Dear Huon Valley Councillors
It is very pleasing to read the update on the Australia Day Award and the convicted rapist Timothy Brown in today’s edition of The Mercury (see below).
I wish to extend my thanks for your decision as councillors made in closed council this week, something I have been pursuing since publishing our articles in Tasmanian Times.
Without wishing to dampen my note of thanks, I do wish to again reiterate that is unfortunate this was considered to be a matter of closed council and that it was not discussed in open council; which was the request of the victim and was implied in my articles in Tasmanian Times. This truly should have been an easy matter to resolve and it should not have been a matter of closed council.
As was pointed out by our former Mayor Coad in his media release and The Mercury article by journalist Judy Augustine, this is a matter that should have been resolved by way of a council resolution way back in August of 2018.
That said, I am now hopeful that:
- Council will now make mention of this matter at the next Ordinary Meeting of Huon Valley Council 29 September 2021
- Council will now issue a media release on its website and to include the Huon News, and a future HuonFM radio interview
- Council will now send a written apology to the victim/survivor – Director Stephenson has email contact with this woman and her family.
Yours sincerely
Geoffrey Swan
Contributing Editor | Tasmanian Times
