Sir Tim Shadbolt says he refuses to be muzzled by city council, laments 'sad day' for freedom of speech

Wednesday, 24 February 2021

Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt has seen a copy of the latest independent report into the council and confirms he is again a key figure in the findings.

Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt says the decision of his city council’s elected members to effectively gag themselves when speaking to the media is a “sad day” for freedom of speech - and he won’t be co-operating.

And Shadbolt says he will support any other city councillors who also do not conform.

The council’s new media protocols, adopted by elected members on Tuesday, means they have agreed to focus on council issues and activities when speaking to the media, “rather than the actions or decisions of other elected members or staff”.

Prominent broadcaster Marcus Lush talks about being elected onto the Invercargill City Council.

The council decision was made following a tumultuous 2020 in which numerous elected members, including Shadbolt, publicly criticised each other on different issues.

* New media protocols to rein in Invercargill City Council comments

* Marcus Lush surprised by public's dislike for Invercargill City Council**

Shadbolt, New Zealand’s longest-serving mayor, said freedom of speech was one of the most important parts of a democracy.

He wouldn’t be giving it up, despite the protocols passed by the majority of councillors.

Shadbolt, deputy mayor Nobby Clark and councillor Lindsay Abbott voted against the new media protocols, councillor Marcus Lush said he did not vote and councillor Ian Pottinger did not attend the meeting.

When Shadbolt was asked if he would think twice before speaking about the actions and decisions of his council colleagues in future, he said he would not.

He would be “speaking out” when he believed councillors had crossed the line, and he would support those councillors who were also prepared to “take the risk”.

Shadbolt said freedom of speech at the council table was a finely balanced compromise, split between supporting colleagues so they could be united and get things got done more easily, and in his case as mayor, showing leadership when it was needed.

The council decision erred on the side of “thwarting” free speech, which was also a threat to journalism, he said.

City council project director Peter Thompson said the media protocols were not binding and they were not developed with the intention of penalising any breach.

Paul Moon, a professor of New Zealand history at the AUT and a member of Free Speech Coalition, said the council’s decision to gag themselves was “highly unusual”, given elected members were required to comment on all sorts of things.

“If elected representatives can’t say what they want to say, how do the voters know what they stand for?”

A problem with the policy was it would shape what councillors said and their messages would be customised, he said.

He believed there would be times when councillors had to raise issues about what other councillors had said or done. “Why would you want to bar yourself from commenting about their actions or decisions?”

However, a Local Government New Zealand spokesman said it was important that councillors worked together to set clear expectations around how they communicated with each other and the media, and setting best practice guidelines or protocol could help to achieve this.

“These aren’t set in stone – they’re best practice to help guide the council in addressing the hard topics, having robust conversation and playing the ball, rather than the person so to speak.”

Several city councillors had in the past questioned Shadbolt’s ability to lead the council, but those comments would now be in breach of the new media protocols.

Jock Anderson, a semi-retired journalist of more than 50 years and regular commentator on media matters, said it was outrageous that Shadbolt could no longer be criticised by his colleagues, or vice versa, in the media.

The council’s new media protocol was “clearly a gagging order situation, despite it sounding nice and friendly at this stage”, Anderson said.

Anderson, who said the public would be the losers from the council's decision, believed the elected members who had agreed to gag themselves had opted out of the democratic process.

He suggested they make way for people who supported free speech and were prepared to acknowledge and accept criticism.

Newly-elected councillor Marcus Lush, who works in the media as a Newstalk ZB talkback host, said he had planned to abstain from the vote due to the conflict of interest, and he didn’t want to gag himself.

But when abstention was not put up as an option during the vote, he never voted.

He would have opposed the new media protocols had he voted, he said.

Lush said the council had made the decision, and as a councillor he would have to adhere to it.

But given he was on air 20 hours a week in his radio job, it would be “interesting” because he was allowed to speak about the council while on air, he said.