Whittlesea councillors turn on new mayor
Since announcing his candidacy, McLindon has argued councils should be compelled to hold citizenship ceremonies on January 26, and joined with gangland figure Mick Gatto in pushing for mandatory self-defence training in Victorian primary and secondary schools.
The regular media appearances and social media comments led Whittlesea’s freshly elected councillors to turn against the man they elected mayor just nine weeks ago at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday night.
McLindon’s candidacy in the Werribee byelection has received the surprise endorsement of crime figure Mick Gatto.
According to the minutes of the meeting, 10 councillors voted to make an urgent application to Local Government Minister Nick Staikos to expedite an internal arbitration process for McLindon, who chaired the meeting and abstained from the vote.
Penalties for breaching the code of conduct range from making a formal apology to being suspended or even stripped of mayoral duties.
McLindon fielded a team of candidates who ran in every ward in November’s local government elections, pushing policies including a rates freeze and “child-appropriate public spaces and libraries”.
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One of McLindon’s candidates, Nicholas Brooks, was elected in Thomastown ward. Brooks voted for arbitration on Tuesday night.
The City of Whittlesea did not have an elected council between 2020 and 2024. The previous council was sacked by the state government on the advice of municipal monitor Yehudi Blacher, who reported that governance had collapsed amid toxic factional infighting.
The Allan government introduced a new model councillor code of conduct in October, which sets rigid guidelines about commenting in the media and on social media.
McLindon declined to comment about Tuesday’s vote.
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