BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — On December 17 the Hobart City Council denied a permit for the sale of Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly in Elizabeth Street Mall. It was the third time the council had denied such a permit in little over three weeks.
The council had previously agreed in principle to a public consultation about activities in the mall. Councillor Jeff Briscoe moved that GLW be issued with a temporary permit (with several conditions) until the consultation was completed. Three council members voted for the motion, while six voted against.
Despite banning GLW from the mall on November 26, the council has taken little action to stop defiant distributors in the mall. The only exception was on December 4 when council officers called police after four sellers refused to leave the mall. Police left "to seek advice" from a sergeant and did not return. A council spokesperson later that day told Mercury journalists that no action had been taken to enforce the ban.
At the December 17 meeting, Lord Mayor Rob Valentine responded to a comment by a council member that the ban had been a "public relations disaster" for the council by accusing GLW of spreading "misinformation" about the ban.
Valentine said the claim by GLW that denying its sellers a permit represents a "restriction on free speech" was a prime example of such misinformation. Valentine has repeatedly argued that refusing a permit is simply about maintaining council policy and is not a free speech issue since the council is not prohibiting the paper's distribution in other locations.
Valentine also claimed that it was incorrect to argue that GLW had been distributed in the mall since the paper came out in 1991. He asserted that Â鶹´«Ã½ had been available in the mall "only for the last three months".
Briscoe countered that he had seen the paper available prior to the current dispute and argued that "if there was misinformation", there was "misinformation on both sides".
Council member Darlene Haigh read to the meeting Â鶹´«Ã½ of an anonymous email to the council. The email supported the ban and explicitly called for censorship of the paper across Australia. None of the many emails in support of GLW's right to be distributed in the mall were mentioned at the meeting.
Supporters are encouraged to write to the council supporting the right of Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly to be distributed in the mall. Ask that your comments be officially included in the coming public consultation and specify that you believe that there should be no fee for distributing non-profit material.
Write to Lord Mayor Rob Valentine, GPO Box 503E, Hobart 7001 or email <lord.mayor@mailnet.hcc.tas.gov.au>. Send a copy to Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, 225 Murray St, Hobart 7000 or <hobart@greenleft.org.au>.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, January 16, 2002.
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