreasonable’ within a council and therefore do not constitute bullying.... And if you don’t like it, “find another homeland”.
I am deeply concerned that this finding sets a dangerous precedent which undermines the State Government’s ambition to get more women into local government and improve the culture of and trust in the sector. While the Victorian government has set a target for 50% women councillors and mayors in local government by 2025 and has introduced programs such as ‘Women Leading Locally’, is this the standard of culture and treatment that women can expect and must endure once they arrive?
Coral Ross AM CF FAICD's research through the Churchill Fellowship found that low female participation and high churn of women in local government globally stems from sector cultures that support competitive, adversarial and hostile behaviours. And yet this behaviour is now enshrined as ‘reasonable’ through this finding.
In any other workplace, it would be clear that these behaviours would create an unsafe workplace and a risk to psychological safety and would not be tolerated.
The 2021 'Set the Standard' report into Federal Culture stated “Public confidence can erode when constituents do not see the standards and expectations in their own workplaces mirrored in their democratic institutions.” And yet this is now what we are being encouraged to tolerate and survive through.
I cannot imagine a more disappointing and disheartening portrait of the future of Local Government culture if this is now precedence.
‘We should set the standard for workplace culture, not the floor of what culture should be’.*
#thisismyhomeland and I do not think this is acceptable behaviour in a workplace and for a community leader.
- *Quote from 2021 Set the Standard report into Federal Government Culture. Link to video of speeches on 25 July meeting: https://webcast.stonnington.vic.gov.au/archive/video22-0725.php#placeholder Link to finding: https://www.localgovernment.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0033/187737/Hely-Lew-CCP-2021-3-Councillor-Conduct-Panel-Determination-and-Statement-of-Reasons-for-Decision-15-July-2022.pdf