Canning councillor Amanda Spencer-Teo has been forced to apologise to two Canning ratepayers she named as having made defamatory statements in an Examiner Newspaper advertisement.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, just before council went behind closed doors, Cr Spencer -Teo made the following statement: “A complaint was made to the Local Government Standards Panel, in which it was alleged that I contravened Regulation 18 of Division 4 of the Local Government (Model Code of Conduct) Regulations 2021 when I published an advertorial in the Canning Examiner Newspaper stating that certain parties had made defamatory statements and implying that those parties had agreed the statements were defamatory.
“The panel found that I breached regulation 18 of the said regulations in making the misleading statement and implication.
“I acknowledge that I should not have made the relevant statement and implication.
“I now apologise to Mr Richard Aldridge and Ms Gail Barbera for making such statement and implication.”
The breach had its origins in a Facebook post on the Riverton Rossmoyne Shelley Residents Association Facebook Page, moderated by former acting president of the association Richard Aldridge and secretary Gail Barbera, that Cr Spencer-Teo believed to be defamatory.
Legal action followed, with Mr Aldridge and Ms Barbera issuing a formal apology – however the defamation act legislation states that an apology is not in any way an admission of guilt and cannot be used as such.
Two weeks after the apology was issued, Cr Spencer-Teo placed an advertisement with Examiner Newspapers, naming Mr Aldridge and Ms Barbera, that alleged they had made defamatory statements and implied they had agreed the statements were defamatory.
Cr Spencer-Teo denied she had breached the Local Government Act, claiming she had used the Macquarie Dictionary definition of defamation – the “broadly accepted” definition rather than the legal definition, to justify the statements, an argument the Local Government Standards Panel described as “not compelling”.
The LGSP subsequently found Cr Spencer-Teo had committed a minor breach of the LGA.
In deciding a penalty, Cr Spencer-Teo said she had relied on a Clarity Communications public relations consultant to prevent any breach, recognising she did not have the time nor expertise to craft the wording of the advertisement.
She said there should be no sanction as a public censure or public apology would not be a proportionate or fair sanction, and the publication of the Standard Panel findings would be a form of sanction in and of itself.
While the Panel described the breach as “unintentional in nature”, the panel ordered Cr Spencer-Teo make the public apology.
Cr Spencer-Teo subsequently appealed through the State Administrative Tribunal but withdrew the appeal, “satisfied that the panel recognises that the breach was unintentional”.
It was the third public apology given by Canning councillors in recent history, following on from Cr Jesse Jacobs and Mayor Patrick Hall.
