Marathon Port Hedland council meeting sparks fiery public question time over governance, accountability

The Town of Port Hedland’s May 7 ordinary council meeting stretched out to five hours, following the collapse of the previous meeting on April 30, which was adjourned due to a failure to meet quorum. Much of the extended session was dominated by an hour-and-a-half of public questions and statements — with residents demanding answers on governance standards, councillor attendance, and mayor Peter Carter’s commercial interests. One community member raised the question to Cr Carter: “What documentary evidence or declarations of interest, if any, have you, Mayor Carter, provided to the town regarding your private commercial interests in sea container housing or dealings with Vietnam-based entities?” Cr Carter responded with “none at all”, before asking the community member to repeat the question, in which a point of order was called by Cr Camilo Blanco. “Can we go back to good governance Mr Mayor, a point of order was called, I’m assuming you asked for the question again for clarification and now you must come back to the point of order, and make sure you give yourself a determination on the original point of order, please, before you go back to answering any questions,” Town of Port Hedland deputy mayor Ash Christensen said. “That’s just simple and basic principles of running this meeting, please.” Mr Carter took the question on notice. The community member posing the question then said: “Can I take that if it it’s taken on notice, that means you do have an interest.” To which Cr Carter replied: “I said I would take it on notice, sit down, I’ve answered your question.” Another member of the public raised the issue of councillor absence at council meetings. “Boycotting council meetings can have several consequences: governance disruption, public trust erosion, legal and ethical concerns under the legal framework and responsibilities in Western Australia,” they said. “Under the Local Government Act, elected members are expected to attend meetings regularly and participate in decision making processes. “Hedland does not require people to be consistently absent, we need a leader that is present, leadership starts at the top.” No reply was given in relation to this statement at the council meeting.