THE registration of two websites by a Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor, with other entities listed as the “registrant” has drawn the ire of the Liberal Party, and a request for removal from the shire.
Current councillor and former mayor Steve Holland recently registered the website “morningtonpeninsula.org.au” with a Facebook post indicating he intended to use it as a “council-watch” style website.
While Holland used his personal name and contact details for the registration, he used “Mornington Peninsula Shire Council” as the “registrant”, complete with the shire’s Australian Business Number.
One possible explanation is the requirement for a “.org.au” to be purchased and used by a “not-for-profit” entity, precluding those with a general ABN from owning them.
In effect, the transaction meant Mornington Peninsula Shire Council owned a “council-watch” website intended to be run by an individual outside the shire, for their own gain.
The News believes the issue was raised directly with the CEO of the shire, John Baker.
A statement provided by the shire, attributed to Baker, said “As soon as the website was brought to our attention, I asked Cr Holland to take it down and he did so”.
Councillors are held to a high standard of integrity by the Local Government Act 2020 (Vic) which states that a councillor “must not intentionally misuse their position” to “gain or attempt to gain, directly or indirectly, an advantage for themselves or for any other person [LGA s 123(1)(a)].
In 2022, Mornington Peninsula Shire Council adopted a “Councillor Code of Conduct” establishing “standards of conduct expected to be observed by councillors”.
Included are the requirement for councillors to “ensure that they comply with applicable policies adopted by the council and as amended, including but not limited to policies addressing… use of council resources and facilities” [s 6.4 – Compliance with council policy and legislation].
Further, section seven of the code of conduct stipulates “Councillors must ensure that they comply with the provisions under the Act in relation to Councillor conduct and those provisions which are offence provisions. Offence provisions under the Act include… Misuse of position [LGA s 123]”.
The website has now been deregistered by Holland and legitimately purchased by the Committee for Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula.
In another example, Steve Holland’s personal website “steveholland.org.au”, which was still active last week but has now been taken down, was registered to the Liberal Party of Australia Victorian Division, despite the fact The News understands Holland is no longer a member of the Liberal Party.
The News contacted the Liberal Party and asked whether a Liberal Party member, that is not and never has been a preselected candidate, is entitled to register a private website address by using the Liberal Party entity and ABN as the ‘registrar’.
Further, The News asked what the Liberal Party’s position would be if a private website using the Liberal Party entity and ABN as the registrar, was being run by an individual that isn’t a member of the Liberal Party.
A spokesperson for the Liberal Party said “Thank you for drawing to our attention that somebody has apparently registered steveholland.org.au in the Party’s name”.
“We can confirm that this was not authorised by the Party or done with the Party’s knowledge.”
“We do not know the identity of the person (the ‘registrant’) who registered the site domain, but after they became aware that we had lodged a complaint with the service provider (the ‘registrar’), we were advised by the service provider that ‘the registrant has transferred the domain to a different registrar prior to the expiration of our verification deadline’.”
Holland, once a rising star in the Liberal Party, missed preselection for the Upper House seat of Eastern Victoria left vacant by the retirement of Edward O’Donohue (Councillor aims for state seat, The News 18/10/21). The chosen Liberal candidate was Cathrine Burnett-Wake.
It is understood Holland stood down as the chair of the Dunkley Federal Electoral Conference after a “turf war” broke out in the Liberal Party (‘Turf war’ splits peninsula Liberals, The News 22/08/22).
At the time, Holland told The News “What is happen ng within the Liberal Party at the moment can be described as a turf war on a sinking continent”.
The internal wranglings in the local branch of the Liberal Party saw long-time Mornington MP David Morris ousted with former federal member for Dunkley, Chris Crewther preselected over him for the 2022 state election. Crewther won the seat and is now MP for Mornington.
