TWEED Shire mayor Chris Cherry has defended the decision to expel councillor Kimberly Hone from a council meeting, saying the issue was not about restricting debate but enforcing meeting rules after allegations of improper conduct were made in the chamber.<\/p>\n
In a social media post, the council said Cr Hone was removed from the Tweed Shire Council meeting on 16 July after refusing to withdraw remarks suggesting improper conduct by council members in relation to the Northern Regional Planning Panel.<\/p>\n
The mayor asked Cr Hone to withdraw the remarks and apologise before councillors voted 4\u20133 to expel her from the remainder of the meeting.<\/p>\n
After the resolution was passed, Cr Hone did not leave the chamber and NSW Police attended to assist with implementing the council decision.<\/p>\n
The council said the expulsion was carried out under its existing Model Code of Meeting Practice, which requires a councillor to first be called on to withdraw the remarks and apologise before the council can vote on whether to expel them.<\/p>\n
The expulsion applied only to the remainder of the 16 July meeting and Cr Hone remains a sitting councillor.<\/p>\n
The council also rejected claims the expulsion relied on newer powers, saying Tweed was operating under its existing code after proposed changes to the NSW Model Code were disallowed by the NSW Legislative Council.<\/p>\n
The incident has since attracted national attention and sparked online debate about freedom of political speech and the accountability of elected representatives for comments made during public council meetings.<\/p>\n
Cr Cherry said she believed the issue was not about restricting freedom of speech, but about remarks she described as unfounded allegations.<\/p>\n
“This is definitely not about free speech, it’s about bringing council into disrepute by making these unfounded allegations, and that’s where the line is drawn,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not drawn by me, it’s drawn by the State Government in the Code of Meeting Practice.”<\/p>\n
Cr Cherry said councillors remained free to raise concerns, but there were established processes for doing so if they believed improper conduct had occurred.<\/p>\n
“If she has concerns, there’s mechanisms that she can bring those concerns to the Office of Local Government, and absolutely, if she’s got any kind of evidence, I would encourage her to do so, but this is not the way to do it,” she said.<\/p>\n
Cr Cherry said she chose not to debate the allegation in the chamber because she believed doing so could further damage reputations.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t want to go into the detail of it, because I thought, whatever I say, I don’t want to have that debate in the chamber about whether she thinks that there was a deal done because it can really damage somebody’s reputation,” she said.<\/p>\n
“So that’s why I kind of just refused to answer it, but now I feel like it’s made me look like there’s something to hide and I don’t know how to combat that, I really don’t.”<\/p>\n
With the incident attracting significant attention online, Cr Cherry said the reaction had become difficult to manage and had affected her willingness to engage on social media.<\/p>\n
“I feel like I don’t want to do anything else on social media because it just incites more hatred,” she said. “But I don’t even want to post about anything else because I feel like it’ll just get hijacked with this \u2013 it’s a tricky thing.<\/p>\n
“How do you answer an accusation when people don’t seem to be interested in the truth?”<\/p>\n
Cr Hone has publicly argued the incident raises concerns about freedom of speech in the council chamber. She was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TWEED Shire mayor Chris Cherry has defended the decision to expel councillor Kimberly Hone from a council meeting, saying the issue was not about restricting debate but enforcing meeting rules after allegations of improper conduct were made in the chamber. In a social media post, the council said Cr Hone was removed from the Tweed […]<\/p>\n