Hobart lord mayoral candidate Ryan Posselt has asked security to remove his own mother from a candidate forum after she confronted rival candidates over his father being named during question time.
The forum, held ahead of the local government elections, gave council candidates a chance to debate their policies in front of a public audience.
During audience question time, a man who did not identify himself stood up and questioned why Collins Street was such a priority for the council.
“I’ve recently come to Hobart and I’ve heard all about this Collins Street thing,” he said.
He said he had lived in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and had found Collins Street to be “a little secondary street” running parallel to Macquarie Street.
“I’m thinking, wow, is that the priority for problems with Hobart City Council?” he said.
Councillor Marti Zucco took the question and addressed the man as “Mr Posselt”. The man was Ron Posselt, Ryan Posselt’s father.
Ryan Posselt has been a staunch supporter of the bike lanes, which have been a controversial issue within the Hobart City Council and the broader community.
Posselt’s mother could then be heard calling out “you’re rude, you’re a rude person, you are so rude, you are a misogynist” before Zucco continued.
Zucco said Collins Street was “a business street” and asked whether residents would accept losing parking for bikeways in their own street.
“So why are we doing it to the business district?” he said.
After the debate concluded, the woman identified herself as “Ryan’s mum” and confronted a group of candidates, accusing a male councillor of having previously made a derogatory comment under his breath about a female councillor.
She also criticised Zucco for naming her husband.
Organisers and candidates from across the political spectrum, including Tiffany Ashdown and Edwin Johnstone, tried to calm the situation.
Councillor Louise Elliot began filming and Posselt’s mother appeared to reach to swipe her phone away.
“We’ve got to be better than this, please,” event host Alex Johnston said in an attempt to de-escalate the tension, before the mother began filming her own video of the situation.
“You need to go home Mrs Posselt and calm down,” Elliot could be heard saying.
Johnston eventually settled the situation, while security asked her to leave at Ryan Posselt’s request.
Posselt said he knew his parents, who he said are Greens members and recently moved from the mainland, were coming to the forum, but he was not aware his father would ask a question.
Asked whether his father should have said he was related to him, Posselt said “no comment.”
“It wasn’t appropriate for Alderman Zucco to name the people,” he told Pulse late this evening.
“It was a genuine question that brought to light a whole range of considerations for Collins Street.”
He described his father’s question as “a legitimate question raising legitimate issues” and said his father was a former chief executive of several councils in New South Wales and Queensland.
Posselt said he did not witness most of what happened.
He said his mother “lost it because she felt threatened and vulnerable and had a political rival filming the whole thing”.
“I am fair game. My family is not,” he said.
Posselt said asking organisers to call security on his mother was his own call.
“[The organiser] asked me what I would like to do and I said ‘you should call security’,” he said.
“That was my call to try and deescalate and security came and assisted to deescalate the situation.”
In a statement to Pulse, Elliot accused Posselt of having his parents “abuse fellow candidates … giving them an earful on your son’s behalf”.
“I didn’t expect to have a candidate’s mother act so unhinged, chasing candidates around after the event, calling people names and pointing fingers.”
Posselt maintained that he was unaware his father would be asking questions and thanked organisers and the candidates who helped de-escalate.
