A Bendigo councillor attended a meeting where a group of residents resolved to challenge the validity of the current council and attempt to charge the chief executive officer with treason.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mayor Margaret O’Rourke confirmed the council was seeking legal advice after receiving two threatening letters this month.
One letter, seen by the Bendigo Advertiser, references a meeting in March of 60 “concerned subjects of the Queen”, during which, the letter claims, common law grand jury indictments were issued to council CEO Craig Niemann, Supreme Court justice Jack Forest and former High Court justice Kenneth Hayne.
Councillor Julie Hoskin confirmed she attended the meeting to listen to “constitutional issues”.
“As far as I’m aware Craig Niemann’s name wasn’t mentioned. I didn’t hear it mentioned anyway,” she said.
Cr Hoskin is referenced in the letter, which is addressed to all councillors, council directors and the CEO, as one councillor not being involved in the supposed treason.
“The email is sent to the above because we have been made aware that all of the above mentioned with the exclusion of Julie Hoskin are about to attempt to conceal the removal of the electors/ratepayers/constituents/subjects of the Queen in the Bendigo region,” the letter read.
“The consensus of the people at the meeting was that on the discovery that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second had been removed from certain Acts in Victoria and throughout the Commonwealth of Australia without the required referendum of consent of the people constituted the criminal offence of treason, and the concealing of such offence activates another principal criminal offence – misprision of treason.
“Anyone in the employ or in receipt of a financial benefit from a local government is knowingly committing a fraud against every elector and constituent in every constituency throughout Australia, and is subject to such scrutiny and criminal charge.
“Failure to disclose these criminal offences will activate charge, but, the correct way to defend yourself at this point, is to be a signature to a common law grand jury indictment.”
A local lawyer suggested there was no legal grounds for either of the groups’ claims.
Cr Hoskin said the letter, written after the meeting, reflected the author’s perceptions of the meeting, not hers.
A second letter was received by council from the Carter family earlier this week.
Mayor Margaret O’Rourke addressed the letter in the council meeting on Wednesday, where council voted to forcibly purchase the land off the Carter family.
Cr O’Rourke said the letter claimed councillors could not vote on whether to place a public acquisition overlay on the Carters’ property, because the Victorian Constitution did not receive royal assent, thus making their election in 2016 invalid.
Cr O’Rourke said the argument echoed the case of Paul Rutledge vs the State of Victoria in the High Court 2013, which was rejected by former justice Kenneth Hayne.
In that case, Mr Rutledge argued he was not bound to pay rates on his properties in West Bendigo and Woodvale because there was no evidence the Victorian Constitution Act 1975, which sets the rules for tiers of government, was assented by the Queen.
Max Carter on Wednesday was reluctant to talk about the Carters’ letter to council.
“We issued them a letter the other day which we'll continue to pursue. We'll just see what comes out of it,” he said.