BREWING internal tensions at Kingston Council boiled over last week, resulting in the public airing of bullying allegations and a referral being made to the Local Government Inspectorate.
After an intense debate at last week’s public meeting, Kingston Council has referred a decision made by the previous group of councillors to the inspectorate for investigation. The decision which sparked the debate was a group of grants handed out by council in June 2024.
The News understands a grant handed to the Druze Community Charity of Victoria, which councillor Hadi Saab sat on the committee of at the time the grant was approved, is the driving force behind the investigation. Saab declared a conflict of interest and recused himself before the vote to award the grant last year.
In November 2024 the local government elections saw just three Kingston councillors re-elected. The mayor Georgina Oxley, who was on the previous council and voted against awarding the grants at the time, is among the group of councillors pushing for the investigation. “If we have nothing to hide we should not be concerned about integrity agencies reviewing what we do,” Oxley said.
Hadi Saab, who was successfully re-elected during the 2024 local government elections, has vehemently denied wrongdoing. He said he appropriately recused himself during the June meeting, and behind closed doors when the matter was discussed. “We know that the June 2024 motions have already been referred to these agencies – the fact that they have not been in contact with council means at the very first instance it was determined to be unsubstantiated,” Saab said. “This is a very dangerous path, that I warn you all is so unprecedented and underdeveloped, that the discharging of our governance responsibilities in this way is a surefire way of ensuring monitors are appointed to oversee this council. “This is just grandstanding to satisfy certain individuals in our community which I would also consider to be councillors being unduly influenced by external non-elected parties, which is also considered a breach of conduct.”
The Druze Community Charity of Victoria grant is currently under internal review – earlier this year councillors voted to receive a report which considers the merits of reallocating the money elsewhere (“Council considers cutting grants” The News 5/2/2025). The News is not suggesting wrongdoing by any current or former Kingston councillor, only that the matter has been referred for investigation.
Oxley told councillors at last week’s meeting that “in June of 2024 I raised substantial concerns about the process that was being followed. That, to be really clear, was not the process that our officers followed. It was the process that eventuated in a public council meeting and the process before the council meeting, whereby said public council meeting started late because there were councillors who were sitting upstairs developing amendments to a motion, and those councillors included councillors that then declared a conflict of interest in the motion.”
In response to questions from councillor Tess Law, Kingston Council senior employees said the proper process was followed by officers in June 2024. Saab used the debate to level bullying accusations against the council. He said “I will only vote on the merits of an issue, not against a person and play into personality and ego politics like some of my colleagues have, including bullying behaviour.”
Concerns about Kingston Council’s culture are growing within the organisation – Cr Law has written to the local government minister outlining concerns about bullying within Kingston Council, The News understands. Saab elaborated on his allegations later in the week, saying “a diversity and range of views and beliefs should be encouraged for good decision making and representation, not silenced like they currently are which are tantamount to bullying.” He said before council’s February meeting he “made a statement in front of our officers and nearly all councillors about being personally targeted and bullied by my colleagues asking for behaviours and actions to change”, but was ignored.
In addition to acknowledging concerns about the June 2024 grants and referring them to the Local Government Inspectorate, the motion approved by councillors last week also read that a working group to improve governance by “reviewing processes to strengthen conflict of interest declarations to prevent councillors lobbying behind the scenes or ‘horse-trading’ support for other issues” would be established. Training modules will also be developed. The term “horse-trading”, which broadly means unofficial negotiations, sparked further issues at the meeting – Saab accused other councillors of engaging in “horse-trading” themselves.
Councillors Georgina Oxley, Georgia Erevnidis, Jane Agirtan, Sarah O’Donnell, and Caroline White voted to refer the June 2024 grants to the inspectorate. Councillors Hadi Saab, Kirralee Ashworth-Collett, and Tess Law voted against, and Chris Hill and Tony Athanasopoulos abstained. The motion was successful with the mayor’s casting vote.
In response to the bullying allegations, Kingston Council CEO Peter Bean said “any comments made by councillors in the chamber are a matter for them.” “Transparency, integrity and good governance are among our council’s key values,” Bean said. “We recently conducted an extensive review of our community grants program, including new grant streams, policies and processes, which commenced in January 2024, but we will also welcome the opportunity to work with the inspectorate to provide the community with further confidence in the grants process.”
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 2nd April 2025
