In November of last year, Salamanca Speakers Corner came under fire following an article by The Mercury which argued it cost ratepayers “the equivalent of $1516 per hour of speech”.
According to the article written by Kenji Sato, seven people participated in the program during the 6 month trial which cost $5310 in “legal fees, planning permits and signage installation costs.”
To clarify, The Mercury essentially divided the overall cost of establishing the new Speakers Corner area in Salamanca by the number of hours Speakers Corner had been used so far, settling on $1516 per hour or “$758 per 30-minute slot”.
It is important to clarify this, as to imply that Salamanca Speakers Corner was literally costing ratepayers $758 per 30-minute speech would be wildly misleading.
According to Louisa Gordon, the Senior Advisor for Activations Events & Grants, a Right to Information application had been received by the City of Hobart from “a member of the public” asking them to disclose the costs of the trial program.
“The cost for the planning application fee, production and installation of the sign for the Speaker’s Corner trial totalled $1,917, with an estimate of the legal fees for advice on the terms and conditions is $2,924,” she said.
Gordon noted that “The figure of $1516 [per hour] must have been reached by that member of the public by dividing the total cost by the number of hours the Speakers’ Corner has been used during the trial.”
This story apparently caught the attention of Louise Elliot, president of the Tasmanian Residential Rental Property Owners Association, as well as Louise Bloomfield, chairperson for the Confederation of Greater Hobart Business and president of the North-Hobart/New Town branch of the Tasmanian Liberal party.
According to a follow up article by The Mercury’s Kenji Sato, the pair intended to obtain their own Speakers Corner permits just so they could ridicule it, with Elliot reportedly stating that she would “ironically dedicate the first part of her speech criticising speakers corner and the council’s nonsensical use of ratepayer funds.”
As a long-time user of Hobart’s Speakers Corner program prior to its relocation to Salamanca Plaza, as well as being involved in the anti-discrimination case against the street-preacher and HCC mentioned in The Mercury‘s initial news article, I also took an interest in this story and was able to attend the event to see it for myself.
I was surprised that journalist Kenji Sato was not present for either of the speeches by Elliot or Bloomfield given at Speakers Corner that day, despite the new location only being a short walk from The Mercury itself.
In retrospect his absence seemed particularly noteworthy, not only due to his ongoing coverage of this story, but also because I was later informed that Louise Elliot had originally approached Sato with the idea of writing an article about the cost of the Speakers Corner trial to begin with.
For context, Louise Elliot is currently campaigning for a position on the HCC in the upcoming election, and her comments published by The Mercury in their follow-up article regarding Speakers Corner were not so much in response to Kenji Sato’s own independent investigation on the matter, but rather she was commenting on a story that she had actually brought to Sato herself as part of their “working relationship”.
According to a reliable source, The Mercury instructed Sato to remove any reference to Louise Elliot from his original article, ostensibly because there wasn’t enough room for her in the article, but also because there had apparently been too many articles about her recently already.
“Because she’s so aggressive, it gives The Mercury news, so there’s a relationship there,” they said.
It was perhaps unsurprising, then, that Louise Elliot opened her speech at Speakers Corner by claiming that she had brought the overall cost-per-use down “to about $600” by being the 8th person to apply for a permit so far.
However, aside from a few short remarks such as referring to Speakers Corner as a “highly regulated and expensive square of concrete,” Louise Elliot spent very little time actually addressing the HCC’s Speakers Corner issues she had previously raised whatsoever.
Instead, Elliot chose to focus her introduction on her own campaign points, such as the HCC’s debt, rate hikes, parking, population growth, and what she described as “small-fry items” and “wasteful spending” of ratepayers money.
“The council is acting like a kid with a credit card,” said Elliot, repeating her own comments from another article written by Kenji Sato the previous month criticizing the HCC’s grants on art projects.
It wasn’t until around halfway through her speech that Elliot directly raised the issue of Speakers Corner again.
“Oh, let’s not also forget the money spent on this today,” Elliot said. “Over $5,000, 5 pages of terms and conditions, one permit application, ten minutes paid parking, uh… Whatever else I had to do to get through the rigmarole of just doing this free speech. ”
At the end of Louise Elliot’s speech, I asked if she was at all aware of the impact the previous location for Speakers Corner in Elizabeth Mall has had on rate paying businesses in the surrounding area over the years since its inception.
“Not in detail,” Elliot said.
“I know that there was disruption there, but I think there’s probably other ways to manage the situation like that, and I just don’t think that… My concern is that this Speakers Corner is typical behaviour, this is not an isolated event, this is another piece of questionable council judgement.”
“So if this was an isolated thing like, okay, Speakers Corner, whatever, and apparently they think it might be of course, but this is off the back of constant head scratching decisions coming from out of the council.”
“So that’s why I… My philosophy is I don’t have anything against the Speakers Corner. There’s a time and a place and I don’t think that actually meets the need of what they were trying to do.”
“I actually genuinely think it’s a photo opportunity for the lord mayor and one of the councillors,” she added, referring to Zelinda Sherlock’s appearance at the opening of Salamanca Speakers Corner last April.
Councillor Zelinda Sherlock with Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds at the launch.
Although Louise Elliot’s speech lasted 12 minutes, only 45 seconds were actually spent talking about the Speakers’ Corner program itself, with the majority of her speech focussed on talking points promoting her own campaign for the HCC.
By contrast, Louise Bloomfield’s following speech lasted 27 minutes, with zero minutes spent on the subject of Speakers Corner whatsoever.
Previously, Louise Bloomfield had told The Mercury that she couldn’t understand the need for Speakers Corner, or why anyone would seek the council’s permission for free speech, describing the application process as “4 pages of legal documents” and referring to the program itself as “horrifying”.
“They’ve basically red-taped it into oblivion. I feel it is a very horrifying program, in that it speaks volumes about our community right now,” Bloomfield said.
On Facebook, Bloomfield had refered to Speakers Corner as “A highly controlled event where the HCC can come and check permit holders are adhering to the rules,” which she also described as containing “A huge amount of information about what constitutes discrimination.”
Before her speech, I spoke with Louise Bloomfield regarding some of the concerns she and Louise Elliot had raised regarding Speakers Corner, such as limited availability for bookings, rules forbidding amplification equipment, and the inclusion of anti-discrimination laws in the terms and conditions.
“Why have all of the stuff about discrimination and all that stuff?” asked Bloomfield. “That is a blanket act across anybody’s communication. We don’t need to have that in this writing because it already exists. We didn’t have to put it there, it was designed to intimidate I feel, and that concerned me a lot.”
I informed Mrs Bloomfield that the HCC’s original involvement in creating Speakers Corner in the Elizabeth Mall was in response to an anti-discrimination complaint by a religious group who claimed that they were being discriminated against by not being allowed to street preach in the mall, and how this had (in my own words) effectively resulted in the surrounding businesses and members of the public being treated like a captive audience.
As was the case with Louise Elliot, Ms Bloomfield was aware that there had been previous issues regarding Speakers Corner in the Elizabeth Mall over the last few years, but was unaware of specific details such as this.
I asked Louise Bloomfield if there were any concessions the council could make that would satisfy some of the concerns she and Eliiot had raised, such as allowing for amplification now that Speakers Corner is no longer around rate paying businesses.
“It would make a big difference, because I was really concerned that we… We were looking at using Facebook live and so forth because we honestly didn’t think anyone would hear us,” Bloomfield said.
“And it wasn’t… I didn’t mean that there’d be no one here to hear us, I simply meant that people could be at a normal pace and simply not hear anything,” she continued.
“So I do think that would be fair, buskers get that. And on another note too I remember when the busking license first came out, and it was because we had some buskers that people didn’t particularly like, and it was designed to make sure that they weren’t appreciated they got to be moved on, and if they had too many complaints made about them, they lost their right to busk. They lost their license. So why not have something similar for this? Why make it so regimented?”
“You get a thriving community when you have more speakers, it would be wonderful if there were other people here who wanted to speak, say if you wanted to speak, but we can’t. I can’t even speak there yet because I’ve selected my allotted time,” she added.
I informed Louise Bloomfield that I had my own Speakers Corner permit for a number of years, but neglected to mention that (in my own experience at least) if a permit holder wanted to finish early then they could simply cede the remainder of their time and allow the next speaker to go ahead of them.
Although Louise Elliot more openly used Speakers Corner as an opportunity to campaign for the HCC, Louise Bloomfield denied that her speech was in preparation for own campaign, or if she was even planning on running at all.
“Louise Elliot is running, it’s up in the air for me,” she said.
It should be noted that properly regulating the Speakers Corner area would most likely require the HCC to occasionally check in to ensure permit holders are adhering to the terms and conditions, something Bloomfield had previously criticised on Facebook.
It should also be noted that the HCC are generally more reluctant to enforce complaints themselves over an issue regarding “free speech” than they would be over regular busking, something I learned during my own anti-discrimination complaint in 2017.
For example, in response to an upcoming anti-transgender event being hosted at the Hobart Town Hall this February, HCC councillor Jeff Briscoe reportedly told The Mercury‘s Kenji Sato that the council could be taken to the anti-discrimination commission by the organisers if they tried to cancel the event, and that “it should not be up to council to decide what is and is not acceptable content.”
As a result of my own anti-discrimination complaint with the HCC the council subsequently created a portable fold-out sign that informed members of the public what Speakers Corner actually was, and the terms and conditions permit holders were subject to during operating hours, as well as requiring permits to be made visible to the public when in use.
Previously, many members of the public had been unaware that there even was a Speakers Corner area in the Elizabeth Mall at all, or that the speakers who used the area were subject to rules or regulations governed by the HCC.
In defence of at least one concern raised regarding the cost of relocating Speakers Corner to Salamanca, repurposing the previous sign would perhaps have been a cheaper and more versatile option, and it should also be noted the new sign in Salamanca does not provide the same comprehensive list of terms and conditions for the area that the old one did.
Likewise, allowing for more flexible booking times and making Speakers Corner available on weekends (taking into account operating hours for events such as Salamanca Market) would also allow the program to be more accessible to people who work or study during the week, as well as additionally increasing the likelihood of more permits being issued as time goes on.
It is also important to remember that despite its given name, the use of Speakers Corner does not require a permit holder to give a speech at all, but may instead focus on providing informative material such as flyers and pamphlets from a portable table or other surface, as well as simply speaking with members of the public who approach them.
In this regard, permit holders can still continue to operate within the Speakers Corner area in the Elizabeth Mall, making it ideal for pre-existing groups as well as individuals wishing to engage with the public, while the more speech-oriented activities would continue over at Salamanca Plaza.
Distributing material to the public while being able to cover the costs to do so, however, can be a frequent challenge for small groups, and in this regard perhaps the HCC may even consider the possibility of allowing for the sale of some items such as books or DVD’s to cover these kinds of expenses (similar to that of a hawkers permit).
The following statement was provided by the Principal Advisor Media & Corporate Communications for the HCC:
“The City of Hobart has provided a Speakers Corner for many years as part of its commitment to supporting free public speech within our community, and the redevelopment of Salamanca Place provided an opportunity to refresh this program.”
“There was a small cost to establish the new location, including new signage to let people know the intent of the Speakers Corner, and a review and updating of the Terms and Conditions – which should be done regularly as a matter of course.”
“While use of the new location has been limited to date, we hope this will grow over time and more people embrace this platform for public speech.”
“As the trial period has now ended, the City will now collate and review feedback to determine whether any further improvements need to be made to the Speakers Corner program to ensure it meets the expectations and needs of our community.”
Louise Bloomfield & Peter Coulson.
Lastly, it may be worth noting that after speaking with Louise Bloomfield, a member of the public observed that the state director of the Liberal Party Peter Coulson had been watching the event from a distance.
“Is that the state director of the Liberal Party watching reverently from the corner?” a member of the public remarked.
“Really? Oh, that’d be right. Ah deary me, And here I am wearing red,” Bloomfield quipped. “I’ll just wait and see how it goes,” she added.
“He’s been there the whole time,” the audience member continued. “They would have read about it in the paper today”.
“Oh, probably,” Bloomfield responded.
Following this, Peter Coulson approached Speakers Corner and spoke directly with Louise Bloomfield for several minutes before her speech before leaving about halfway through.
