How bridge named after Paul Pisasale spiralled into a four-year dispute

A long-running political feud within Ipswich City Council, sparked by a dispute over whether assets should continue to be named after former mayor and convicted criminal Paul Pisasale, has ended with a misconduct finding against the city's deputy mayor. Queensland's Councillor Conduct Tribunal (CCT) found Ipswich Deputy Mayor Nicole Jonic engaged in misconduct after she accidentally sent confidential council documents to a journalist during the renaming debate in 2022. The finding is the latest in a dispute that has divided councillors for almost four years and has further thrust the legacy of former mayor Paul Pisasale into the public consciousness. Pisasale resigned in 2017.

He cited ill health at the time and was later charged with extortion and sexual offences as part of a Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) investigation. The entire Ipswich City Council was dismissed by the state government in 2018 after the CCC found a culture of corruption within the organisation, with an administrator appointed until the 2020 election. In December 2021, the newly elected council voted to remove Pisasale's name from a bridge in Springfield and from Pisasale Drive in Yamanto.

The decision sparked significant community debate and led to a consultation process on replacement names. Engagement report questioned A draft community engagement report from that process in 2022 was the focus of the internal council dispute, after Cr Jonic and fellow councillor Jacob Madsen raised concerns about changes made between a draft and final version. Cr Jonic said at the time she was not opposed to renaming assets, but argued thousands of community responses had been excluded from the final report and alleged in media interviews that Mayor Teresa Harding had made changes to that report and had "selectively edited" community responses. At the time, the council offices and the mayor stated the report had improperly included social media reactions as responses, outside the consultation scope.

It was during those debates where Cr Jonic was found by the CCT to have sent an email to a journalist at a local Ipswich newspaper which included the draft community engagement report and several confidential items — which were marked as such. The tribunal, in the recent decision, accepted the documents were attached to the email by mistake and that Cr Jonic attempted to recall the message shortly afterwards, but ruled the disclosure still amounted to misconduct under the Local Government Act. Cr Jonic has been ordered to undertake training on how to handle confidential information because of the findings.

Earlier report clears councillors It follows an earlier CCT decision involving the same dispute. Last year, Cr Jonic and Cr Madsen were cleared of misconduct allegations relating to their claims Cr Harding had improperly interfered in the community engagement report. The CCT ruled there was no misconduct and the two councillors were "obligated" to raise their concerns about the report and there was "no aspect or element of dishonesty" in their actions. "They clearly came to a conclusion that public trust in the decision could have been compromised when it emerged that the mayor had been involved in changing the [community engagement report], no matter how benign and well-intentioned her reasoning," that ruling said.

Mayor Teresa Harding said the saga had been "embarrassing" for the council and damaging to the city's reputation. "The hardest part of this experience was being wrongly accused repeatedly of altering the community engagement report, despite being cleared of any wrongdoing by the Office of the Independent Assessor on 18 July 2022," Cr Harding said. Cr Harding said the CEO provided evidence to councillors that "the accusations were false" but they continued to be aired in the media in "what felt like a political attack aimed at damaging my reputation and standing as mayor." She said Cr Jonic had never apologised nor corrected the public record regarding the allegations. "At all times, I have respected the Councillor Conduct Tribunal process and have not made accusations in the media against my colleagues over the nearly four years this matter has taken to resolve," Ms Harding said.

In a statement, Cr Jonic said integrity and public confidence remained important to her. "I believe it is important that tribunal findings are represented accurately and in their proper context," she said. The council ultimately removed Pisasale's name from the former Pisasale Drive, which became Kuril Drive in 2023.

While Pisasale's name was removed from the Springfield bridge, it has never been given a replacement name. With no council assets now bearing Pisasale's name, the CCT ruling appears to draw one of Ipswich's longest-running political disputes to a close.