The miserable experiment with the councillor’s code of conduct has reached its inevitable conclusion – a time-wasting weaponised apparatus to impose dinner party standards on the political process.
James Conlan, Oscar Yildiz, Adam Pulford, and Jay Iwasaki have all run afoul of the rules. Cr Iawsaki’s is especially egregious as he was called out for raising questions and making claims about corruption. That a serving councillor can be suspended for making corruption claims defies sense. Even if those claims are absurd and vexatious, at an absolute minimum they should be fully investigated. The idea that the “independent arbiter” has some moral authority is nonsense.
Trying to legislate “good conduct” in public office is a futile, distracting and likely expensive waste of time. If the voters don’t like how these people behave, they should vote them out. Instead, the process has, inevitably, been weaponised for political gain, further throwing the entire system into disrepute. Those who have pursued these claims have wasted their time and ours.
Mel Yuan for Brunswick 
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