Brisbane City Council and Councillor Nicole Johnston at odds over court apology ruling
The strained relationship between Brisbane City Council and Tennyson councillor Nicole Johnston appears set to continue despite this week's Supreme Court decision over a longstanding dispute.
Councillor Johnston took the council and three individual respondents to court over the councillor conduct review panel's (CCRP) demand she deliver an apology to council.
The apology related to her refusal to leave the council chamber in February when directed to do so by council chairwoman Margaret de Wit.
The CCRP demanded Cr Johnston deliver a specifically drafted apology that named several other councillors, including the Lord Mayor and Opposition Leader, as well as the Queensland Police Service.
In a complex and nuanced judgment delivered on Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Alan Wilson ruled the CCRP's order for a specifically drafted apology be declared void and set aside.
Justice Wilson also ordered that the respondents paid two-thirds of Cr Johnston's costs.
Opinions differ over court's decision
While the awarding of costs appeared straightforward, the council and Cr Johnston remain divided over what the judgment had set aside.
In a response to the ruling, a statement from the Lord Mayor's office said Justice Wilson had endorsed the original decision by the CCRP over an apology and that Cr Johnston would be "given the opportunity to issue that apology at next Tuesday’s meeting".
But Cr Johnston rejected that interpretation.
"The judge set all of the apology aside and said it was void. Not part of it all of it," she told the ABC.
Cr Johnston acknowledged that Justice Wilson ruled the CCRP did have the jurisdiction to hear the matter, which she described as "disappointing".
Justice Wilson ruled the order that Cr Johnston "make an oral apology in person in the council chambers in the terms of the schedule to the report during the course of the next ordinary council meeting attended by her ... be declared void and set aside".
A council spokesman said the ruling only set aside the specifically worded apology, but that an apology was still required.
Cr Johnston has been ejected from council meetings repeatedly over the past several years.