Someone in the Southern Downs is up to their old tricks of making complaints against councillors that appear to have the stench of political motivation.
The Town & Country Journal received a copy of the latest anonymous complaint, anonymously last week.
The claims made to the Office of the Independent Assessor mostly centre on Cr Harslett but also gets personal, attacking Cr Sarah Deane as requiring further training and lacking “the faculties or abilities to interpret” the Local Government Act and having “limited cognitive skills”.
Mayor Melissa Hamilton is not impressed and she doesn’t want her council to spend “even a moment on anonymous letters from a person who simply doesn’t like the democratic election of women to this council.”
Both Cr Deane and Cr Harslett have been aligned with the policy directives of Mayor Melissa Hamilton for example recently voting in favour of the 2025/26 council budget which was contested and passed by a one vote margin. Both Cr Deane and Cr Harslett also recently voted for refusing a change application put in by former councillor Stephen Tancred and P. Sheahan.
Additionally, Cr Harslett recently bore the brunt of local MP James Lister’s ire after she emailed colleagues her opinion of the MP’s role in resuscitating the Granite Belt Wine College. That email was leaked and Mr Lister's staff asked her to leave a celebratory event at the college.
This latest anonymous complaint, lodged on 26 June, claims that Cr Harslett had a conflict of interest with the recent Howards Trade planning application. The basis of the complaint is that Cr Harslett owns a property “very close” to Howards Trade. The complaint also claims that Cr Harslett later declared a COI, based on knowing one of the applicants personally.
The letter curiously claims that Cr Harslett is NOT a “close personal contact” of the person in question.
The complaint describes how Cr Haslett’s property may be affected by decisions made on the Howards Trade property. Howards Trade is on Mill Road where there is a T intersection with Sugarloaf Road. Cr Haslett’s now-closed Cherry Lane Nursery is also on Sugarloaf road.
“All traffic entering and leaving Mill Road passes directly in front of the land owned by Cr Harslett. All stormwater on Mill Road will run into the Harslett property due to the slope of the land,” the anonymous complainant, showing a surprising familiarity with council language, argues. “Cr Harslett’s driveway is on one edge of her property which is just 75 meters from Mill Road. If she was exiting her property in a car any vehicle at the T intersection would interact with her.”
The conditions of approval for the application have been the subject of more than one debate in chambers. There has been extensive discussion on drainage, kerb and channel inclusion, the width of sealed lanes, and the conditions of the road in good and inclement weather. A representative of Howard’s Trade made a presentation to council in the last council meeting to speak to some of the issues around the planning application with the presentation being open to the public.
In the last meeting of council, the application passed with four councillors against, four councillors in favour. The mayor cast a tie-breaking vote allowing the motion to pass. Cr Deane did not participate or vote; Cr Harslett participated and voted.
The leaked complaint also claims that Cr Harslett “engaged in discussion with [SDRC] staff and other councillors about” the application. It is unclear how the person lodging the complaint would have knowledge of Cr Harslett’s conversations with SDRC staff or other councillors outside of chambers.
A source close to the matter agreed saying “that’s a really good question” and pointed out if that information is correct, which may not be the case, then either an SDRC staff member or someone with close ties to a councillor, who has access to inside information, lodged the complaint. That is a limited number of people and excludes most residents of the Southern Downs.
The recent complaints are typed in the same font and seem to come from a single source. Council and the newspaper cannot substantiate if a complaint has been made formally to the OIA as it is handled by the State government.
The OAI dismisses complaints that are not in the public interest or vexatious. The volume of complaints the OIA receives has grown from 162 in 2017/18 to 1074 in 2020/21 where the numbers have plateaued.
Anonymous complaints, like this one, are dismissed in 72 percent of cases.
The Town & Country Journal asked Cr Harslett for a comment but she didn’t respond. As for the mayor? She told us, “I am really proud to be part of a vibrant council which is focused on the future of this region.”
