A proposed amendment to Ipswich City Council’s draft media policy has sparked debate over whether ratepayers should fund Council communications staff to help individual councillors prepare and distribute statements expressing their own views.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding has raised concerns about amendments put forward by Councillor Paul Tully, saying the proposal requires greater scrutiny before a final decision is made.
Speaking on West Bremer Radio, Mayor Harding said the issue was not whether councillors should be able to speak publicly, but whether Council’s corporate communications resources should be used to support individual councillors’ personal communications.
“The councillors need to have the ability to communicate with their community, and so the policy is not doing anything to stop that, and I certainly don’t want to do that,” Mayor Harding said.
“But it’s also, I think, just important that we do scrutinise policies that come through, especially when we have an unknown cost there.”
Concerns over timing of amendment
Mayor Harding said Council had previously held a workshop on the media policy in April before it progressed through the Council process.
However, she said Cr Tully circulated what she described as a significant amendment at 4.41pm on the day before Tuesday’s Finance and Governance Committee meeting.
According to Mayor Harding, that left little opportunity for councillors, the CEO or Council officers to examine the proposal and its potential implications.
“I think any policy amendment needs to be looked at,” she said.
“One is the lack of scrutiny. It’s a significant amendment to what was sort of brought forward by the organisation.
“So we really need that time to review it, and the community need the time to review it as well.”
Mayor Harding said Councillor Marnie Doyle subsequently sought to have the matter laid on the table, which would have provided another month for consideration, but that request was rejected.
Communications resources questioned
Mayor Harding said her second concern related to how Council’s media and corporate communications team could be used under the proposed changes.
She said the team was currently resourced to produce corporate and official Council communications, but the amendment could see those resources used for individual councillor statements.
“They’re wanting to use that team to do personal and individual and potentially political statements for all councillors,” she said.
Mayor Harding said the potential cost was unknown and claimed the CEO had been unable to provide a figure because the amendments had only recently been circulated.
“I just want to make sure that people know how their money is being spent,” she said.
“So we need to know what that will cost.”
Mayor Harding characterised the proposal as potentially providing councillors with what she described as a “mini PR team” and said she wanted to know whether residents supported ratepayer funds being used in that way.
Potential for multiple statements
Mayor Harding said she raised concerns during the committee meeting about the potential workload for Council communications staff.
She suggested it could potentially quadruple, although she acknowledged Cr Tully disagreed with that assessment and did not believe the additional workload would reach that level.
Mayor Harding said one possibility under the proposal could be multiple statements being produced on the same Council issue — including Council’s official position and separate views from individual councillors.
“You could potentially [have] 10 media statements on the same topic,” she said.
“There’d be the official position, and as well as the nine councillors.”
Mayor Harding acknowledged that she would also be able to make use of the arrangements if the amendment was adopted, but said she did not believe Council staff should be required to prepare her individual views.
“If I have something that’s my own individual view, I would put [it] on social media myself or I’d type up a media statement and send that off to the different media outlets,” she said.
‘Absolute right’ for councillors to speak
Mayor Harding strongly rejected any suggestion that her concerns were about preventing councillors from speaking publicly.
She said each councillor had been democratically elected and should be able to communicate directly with residents and the media.
“Every single councillor has been elected democratically. They have an absolute right, and I’m always encouraging them,” she said.
“I’ve been a very strong proponent [that] the community hear from their nine councillors, and so that’s really important.
“But I guess I just question whether the ratepayers should be paying for that.”
Questions over official and personal communications
Mayor Harding also raised the issue of how residents would distinguish between an official Council statement and an individual councillor’s opinion if both were prepared through Council’s communications team.
She said it was important that any personal opinion was clearly identified as such.
“When people see a media statement, will they know if that’s the official communication from Council where it’s based on fact, or is it just personal view and opinion?” she said.
“If it’s a view and opinion, that needs to be really clear.”
Mayor Harding said she had already received feedback from some residents suggesting that, if the changes were adopted, individual councillor statements produced using Council resources should be published on Council’s website so residents could see what their rates were funding.
Final Council vote next week
According to Mayor Harding, the proposal was supported six votes to three at Tuesday’s committee meeting.
She said she and Deputy Mayor Nicole Jonic voted against the proposal, while Cr Doyle abstained because she had not had sufficient time to review the amendments.
The matter is now expected to go before an ordinary Council meeting next Thursday for a final decision.
Mayor Harding said she would seek further feedback from residents before that meeting.
“I’ve always said to the people I’d let them know how their money’s being spent,” she said.
“I’ll let them know how decisions are being made and how they can influence decisions.”
Mayor Harding said that if additional staff ultimately had to be employed to support councillors’ individual communications, she would personally prefer those resources to be directed towards frontline Council services.
“If we had to put on an extra, I don’t know, nine people — one person for each councillor — I would rather employ an extra nine people filling potholes or mowing the grass or picking up bins or doing other work,” she said.
“That’s my personal view.”
The proposed amendment will now proceed to the ordinary Council meeting, where councillors will make the final decision.
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