Greater Dandenong councillors have unanimously voted down new guidelines for their use of social media.
The proposed item lacked support at the council meeting on Monday 24 November.
Instead, councillor Sean O’Reilly’s amendment to drop the Councillor Social Media guidelines while approving an updated Media Policy was passed without any questions or opposition.
“Given the history of this and other councils, with councillors posting on social media, we didn’t think it’ll be useful to have a whole document to hit councillors over the head with,” Cr O’Reilly told Star Journal.
“At the end of the day councillors are required to abide by the Local Government Act in terms of how to operate.”
The guidelines aimed to minimise exposures of council and councillors to legal and reputational risks, according to a council report.
Deputy mayor Phillip Danh initially moved to support the item but was not backed by a seconder. He retracted his move to allow the amendment be heard.
He told Star Journal he was supportive of the item but was happy to “hear out” Cr O’Reilly’s amendment. Because it was about mere guidelines, he was happy to let it go as it didn’t make “substantial real life impact.”
Cr O’Reilly says the proposal was initially proposed as a policy three months ago in a councillor briefing session which consisted of “strong wordings,” derived from the Victorian Local Governance Association template.
Councillors are said to have raised questions over the proposed policy leading it to be watered down to only guidelines – and separated from the council’s Media Policy.
“We had some questions on it, I worked with one of the officers to re-word and draft it,” Cr O’Reilly said.
“I suggested it be changed to guidelines, because my apprehension was that this policy could be used against councillors saying what they can and can’t do.
“The wording was more along the lines of councillors having to be compliant with the policy and I think it was more the tone I was concerned about,” Cr O’Reilly says.
“I thought if we had this as a policy then potentially councillor breaches would be reported.”
The guidelines included being mindful of promoting content that “unreasonably diminishes trust” in local government elections as well as Greater Dandenong council, councillors, mayor, deputy mayor, officers and local government sector.
Councilllors would also have to be aware of third-party comments on councillor pages, be mindful of users using social media to “promote scams, misinformation or sew (sic) social discord”, adhere to councillor code of conduct in using respectful, inclusive language and avoid discriminatory, harassing or vilifying conduct.
Under the guidelines, councillors were urged to be clear when speaking in their capacity not on behalf of the council, to distinguish their positions on an issue from their colleagues on their social media platforms.
Previously, the Councillor Media Policy covered both traditional media and social media. It now covers just traditional media alone.
