The bad times continue at Stonnington Council, which this column has previously dubbed the “council of war”. So bad that the police are getting involved.
The bad times continue at Stonnington Council, which this column has previously dubbed the “council of war”. So bad that the police are getting involved.
By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
February 6, 2025 — 4.00am
The bad times continue at Stonnington Council, which this column has previously dubbed the “council of war”. So bad that the police are getting involved. Mayor Melina Sehr has applied to get an intervention order against local government activist (and CBD regular) Dean Hurlston, who runs the Council Watch lobby group and the Stonnington Council Watch Facebook page.
Police visited Hurlston at his home and the matter is destined for court. There is no interim order.
Hurlston posted about the whole thing on social media a few hours after appearing in the Herald Sun newspaper on Tuesday, attacking Sehr for “double-dipping” while mayor and holding down an IT contract with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The article noted that Sehr had not declared her company’s VCAT gig in a council declaration of interest.
“Melina needs to publicly apologise because she is unfit to hold office if this is what she does to people in the community when she is exposed for double-dipping,” Hurlston told CBD.
“What kind of weak public officials are they that weaponise the police against members of the public asking questions?
“You know that I have been put through hell and back, as has my partner.”
Hurlston said he was being accused of stalking and that he, in fact, had a diploma in journalism.
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But Sehr said in a statement issued via the council that the application order was served “by the Victoria Police, several weeks ago” and the matter was heading to the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.
“This being the case, I do not intend to comment further on the matter out of respect for the legal process.”
The website of Sehr’s business, Wonder Ever After, lists several activities, that include baking business The Gingerbread Queen. But the company also holds a $510,000 VCAT IT services contract.
Council chief executive Dale Dickson has emerged to confirm that Sehr’s personal interest disclosures were properly made last year. “However, due to an administrative error, her declarations were not properly transcribed to the publicly available version published on council’s website.”
Dickson said as chief executive, he took full responsibility for the error. Oops.
He then took issue with Hurlston’s double-dipping attack. “It is time to call out the hypocrisy of such a statement. Cr Sehr is performing her mayoral duties whilst also earning an income, which is the reality for many mayors, including her immediate predecessor.”
Regular readers will recall that Sehr’s immediate predecessor was Joe Gianfriddo, who held down a job at a property group while he was mayor before losing his seat at last year’s election. Gianfriddo is the partner of Hurlston.
Regime change
Once again, we are writing about Amnesty International Australia. Once again, outspoken former Labor senator Belinda Neal, of Iguana Joe’s fame, is at the centre of it all.
Neal, as CBD regulars may recall, was elected to Amnesty’s board in 2023, after four unsuccessful attempts. But last November, she was removed from the board at an extraordinary general meeting, shortly after winning a spot on Central Coast Council, a gig apparently inconsistent with the organisation’s constitution.
Neal has since lawyered up, and is challenging that removal in the NSW Supreme Court. But in late December, she was removed as a member of Amnesty International altogether, following an alleged breach of the organisation’s values and behaviours charter, an Amnesty spokesperson confirmed.
Neal called the disclosures “imprecise, vague and unsupported by any evidence”. It all seems a bit Kafkaesque.
On Wednesday night, Neal’s appeal was set to be debated at an extraordinary general meeting.
Ahead of that, Neal repeatedly blamed her removal on what she ominously refers to as “the regime”.
She claimed her removal after being elected to council violated Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, enshrining the right to take part in government, and said Amnesty’s actions were a “parody of a human rights organisation”.
“This claim has no legal merit and does not make sense,” an Amnesty spokeswoman said in response.
“AIA are not preventing Ms Neal from participating in local government, and she continues to hold her local government position.”
In her statement, the former senator suggested that her removal was related to a difference of views over the war in the Middle East, accusing Amnesty of preferencing one side of the conflict by giving little coverage to the plight of Israeli hostages.
“Since my election to the board, I have been victimised, ostracised, and harassed due to my different views. This motion for my removal is the end result of these attempts to exclude me,” she wrote.
Whatever happens at the latest meeting, we can’t imagine Neal will go quietly, with the court proceedings still afoot. After all, don’t they know who she is?
Let it go, lads
As the 2025 poll inches closer, some of the Liberal casualties of the last election are getting back on the tools. Kind of.
Former federal MPs Julian Simmonds and Jason Falinski, felled by the Greens and teals respectively, are the brains behind Australians for Prosperity, a pressure group devoted to running back the greatest hits of free market technocracy – a taxpayer bill of rights, boosting productivity, cutting down on wasteful spending, bringing down housing costs and reforming industrial relations laws. Real sexy stuff.
And while the group’s website has sections on “Keep the Greens focused” and “Keep the teals focused”, the boys aren’t just out here to settle old scores.
“This is about policy not people. We’re going to be holding everyone’s feet to the fire,” Falinski told CBD.
Meanwhile, Falinski has unveiled a new podcast – Beyond Politics – co-hosted with former Australian Financial Review scribe Aaron Patrick, who in turn has a new gig as “Chief Writer” at Seven West Media’s big mining-backed online outlet The Nightly.
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Stephen Brook is a special correspondent for The Age and CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously deputy editor of The Sunday Age. He is a former media editor of The Australian and spent six years in London working for The Guardian.Connect via Twitter or email.
Kishor Napier-Raman is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously he worked as a reporter for Crikey, covering federal politics from the Canberra Press Gallery.Connect via Twitter or email.
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