An extraordinary saga has  been playing out in secret since last year when Byron Shire GM Graeme Faulkner lodged a complaint against Cr Tom Tabart for an alleged disclosure of ‘confidential’ information. It ended last week, many thousands of dollars later, when councillors voted to note the report on the matter, note that no offence had been committed and to take no further action.

I have yet to read the 66 pages of documentation but in brief Faulkner decided that Tabart had leaked a confidential motion to a former councillor. Tabart’s position is that he emailed the former councillor a notice of motion calling for an external review of the Council organisation and not the GM’s motion. Faulkner came to know of the email when the former councillor replied to the GM’s email address rather than Tabart’s.

‘I told [Faulkner] that it was only my NOM and that his confidential motion had not been disclosed – he obviously did not believe me,’ says Tabart.
This disbelief extended to fetching legal advice from Sydney. ‘At the hearing I and a legal helper comprehensively demolished (in our opinion) the GM’s case,’ says Tabart.

It was not until May this year that advice came through there was no breach of confidence on Tabart’s part. Ratepayers are now looking at a picking up a tab of at least $8,000 for the process.

Even if the GM’s motion was confidential, what could it possibly contain that would bring local government as we know it down around our ears? According to Tabart, the whole process ‘was straight out of Marx – Brothers, not Karl.’
Perhaps Tabart was spot on in his call for an external review.