City councillor suspended | Latrobe Valley Express

By ERIKA ALLEN

LATROBE City Council has removed Melissa Ferguson’s name, photo and contact details from its website after she was banned for a month for failing to apologise for transphobic social media comments made last year.

The website does not list a single councillor for the South Ward, something residents and supporters of Cr Ferguson said would have a negative impact on them, they told the last council meeting (Monday 3 June).

Local political commentator Taylah Ling, who runs the Facebook page Valley Insights, which has more than 1,000 followers and whose purpose, according to the page, is to “hold the council to account”, addressed the chamber. She said South Ward residents and the wider public were angry and frustrated by the suspension.

“Many residents didn’t know about this until it was made clear on social media and I think a lot of people are actually quite frustrated when they hear that the applicant in this case has requested a six-month suspension,” she said.

Last year, Cr Ferguson was criticised for a series of comments on Twitter (now called X) which said in an arbitration case that “members of the public were not treated with dignity, fairness, courtesy and respect”.

The state government’s head of councillors’ code of conduct appointed an independent arbitrator, Dr Meredith Gibbs, to assess whether the council had misused social media. Latrobe councillor Tracie Lund challenged the arbitration, arguing that Cr Ferguson was acting in her capacity as a councillor when she made the comments, which she claimed breached the council’s code of conduct.

The comments – which were either retweeted or written by the councillor and posted on her personal X account “Cr Melissa Ferguson” – included a shared tweet from an account called “Gays Against Groomers”.

“Predators hide behind the rainbow and use it as a shield to hunt children,” the retweet said.

“If the American people don’t do something soon, it will be legal to fuck children. The government will eventually enforce it. These monsters are after ALL of our children. They are consuming them. The Trans Bill of Rights will be the end of all beautiful things.” This was a retweet from Gays Against Groomers.

Another tweet, submitted by Councilmember Lund as evidence against her fellow councilmember, spoke of “confused children” being forced into a “trans/gender atmosphere” through gender-affirming training and programs in the workplace.

Cr Ferguson called the programs “radical” and condemned people who benefited from them.
The Gippsland Pride Initiative described Cr Ferguson’s retweets as “reprehensible, harmful, hatefully ignorant and, worse still, factually incorrect”.

The Express reported at the time that Cr Lund had stated on Facebook that she wanted to denounce unprofessional and discriminatory behaviour.

The arbitrator’s report said the tweets and retweets were “disrespectful to transgender people because they suggested that transgender people were pedophiles who abused children and abused their gender identity to legitimize pedophile activities.”

Dr Gibbs also noted that the comments do not support the Council’s commitment to promoting gender equality.

Cr Ferguson was found to have breached the Local Government (Governance and Integrity) Regulations 2020. Rather than interpreting the comments as being made personally, Dr Gibbs noted that the councillor had made clear her connection to Latrobe City Council and that even retweeting them was a breach of the councillor conduct rules as it “condoned” the transphobic views.

On the arbitrator’s instructions, Cr Ferguson was required to apologise and attend diversity, equality and inclusion training at the September 2023 council meeting.

On Facebook, City Councillor Lund wrote: “I sincerely hope that this finding raises expectations for the conduct and leadership of those entrusted with the privilege of public office.”

However, Cr Ferguson did not submit a written apology last September, instead choosing to read out the referee’s order verbatim.

“As set out in the arbitrator’s findings, the apology must in any event be unconditional and indicate that Cr Ferguson was guilty of misconduct in breaching the standards of conduct … of the Local Government (Governance and Integrity) Regulations 2020 through her tweets about the LGBTIQA+ community,” Cr Ferguson read to the chamber on 4 September 2023.

Because of her “insincere” apology, Ms Ferguson was suspended from her council duties for one month. As a result, she attended her last council meeting on 3 June before her suspension took effect at 00:01 on Tuesday 4 June.

During this time, she will miss a council meeting and will not receive her salary or have access to council property.

Free expression

CR Ferguson defended herself in a written submission at the arbitration hearing last August, arguing that she had the right to freedom of speech and expression and that Cr Lund had attacked her because of a different political view.

These views were echoed by Taylah Ling at last week’s council meeting. Ms Ling told the chamber that the arbitration process was being used as a weapon to attack not only Cr Ferguson, but the wider community.

“Those who stand by her and share these views have also been censored by this attack,” Ms Ling said.

“It’s an attack on our desire for a truly diverse council chamber, it’s an attack on our freedom of opinion and speech, and it’s an attack on our democratically elected councillor,” she continued.

“I want to thank (Cr Ferguson) for having the courage to stand firm in her convictions and beliefs regarding the LGBT community and I want her to know that she is not alone in this fight for gender-segregated spaces and child protection.”

Cr Lund posted on social media ahead of the council meeting: “Freedom of speech is not a license to discriminate.”

The councillor also wrote that by denouncing Cr Ferguson’s “harmful behaviour” she had become the target of attacks aimed at intimidating and disrupting what she considered to be “the necessary processes to resolve these serious issues” (referring to the reconciliation system).

Cr Lund told the Express: “As an elected representative, I am firmly committed to accountability, transparency and tackling unprofessional and discriminatory behaviour. I have consistently spoken out against discriminatory and harmful behaviour.”

“It is not easy and I have been the victim of online attacks aimed at intimidating and disrupting me. However, it has not stopped me from ensuring that as a council group we hold each other to account and behave in accordance with the Council Members’ Code of Conduct.”

When asked if freedom of speech and accountability could be reconciled, Council Member Lund said: “The outcome of the arbitration that resulted in Councillor Ferguson’s one-month suspension seeks to uphold standards of accountability and transparency while taking into account the need to balance freedom of speech with the obligation to hold politicians accountable for their actions.”

Latrobe City Council Chief Executive Officer Steven Piasente said the correct procedure under the Local Government Act 2020 was followed and that the council would support the implementation of the findings.

“Adherence to these (standards of conduct) ensures that the council operates with the highest levels of governance, integrity and professionalism to maintain the public’s trust,” he said.

“Petty” schoolyard politics

According to the Express, two police officers attended the meeting after being warned that a protest could take place. However, no such situation occurred.

However, when Ms. Ling left the room at the end of her speech and interacted with gallery members, about half of the gallery followed her in silent demonstration.

Latrobe City residents appear to be striving for accountability and transparency. While council meetings are open to the public again after being closed and held online in June of last year, advance registration is required and attendance is limited to 60 people. A year ago, council cited maintaining a respectful environment free of “disruptive behavior” as the reason for holding the virtual meeting.

Last week the gallery was almost full and the atmosphere was noticeably more tense when Ms. Ling began her speech.

Some members of the gallery nodded passionately when Ms Ling said the tribunal system encouraged systematic abuse. She said the financial cost limited councillors’ ability to appeal, as they often had to fund the appeal process in the Supreme Court or VCAT themselves.

According to Ling, this may be the reason why “honest people” do not run for city council. Because even though councilors make comments that are not meant to be offensive, they are often perceived as offensive.

Before Ms Ling left the room, Cr Ferguson asked her how the community, particularly the South Ward, perceived the situation.

While they are grateful that the suspension is only for a month and not six months, Ms Ling said, that does not mean people are not upset that the South Ward will not have a councillor for that time.

The council’s website points out that in the meantime, citizens can contact any council member to raise a concern, regardless of which district they represent.

“As a council, we are here to serve everyone in our community,” the statement said.

Latrobe City Council Mayor Darren Howe underscored this point in a press release, saying, “I know South Ward residents are concerned that they will lack representation. I want to assure those residents that they will be supported during Mayor Ferguson’s absence.”

“I am confident that all council members will continue to work together effectively and will support Councillor Lund and Councillor Ferguson as they return to the chamber.”

However, some Latrobe City residents, including Ms Ling, are not convinced. In the days following the meeting, Ms Ling posted on Facebook that the council had removed Cr Ferguson’s profile from the Latrobe City Council website.

She called it a “new low.”

“Are we back in high school or is this the maturity we should expect from our council?” Ms. Ling wrote.

Facebook users made no secret of their disappointment in the comments, describing the circumstances of Cr Ferguson’s suspension with words such as “petty”, “toxic” and “childish”.

Leanne Irving commented: “Wow, this council is acting like they are still in high school, not a good look.”

Others immediately supported the suspension. Sarah Howard commented: “This is not immature, it’s mandated.”

Latrobe City Council has restricted Facebook comments on the council meeting.

Cr Ferguson runs her Facebook page under the title “South Ward Citizen Melissa Ferguson” and posted a montage of videos of herself while “Rise Up” by Andra Day played.

She wrote: “Hi followers. Due to my 30 day suspension, I will be updating this page as a community minded citizen.”