A local councillor in Australia has been suspended for four weeks due to comments he made during a heated debate over the installation of a public menorah.
Tom Humphries, who represents Toorak Ward on Stonnington City Council in the state of Victoria, was the subject of a complaint to the council’s arbitration department after he criticised a delay in the vote to erect the menorah in December last year.
While the council did eventually vote to put up the menorah on its offices, the motion was initially deferred. The motion to defer the decision passed on a 4-4 vote, with Mayor Melina Sehr using her casting vote.
Following the vote, Humphries labelled the decision “nonsensical,” “unlawful” and “nothing short of antisemitic”. He withdrew the latter remark but Sehr and three other councillors filed for arbitration against him.
In her decision on September 12, arbiter Diana Price found that Humphries’ conduct breached the Model Councillor Code of Conduct.
The applicants alleged he had characterised the deferral as antisemitic and unlawful, continued making those claims publicly and failed to retract them despite repeated requests.
The code requires councillors to treat fellow councillors, council staff and members of the public with “dignity, fairness, objectivity, courtesy and respect”, and prohibits demeaning, abusive or threatening behaviour and conduct that intentionally causes or perpetuates prejudice or aggression.
It also requires councillors to act with integrity and avoid conduct that could diminish public trust in local government.
According to the ruling, Humphries’ escalating use of terms including “unlawful”, “grotesque”, “an affront to the Jewish community” and “antisemitic” went beyond legitimate political persuasion and was found to be an attempt to “bully, intimidate or harangue” fellow councillors into supporting his position.
Thirteen days after the original December 1 debate, the Bondi Beach terrorist attack killed more than a dozen members of the Jewish community in Sydney, which sits in the neighbouring state of New South Wales.
The council subsequently passed a resolution standing in solidarity with Australian Jews and approved the illumination of Malvern Town Hall in white during Chanukah in honour of those killed.
The council ultimately approved the menorah after, placing it on the Stonnington City Centre balcony at the corner of Glenferrie Road and High Street, where it was visible from both main roads.
The City of Stonnington said that, during Humphries’ suspension, Sehr will respond to enquiries from the Toorak Ward community until he returns to his duties on October 13.
He has also been ordered to apologise and barred from serving as mayor or deputy mayor for six months.
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