Claims of bullying within Benalla Rural City Council rejected by independent panel

By Simon Ruppert

Mar 12, 2023

Outcome: Benalla Rural City Councillor Punarji Hewa Gunaratne had 12 allegations of bullying by fellow Councillor Danny Claridge rejected by an independent panel. Photo by Contributed

A Councillor Conduct Panel has rejected 12 allegations of serious misconduct alleged by Benalla Rural City councillor Punarji Hewa Gunaratne against fellow councillor Danny Claridge.

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A report, which is due to be noted by BRCC at its meeting on Wednesday, March 15, stated the allegations were that Cr Claridge engaged in serious misconduct against Cr Gunaratne by bullying him, including allegations of bullying motivated by racism.

The panel rejected all 12 allegations, but did recommend council consider additional training in relation to increasing awareness of racism, as well as anti-racism measures.

The allegations were on a variety of issues centred on discussions and emails concerning the cinema under construction on the Lake Benalla foreshore and a number of Facebook posts on community pages.

The panel repeated several times that nothing under the Local Government Act 2020 is designed to constrain robust debate. However, they could understand Cr Gunaratne’s sensitivity being the only person of colour on council.

An example of the panel’s findings from one of the allegations, that Cr Claridge spread a rumour through his friends that Cr Gunaratne wanted to be Mayor at the last election in November 2021, was that while it takes allegations of racism very seriously the panel found the evidence in relation to this allegation was very weak.

That was based on the fact that allegation rested on one Benalla resident’s recollection of a conversation with another resident, as related to Cr Gunaratne (and to the panel via a written statement).

After reviewing all allegations the panel ultimately found no evidence of serious misconduct.

The report will be discussed at the Benalla Rural City Council meeting on March 15, which will be available to stream via www.benalla.vic.gov.au/