source : the age
A south-east Queensland council appears to have taken a dig at its own mayor in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry, recommending any councillor on extended leave should be subject to a misconduct investigation.
Redland City Council mayor Jos Mitchell has been on medical leave since May.
The council recently said she would not return until at least the end of October, with deputy mayor Julie Talty in her chair.
The council of Redlands, south-east of Brisbane, has been a hotbed of discontent for years, leading the state in conduct complaints received by the Office of the Independent Assessor in the 2024-25 financial year and the first half of 2025-26.
Of the 1008 complaints received in 2024-25, 114 were about Redlands councillors. Mitchell was the subject of about 50 in the 18 months after she elected as mayor, and she alleged they were used as a political tool against her.
The former Labor state government reformed the OIA to streamline its processes in 2023, and the current LNP government made further changes to narrow its scope in March this year, before announcing a parliamentary inquiry into the councillor conduct framework in June.
The inquiry, run by the Local Government, Small Business and Customer Service Committee, is considering the effectiveness of the current system – based around the OIA and the Councillor Conduct Tribunal – and potential changes to the Local Government Act.
It received 40 submissions before they closed this week, with the Redlands submission including a pointed recommendation apparently directed at its own mayor.
“The definition of ‘misconduct’, which will continue to be a discipline matter, needs to be broadened to include the more serious councillor conduct breaches and to address non-performance, not just bad behaviour,” it said.
“As we have seen, a councillor can effectively avoid accountability by simply being absent. A councillor on extended leave should then be subject to a misconduct investigation.”
Mitchell’s leave has been the subject of heated online debate since May, with other councillors and former local federal MP and mayoral candidate Andrew Laming often weighing in.
The mayor has been largely silent, but posted on Facebook this month claiming there was “a fair bit of fake news” about her absence.
“I’ve been dealing with a number of health issues, one requiring major surgery and recuperation, over the last 12 weeks,” she wrote.
“I have of course provided medical certificates and I am focused on recovery … I look forward to returning as soon as possible.”
That post followed a now-deleted Facebook post, written by her family members, taking aim at local government department boss Bronwyn Blagoev for what they deemed politically opportunistic comments following the departure of a department-appointed governance adviser at the council.
“The mayor’s prolonged absence meant that key opportunities to address critical governance challenges and foster stronger leadership were missed,” Blagoev had said.
The Redlands submission also called for a properly resourced external body to investigate councillor conduct outside the OIA, stronger penalties, including the cutting of pay, for councillors found guilty, and stronger protections for council employees who report bad behaviour.
Finally, it called for “mechanisms to enable councils to recover or offset significant costs incurred in responding to complaints that are found to be without merit or constitute an abuse of the complaints process”.
The inquiry will hold four public hearings this month and report back to state parliament in November.
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