Call to expand ban on council-MP jobs

Jessica Benton
A Geelong councillor has called for State Government to widen bans against councillors working for MPs.
Liberal-aligned councillor Stretch Kontelj said the Government needed to “get tough” on political interference in councils after Premier John Brumby accepted an Ombudsman’s report last week recommending the ban.
Cr Kontelj said Geelong councillors David Saunderson and Cameron Granger could simply accept other paid Labor party roles if they left their jobs with Labor MPs Richard Marles and John Eren.
The councillors have stepped down from the MP jobs while the Government investigates them for alleged breaches of council conflict-of-interest laws.
“The Ombudsman’s ban must extend to employees of political parties as well, otherwise I predict that politically maligned councillors such as Crs Saunderson and Granger will simply be offered employment in the Labor party administrative machine and nothing will change,” he said.
“As employees of the Labor party, they’ll continue to have conflict of duty which will overshadow all of their actions and decisions on council.”
Cr Saunderson said Cr Kontelj was waging a “personal vendetta”.
“This is a continuation of a personal campaign by Cr Kontelj to attack myself as retribution for defeating his brother in council elections five months ago,” he said.
“He thinks that if he puts enough pressure on me through my employer that I’ll resign and it’ll give his brother another go.”
Cr Saunderson said he would not resign from council.
“I’m not intending to work for a member of parliament, either.”
Cr Granger did not return the Independent’s call for comment before the paper went to press.