The Hobart City Council has voted to ask the Tasmanian Labor Party to cough up thousands of dollars after supporters were caught on video plastering hundreds of stickers around the city during the recent election campaign.
At Monday night’s meeting, councillors voted 8–3 to request between $4,000 and $5,000 from the party to cover the clean-up bill.
Councillors Mike Dutta, Ben Lohberger and Bill Harvey opposed the move. Ryan Posselt abstained.
“We all saw the videos of the Labor volunteers putting up what I understand was many hundreds of stickers over multiple nights,” said Councillor Louise Elliott when moving the motion.
“[This is] a way for Labor to show some goodwill and take ownership of the damage and cost to Hobart ratepayers that their volunteers caused.”
While the ‘TassieDoc’ stickers were authorised by Labor, it remains unclear whether their placement around the city was sanctioned by party officials.
Councillor Ryan Posselt said the council should seek to prosecute the individuals responsible rather than “ambulance chasing the Labor Party” for “political reasons”.
“The party itself didn’t sanction it,” he claimed. “This was the action of either a rogue campaign for an individual candidate or rogue people associated with that campaign.”
Alderman Marti Zucco defended the approach, comparing it to holding sporting clubs accountable for members’ misconduct.
“If there’s a complaint gone to the Collingwood Football Club on actions of a member, it’s up to the Collingwood Football Club to take action against that member,” he said.
Alderman Louise Bloomfield also supported the motion, saying Labor had gained from the exposure and should wear the cost.
“It was a generic advertising … It wasn’t for a particular Labor Party member, it was for the Labor Party itself. So they generically benefited from the vandalism. So therefore, they should generically be responsible,” she said.
“That’s how I would say these things need to work and should work.”
The motion was amended during debate to request ‘payment’ rather than issue an ‘invoice’ after advice suggested councils cannot formally invoice political parties.
Councillor Elliott acknowledged Labor could choose to ignore the request, but said she believed “people with any decency would pay it and take ownership for it”.
“I don’t think it was intentional or instructed by the party itself. I don’t think they would be that stupid. But I do think it is appropriate that they take ownership for it,” she said.
