Feel free to call me a ‘c..t’ - councillor defends potty-mouthed rant

Wednesday, 26 June 2024

Hamilton city councillor Andrew Bydder says it's fine if ratepayers swear at him to make him do his job. (Video first published June 26 2024.)

Hamilton councillor Andrew Bydder believes it’s ‘absolutely acceptable’ for his constituents to hurl profanity laden abuse at him in order to get him to do his job.

And he contended lowering debate among the city’s leaders around the council table to a similar prison-yard level could ‘improve governance’.

The comments come after an expletive laden submission Bydder sent to neighbouring Waipā District Council over constructing a third bridge in Cambridge.

Along with F and C four letter words, it also contained derogatory slurs referring to people with intellectual and physical impairments and comment on the mayor’s physical appearance.

In an interview with the Waikato Times, Bydder said he had every right to send a foul-mouthed, abusive message.

It’s “absolutely acceptable”, he says, because it was written in his private capacity as a Waipa resident - and because he wanted attention.

The submission - in which he calls for Waipā chief executive Garry Dyet to be fired - concludes with Bydder telling the district’s mayor Susan O’Regan to “get off your fat arse” and sack all council’s staff.

Andrew Bydder’s submission to the Waipa District Council. Some of the offending remarks have been edited out of this picture.

When asked if the same logic applied for him and if he would be fine with constituents addressing him as a ‘lazy c…t’ - to quote his own form of address to elected representatives - Bydder said it “absolutely” would.

Profanities and insulting language was simply a good way of getting people’s attention, Bydder contended.

“If you do it politely you get nowhere … I do this because it can’t be ignored. It has to be dealt with.”

“There is a hell of a lot of frustration out there, and allowing people to vent is better than shutting them up so that they bury the anger inside them and then do something more physically aggressive.”

Bydder’s antics incurred the ire of Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate, who has lodged a formal complaint with her own council against his conduct.

Andrew Bydder fronted to explain about his expletive-laden rant - and said such language was perfectly acceptable.

But Bydder, a councillor on a base pay of $81,000, saw nothing wrong with hurling insults rather than articulating an argument of his position, even in a private capacity.

“The level of corruption and incompetence in the [Waipā] council necessitates [the foul language],” he said

His freedom of expression was protected under the Bill of Rights - “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression to impart opinions of any kind in any form”.

Waipā Mayor Susan O'Regan says she is repulsed by Andrew Bydder’s comments

“That is protected speech … This is a character test - but a test of their character.”

He was not drunk or under the influence of any substance at the time he wrote the submission.

Bydder said the city council should throw out its code of conduct to allow for more strident criticism of his colleagues and staff.

“We need to change the system. If changing it means we use language like this and it gets the solution of improving the governance, absolutely go for it.”

There was one part of his submission he would retract:

“Susan O’Regan doesn’t actually have a fat arse. It was simply to get her attention - same as everything else.”

O’Regan said she was dumbfounded by Bydder’s language and antagonism.

“Councillor Bydder's comments were pretty repulsive to be quite frank on a lot of levels.”

“I've never had anything to do with the man.

“So came a little bit left field but if you read what he said, he actually provides very little content and a whole lot of abuse and not just to me personally, but to staff our chief executive and, and uses terms that are no longer seem appropriate in this day and age.

“I cannot and will not condone abuse of elected members or council staff. The fact this kind of vitriolic feedback has been submitted from someone who is an elected representative, is frankly appalling.

“I have shared my concerns with Hamilton city Mayor Paula Southgate, who was equally concerned.

“We are a bunch of hardworking individuals trying to do our very best for our communities. We can either stand up and say that this is not OK or stay silent and accept this type of behaviour.

“What you choose to ignore you choose to accept. I do not accept Cr Bydder’s actions, and I encourage others not to either.”

O’Regan believed there had been multiple complaints made to the city council by Waipā councillors about Bydder.

The Waipa submission is the latest in a litany of obscenities since 2153 people voted Bydder onto the city council in the 2022 local body elections.

Shortly before his election, the architectural designer and former Waikato Times columnist sent an email to Waipā council staff, labelling them “scum” and “disgusting filth”.

He also called former HCC chief executive Richard Briggs a c..t in February 2023.

And in June last year he was ordered to take “professional development training” after attending a public meeting in which he disparaged council staff immediately after his colleagues Angela O’Leary and Mark Donovan were booed off the stage.