{"id":800269,"date":"2026-07-14T18:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800269\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:56:15","slug":"david-penman-wasnt-happy-with-his-local-victorian-council-so-he-privately-prosecuted-five-councillors-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800269\/","title":{"rendered":"David Penman wasn\u2019t happy with his local Victorian council. So, he privately prosecuted five councillors | Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Penman wasn\u2019t happy.<\/p>\n

The Daylesford small business owner didn\u2019t like the work of his local council. So, using little-known laws that force elected officials to stand down, he essentially stopped it from making any big decisions.<\/p>\n

In the state of Victoria<\/a>, any councillor facing a criminal charge must step down while the matters are dealt with in court, according to the Local Government Act 2020.<\/p>\n

While Penman is no police officer, the resident has launched private prosecutions against the Hepburn shire mayor, Tony Clark, and councillors Shirley Cornish, Lesley Hewitt, Pat Hockey and Don Henderson \u2013 along with the council\u2019s CEO, Bradley Thomas. Only two of seven councillors are now able to serve.<\/p>\n

Most of the charges relate to allegations that the council acted unlawfully by adopting its most recent budget without including necessary financial documents.<\/p>\n

Penman said his actions were an example of \u201cdemocracy functioning through the rule of law\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy does not mean elected representatives are immune from the law. Democracy requires elected representatives to obey it,\u201d he wrote in a social media post on Monday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPrivate prosecutions exist precisely because public officials must remain accountable,\u201d he wrote in a previous post.<\/p>\n

His post went on to allege that councillors \u201cadopted a blank-sheet budget. They failed to demand the legally required documents. They accepted assurances at face value. The budget then changed materially after their vote and does not resemble what they thought they had approved.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Hepburn Shire Council issued a statement saying the private prosecutions were \u201cdisrupting democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe matters are proceeding as private prosecutions and, like the previous charges, have not involved any investigation, fact\u2011finding process, or assessment by Victoria Police or any public prosecutorial authority,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil is limited in what it can say publicly about these charges since they are before the courts. Council can say that it is bitterly disappointed with the impact that this individual\u2019s actions are having on our community and its right to be represented by its democratically elected representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Hood, one of the last two councillors who is able to serve the shire, said with \u201cfive of the seven councillors\u201d facing charges, there would not be a quorum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re faced with a situation where the council at a certain level has been shut down,\u201d Hood said.<\/p>\n

But while Penman may have stymied matters in the council chamber, Hepburn\u2019s day-to-day council operations remain unaffected, Hood said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re collecting the rubbish and opening the libraries and customer service desks and maintaining the road network and all of the usual operational things.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut we can\u2019t make any major decisions because there are only two of us and therefore we can\u2019t meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hood said the council was \u201cin limbo\u201d until the court proceedings run their course. The state government may put in an administrator in the meantime, he said.<\/p>\n

The Victorian government is looking at changing section 229 of the act, which would prevent this from happening again, he said. Hood said he would support a change to the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe change that they\u2019re looking to implement would mean that, if the charges were laid by the police or any other formal statutory authority, then in the case of serious charges, the councillor would be required to stand down.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the changes, if they\u2019re adopted, would mean that if the charges are laid by a private individual, as they are in this case, they would still be heard through the legal system in the normal manner, but the councillor would not need to stand down from their role in the meantime.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called on the minister for local government, Paul Hamer, to step in.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo state the obvious, the minister for local government will need to act pretty quickly so that we can move forward as an organisation,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the moment we\u2019re sort of in no man\u2019s land, so that situation can\u2019t be allowed to exist for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Victorian government said it was \u201cvery concerned about the situation unfolding\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why Labor has already introduced legislation to make sure councillors can continue to perform their roles when facing private prosecutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minister has written to the director of public prosecutions to draw his attention to the matter and will continue to consider what steps can be taken under the Local Government Act.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Penman wasn\u2019t happy. The Daylesford small business owner didn\u2019t like the work of his local council. So,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-800269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}