Related: Chapman ordered to apologise
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Councillor Elise Chapman will front the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal next year after the decision to hold a further directions hearing was made this morning.
The City of Greater Bendigo councillor is challenging an independent panel’s decision which ordered her to apoligise for tweeting a graphic image of children with mutilated genitals to a supporter of Bendigo’s proposed mosque.
A directions hearing is a short preliminary hearing where a tribunal member lays out how a case will proceed.
However, this morning’s directions hearing ended with the decision to schedule a further directions hearing for February 10 next year.
In August, Cr Chapman refused to apologise for the tweet which she sent at the start of the year, despite a determination from an independent councillor conduct panel that she do so.
The Municipal Association of Victoria panel returned a finding of misconduct against Cr Chapman and determined Cr Chapman had breached several clauses of the Councillor Code of Conduct.
It found Cr Chapman should be reprimanded, make an “unreserved apology to the council and the Bendigo community” and that the council should review its code of conduct.
Cr Chapman said she is challenging that finding “on many grounds” and last Tuesday the parties held a compulsory conference at the Bendigo Magistrates' Court as an opening step in the proceedings at the state tribunal.