A Hobart city councillor has labelled the local government code of conduct system “broken” after losing her appeal against a finding she breached the code through social media posts.
Councillor Louise Elliot was found to have breached multiple sections of the council’s code of conduct following a complaint lodged by fellow councillor Ryan Posselt in July 2023.
Her appeal was dismissed by the Magistrates’ Court on December 22, 2025, with the court affirming the original determination by the Code of Conduct Panel.
The panel found Elliot failed to treat Posselt fairly, caused him embarrassment and offence, harassed him through “constant derogatory comments” and undermined council decisions through “inaccurate and misleading” public statements.
Several social media posts were examined, including tweets in which Elliot referred to Posselt as “Clown Man”, as well as a post bearing the headline “HOBART HATES WOMEN” that featured his photograph.
Posselt told the panel he received thousands of notifications after some of the posts were published, including threats directed at himself and his family.
He said the volume of messages forced him to turn off his phone and that he contacted police on the advice of the council’s chief executive.
The panel described some of Elliot’s posts as “inflammatory, attention-grabbing, wholly unobjective and essentially childlike”.
As a result of the findings, Elliot served a seven-day suspension and must complete training on distinguishing between her role as an elected representative and a private citizen on social media.
She has since hit back at the decision, accusing the system of responding disproportionately.
“To say the Code of Conduct system is broken is a massive understatement,” she said in a statement.
“When people are ‘cautioned’ for grabbing community members at public events and being found to have conflicts of interest when they voted increasing the rent at their own kids council-owned childcare centre, but if someone has their feelings hurt on the internet, that’s when they bring out the big guns.”
“On top of that, elected members can refer to community members as Nazis and it’s not a breach of the code but typical political commentary is a breach.”
Elliot said she was now pursuing the matter in the Federal Court as a “constitutional issue” relating to freedom of political communication.
“The power unelected, contracted bureaucrats have over elected representatives and political communication is ridiculous,” she said.
“Hundreds of thousands of dollars of ratepayer money being spent on silly hurt feelings complaints is ridiculous.”
The determination report will be formally tabled at the Hobart City Council meeting on January 27.
Elliot did not attend the original panel hearing in September 2024, citing concerns for her safety and mental health.
The panel noted it had offered her the option of attending with a support person or appearing electronically, but she declined both.
