Former councillor Elise Chapman has argued the City of Greater Bendigo should be removed as a party to proceedings in a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing in which she is appealing a code of conduct finding against her.

The tribunal is reviewing the decision of a councillor code of conduct panel which found Ms Chapman breached the code during her time in local government.

The panel found Ms Chapman breached the code by tweeting an image showing children with mutilated genitals to a member of the public.

The image was accompanied by the words “would you like your f---y sliced off?”

Ms Chapman is being represented by Dr Julian Fidge.

Speaking in court on Monday, Dr Fidge said the inclusion of the city in the process was “unlawful, unnecessary and improper”.

Dr Fidge told the court the city’s chief executive officer, Craig Niemann, failed to comply with the Local Government Act by not obtaining written declarations requesting exemptions from conflicts of interest before writing to Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins.

Dr Fidge said the omission amounted to a “fraud perpetuated on the Minister for Local Government by the CEO”, but VCAT judge Marilyn Harbison said she heard no evidence which gave grounds for concern about the correspondence between Mr Niemann and Ms Hutchins.

Dr Fidge also claimed there were “several instances of judicial bias” in previous VCAT hearings.

Acting for the City of Greater Bendigo, barrister Eddy Gisonda submitted there was no change sufficient for the tribunal to reconsider the decision to allow the council to join proceedings.

Judge Harbison said she was not in a position to make a decision on the removal of parties from proceedings as the result of an alleged legal flaw in the process, saying it was “a matter to be dealt with by the Supreme Court”.

In his opening statement Mr Gisonda said the issue Ms Chapman had to confront “once all the background noise was swept away” was whether the “menacing” tweet which was sent “without warning” and “for no good reason” constituted a breach of the code.

The hearing continues in Bendigo on Tuesday.