Island councillor Shane Rendalls says police are investigating reports of recent online threats with Council covering his official vehicle-barge trips to meetings.
REDLAND City Councillor Shane Rendalls says he is using the vehicle barge to attend publicly advertised Council meetings amid fresh concerns over alleged threats and intimidation directed at elected representatives online.
The debate comes as Ipswich City Council considers a motion to investigate a security allowance for councillors, modelled on the $6500 home-security scheme available to Queensland MPs.
The Division 5 councillor, who represents Redland Bay and the Southern Moreton Bay Islands, said Queensland Police was investigating recent reports made only weeks ago.
Cr Rendalls said threatening commentary on local social media had increased, creating anxiety for councillors and their families.
“Threats against elected representatives create real anxiety, particularly when recent events have shown that violence against public officials can and does occur,” he said.
He said other councillors had also expressed concerns about their personal safety after online harassment, threats and alleged stalking behaviour.
“Social media should not become a place where death threats against elected representatives are treated as normal political debate,” Cr Rendalls said.
Cr Rendalls said the island location created particular safety challenges because he could not simply drive from home to work like most elected representatives.
During periods where active threats were being investigated, he said he used the vehicle barge rather than the passenger ferry to attend Council meetings and official commitments where his attendance was publicly known.
“The arrangement is about managing risk, not convenience,” he said.
The cost of those vehicle-barge trips is met by Redland City Council as official business travel, Cr Rendalls said.
He said the trips were not eligible for the 50 per cent resident vehicle-barge subsidy because they were undertaken for Council duties.
Cr Rendalls said he had personally paid for additional security measures, but would not detail them publicly.
“There is currently no specific financial support from either Council or the State Government for those personal security costs,” he said.
“No councillor should have to make personal security decisions simply to attend a public Council meeting.”
While he said a security allowance similar to the $6500 scheme available to Queensland parliamentarians would have helped with some personally incurred costs, Cr Rendalls does not support a blanket ratepayer-funded allowance for councillors.
“Just because it would have helped me doesn’t mean it’s the right policy,” he said.
“Support should be based on genuine risk and demonstrated need, not a standard entitlement.”
Instead, he said councils should have a risk-based duty of care to provide protection where credible threats had been documented.
That could include assistance with safe travel, home security, family safety, or support for councillors dealing with stalking and harassment, depending on the circumstances.
“One size does not fit all when it comes to councillor safety,” Cr Rendalls said.
He also called for tougher enforcement against online threats and greater accountability for social media page administrators and moderators who allow threatening content to remain online.
“The problem often starts when anonymous people can run pages and host threatening content with little accountability,” he said.
“We should be encouraging good people to serve their communities, not expecting them to accept threats and intimidation as part of the job.”
