Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup elector’s meeting sparks chaotic scenes as gallery denied public questions

An elector’s meeting descended into chaos last week after more than 100 residents were told they could not ask any questions — sparking a tirade of insults from the packed crowd, with one disgruntled local even switching off the room’s power. Ratepayers had hoped to probe councillors on the Donnybrook-Balingup Shire Council’s financial contribution to a sporting precinct development in the area at the an electors’ meeting last Wednesday. But the evening took a turn when Shire president Brian Piesse told the crowd of about 110 no public questions would be taken unless they had been submitted before the meeting began. The gallery then hurled abuse at Cr Piesse, with one resident calling him a “disgrace” and another saying it was a “sad day for democracy and freedom”, before another stormed out and switched off the power. The meeting was triggered by a petition with more than 300 signatures and submitted by the Donnybrook-Balingup Residents and Ratepayers Association, but six motions put forward by the association were all disallowed. Cr Piesse said the meeting did not go to plan, but it had been widely advertised that all questions and motions would be taken on notice. “I accept that when people arrived here, they probably didn’t appreciate the fact we would stick to that format,” he said. “There were some people in the community that believed that because we weren’t taking questions from the floor, we were stifling or gagging people of some democratic outcome.” Cr Piesse said the motions were disallowed because they needed to be submitted by an elector, rather than an organisation, despite the petition from DBRRA being accepted. “None of the motions put forward were deemed appropriate in terms of the terms of reference of the meeting and that did cause some concern among the people,” Cr Piesse said. “The ratepayer’s association put their questions forward on behalf of the association and the association is not an elector, so they were deemed inappropriate for the agenda.” He did confirm that if the motions had been put forward by a member of DBRRPA, they would have been considered. DBRRPA president Brad Fowler said if he knew the motions would be disallowed before arriving at the meeting, he would “absolutely” have submitted them under his own name. He said the first he heard of the motions being disallowed was when he arrived at the meeting. “It was a very shrewd way of stifling community consultation and freedom of speech,” Mr Fowler said. “To have the Shire president stand there and give us a lecture on his answers to the questions was wrong, totally wrong. “There is no point staying there; he could have emailed the whole thing to us. What was the point in being there? It was a farce, a total waste of everyone’s time.” He said the first he heard of the motions being disallowed was when he arrived at the meeting.