Re-elected Hobart councillor Zelinda Sherlock has hugged colleague and critic Louise Elliot as the city’s new council was sworn in, saying she was raised to “forgive to a certain degree” after what she said was a “traumatic” election campaign.
The pair embraced at Monday night’s investiture, which started a new term for a council cut from 12 seats to nine.
Asked whether the hug ended months of conflict between them, Sherlock said her parents taught her “that to be the better, bigger person, you have to be able to forgive to a certain degree”.
“And that’s how I was raised and that’s my values and that’s my principles,” she told Pulse.
Earlier this year, Elliot called for Sherlock to resign over food and drink taken from Town Hall’s elected members’ lounge in 2024.
Sherlock apologised but described the scrutiny as a “political assassination”.
In her speech at Monday night’s ceremony, Sherlock said there was “a difference between robust political debate and conduct that seeks to intimidate people into silence”.
Speaking afterwards, she said “there’s a lot of hurt” but that she hoped to collaborate with Elliot “in some positive ways”.
“I think many of us have done that, but we move on,” she said.
She described the campaign as “traumatic, not just for me but for our community” and said “it’s time to heal”.
Sherlock and Elliot are the only women on the new council.
Sherlock said around seven of the 32 candidates were women and that political life should be made “safer for women”.
Elliot did not refer to Sherlock in her own speech.
She said the next term was “about repair, repair for Hobart and about returning balance and common sense to the city”.
Councillor Mike Dutta told the chamber the campaign had become “quite dirty and nasty” and said he had been told to “go back to India”.
The city’s new lord mayor Charles Wooley asked councillors for “mutual cooperation”, saying the council could not have another eight years of discord.
