Deputy mayor candidate could be sacked if suspension is upheld

Would-be deputy mayor for Hobart Louise Elliot could be sacked after third code of conduct suspension ruling In short: Hobart councillor Louise Elliot is appealing a decision handed down by an independent panel which found she had harassed fellow councillor Ryan Posselt. The complaint is from May last year and has only been made public following changes to the Tasmanian Local Government Act. What's next? If the appeal is unsuccessful, it would give the Minister for Local Government the option to remove her from council, even if she is re-elected in the current local government elections. A Hobart councillor who is running for deputy mayor could be removed from council if re-elected if her appeal against a third suspension is unsuccessful. A code of conduct panel found councillor Louise Elliot had committed four breaches by harassing fellow councillor Ryan Posselt on multiple occasions. It determined Cr Elliot be suspended from performing and exercising the functions and powers of her office for a period of one month, and for her to apologise to Cr Posselt. She has appealed the decision, meaning the suspension has not come into effect. The findings had previously been kept confidential, with all code of conduct determination reports unable to be disclosed until they were placed on the council agenda, following the conclusion of appeals. Loading...But local government law reforms earlier this year mean they are no longer considered confidential once they are provided to all relevant parties. Local government elections are currently occurring in Tasmania, with voting to close on October 27. Cr Elliot is running for councillor and deputy mayor of Hobart. If she is re-elected and her suspension is upheld, she will serve the suspension in the next term of council and the minister has the option of sacking her. Panel says behaviour hasn't changed The complaint was submitted by Cr Posselt in May 2025 and outlined five instances in which he argued Cr Elliot had breached the code of conduct, four of which were upheld. The panel found Cr Elliot harassed Cr Posselt on three of these occasions, all of which she disputed. The breaches were described as similar in nature to previous breaches, and Cr Elliot stated she would continue to breach the code to draw attention to the concerns she has with process. "This complaint is the third complaint in less than a year where the same parts of the Code are shown to have been breached, and there does not appear to have been any moderation of Cr Elliot's behaviour,"the panel said. She was also found in breach by not moderating comments on her Facebook page under a post she had made about a previous code of conduct matter with Cr Posselt. The panel described the resulting comments as "unfair, embarrassing, and offensive". "Allowing material to be published on her Facebook page which would be considered offensive and embarrassing to a reasonable person, as determined objectively by the Panel, is a breach of the Code," the panel wrote. Cr Elliot told the panel she "can't be moderating comments 24/7". A further complaint about an email Cr Elliot sent to councillors in which she said she was "disgusted" at a decision they made was not upheld. Possible third suspension for councillor Cr Elliot described the complaints as being related to "hurt feelings". "If I was to lose my seat, if I was to lose my office, I'm not going away, I'd just get louder, with less restrictions," she said. "So what's the minister going to do? Remove someone from office over hurt feelings?" Her previous two suspensions related to similar breaches of the code of conduct. She was suspended for seven days over social media posts in 2023, including posting an image of Hobart councillors beneath a headline stating "Hobart hates women" after they rejected her push for a third type of public bathroom for transgender people. A code of conduct panel described this as "inflammatory, attention-grabbing, wholly unobjective and essentially child-like". Loading...She was also suspended for two months in relation to publicising information regarding a parent of lord mayor Anna Reynolds, which a panel described as having "no purpose other than as an attempt to cause political harm to Cr Reynolds by association". The Local Government Act says the minister "may remove the councillor from office" for a third suspension if they occur in one term of office, or if they are serving the second of two consecutive terms. Local Government Minister Kerry Vincent was contacted for comment. A government spokesperson said it wasn't appropriate to comment on individual matters. "But it is fair to say that Tasmanians expect councillors to be respectful in the way they conduct themselves,"a spokesperson said. "Tasmanians deserve to have confidence in their councillors; they're leaders in our community. The local government elections underway provide an opportunity for Tasmanians to elect their preferred councillors."