HOBSONS Bay councillor Mary Ann Lindsay has been cleared of any wrongdoing in last year’s council election.
In the Municipal Electoral Tribunal, magistrate Caitlin English last Tuesday dismissed claims that Cr Lindsay duped residents into voting for her because she did not disclose her Australian Labor Party membership.
A thrilled Cr Lindsay said she was pleased to be able to put the court action behind her and get on with her job.
“The decision vindicates my position and allows me to get on with representing the Altona North Ward unimpeded,” Cr Lindsay said.
“I want to focus my time and energies on what I was elected to do, representing the people of Altona North Ward.
“I’m pleased that the court has made the decision it has and I thank those people in Altona North Ward for their generous support.”
The magistrate found fellow Altona North Ward candidate and applicant to the case Noel Allsop, who was represented by a pro bono legal team, did not prove Cr Lindsay had breached the Local Government Act.
She also said there was insufficient evidence to support claims that Cr Lindsay was a dummy candidate.
The magistrate rejected Mr Allsop’s complaint that he would not have given his preferences to Cr Lindsay in the November election if he had known she was an ALP member.
“The case has fully ventilated a range of genuinely held beliefs by the members of Hobsons Bay Community First about the role of party politics in local government elections,” Ms English concluded.
Cr Lindsay highlighted parts of the magistrate’s reasons for the decision, including the magistrate’s acceptance that she was an independent candidate and councillor.
She said the magistrate’s acceptance that there was no obligation on a candidate to disclose every fact which may affect the opinion of voters was “quite a strong statement”.
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Mr Allsop, who was backed by Hobsons Bay Community First (HBCF), said in the current climate of local politics he did not expect a different outcome to the one handed down.
“But it was good she (the magistrate) found it wasn’t a frivolous application and it was in the community’s interests to have it aired,” he said.
“It should send a message to candidates that you need to be up front about who you are and what you stand for.”
But Cr Lindsay stands to be the biggest loser out of the case, having to fork out an $18,000 legal bill.
In what they described as an “unusual move” Cr Lindsay’s legal team requested non party members Tony Briffa, Hans Paas, Anne Palmer and Cameron McCurley all HBCF members be liable to pay her costs along with Mr Allsop.
Cr Lindsay’s legal team said given Mr Allsop was a disabled pensioner it was unlikely he would be able to completely foot her legal bill.
The magistrate said Mr Allsop was not a “strategic man of straw” driven by HBCF and dismissed the application for costs.
Cr Lindsay said she would consider appealing that decision.
Hobsons Bay Community First does not intend to appeal the magistrate’s decision.
