By Ruza Zivkusic
AN ANONYMOUS woman who has sparked heated discussions since recording an in camera Brimbank City Council meeting says she found the meeting “amusing”.
The Sunshine woman, who did not want to be identified, has for the first time spoken to the media after recording the council’s mistakenly broadcast meeting in June.
The woman has attended council meetings for more than a year but said the recorded meeting was the first time she got close to witnessing councillors’ private discussions.
After being told to exit the council’s ordinary meeting when Harvester Ward councillor Costas Socratous put forward a motion objecting to personal attacks made against him by another councillor, the woman entered a room a level below the chambers and sat down while waiting for the in camera meeting to end.
“I just went in there to get away from the noise,” she said.
“I was there for a few minutes and I heard the mayor’s noise fairly distinctly.
“I looked up and realised there were conversations coming through the public address system.
“It wasn’t a very clear voice, so obviously it was something to do with the mechanics of the system.”
The woman then left the room and called a male friend, who had an iPod, back into the room.
“We recorded the conversation because we thought it was funny,” she said.
“It was a conversation about whether or not the mayor had leaked information to the media about one of the other councillors.”
The recordings, which were handed over to the Sunshine Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association’s (SunRAA) members and put on the group’s website, have been investigated by an international forensic examination firm which was employed by the council.
The investigation, which cost $25,000 of ratepayers’ money, found no evidence to indicate that the recordings were made as claimed, but suggests there was a possibility they may have been made when a tape recorder was left or hidden in the chambers by a person who was required to leave during the in camera meeting.
The woman who recorded the meeting has described the investigation as a complete “waste of money”.
“I just want to make clear that we didn’t do anything illegal, contrary to what the council is claiming,” she said.
“I don’t tape private conversations, but by definition something that is coming out of a public address system is not a private conversation.”
The woman said she never intended to be part of the “scandal”, but rather saw the incident as being “innocent” and a “bit of fun”.
The woman’s identity was not disclosed by SunRAA and she did not assist in the forensic examiner’s investigation.
