ANOTHER arbitration matter between Kingston councillors has been thrown out, with the arbiter calling the latest application “vexatious”.
Cr Hadi Saab applied for arbitration seeking a finding of misconduct against the mayor, Cr Georgina Oxley. The outcome was published last week, with the arbiter deciding to not uphold the misconduct allegation.
The outcome of three arbitration matters between Kingston councillors have been published this year. Cr Jane Agirtan made an application against Cr Saab, Crs Oxley and Sarah O’Donnell made an application against Cr Saab, and most recently Cr Saab made an application against Cr Oxley. Each application was dismissed without a finding of misconduct.
In the most recent application, Cr Saab alleged that Cr Oxley had published a “misleading” Facebook post in December last year about the continued presence of monitors at Kingston Council. The arbiter ruled against Cr Saab, and criticised him for not following the established process for conflict resolution.
The arbiter wrote that Cr Oxley “alleged that the applicant failed to meaningfully initiate or participate in the staged internal dispute resolution process contained in Kingston Council’s Councillor Internal Resolution Procedure.”
“What is missing from the applicant’s approach in this case is any meaningful attempt to specifically undertake the completion of any of the steps within the procedure. Discussion, conciliation and mediation provide the respondent with an important opportunity to understand the nature of the concerns being raised and to engage and respond before formal proceedings are commenced,” the arbiter wrote. “The fact that the applicant was engaged in the internal dispute resolution process on another application concurrently demonstrates that council dysfunction was not the blocker it was purported to be.
“With the applicant making no genuine effort to engage in the process, it demonstrates he had no intention of resolving the dispute.”
The arbiter wrote that the application was “vexatious” because it was “based upon incomplete and misleading information, and represents a tokenistic approach to internal resolution and an abuse of the arbitration process; a process that is intended to be invoked as a last resort, only after reasonable attempts at internal resolution have been exhausted.”
Kingston Council is currently being overseen by two state government-appointed monitors, whose terms are scheduled to conclude on 30 June.
First published in the Frankston Times – 23 June 2026