{"id":801523,"date":"2026-07-15T09:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801523\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T09:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:19:11","slug":"councillor-says-cairns-deserves-apology-after-mayor-admits-third-case-of-misconduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801523\/","title":{"rendered":"Councillor says Cairns ‘deserves apology’ after mayor admits third case of misconduct"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mayor of Cairns has been told to apologise to her community after admitting to misconduct for a second time in three weeks.<\/p>\n

Mayor Amy Eden was ordered to make the admission by Queensland’s Councillor Conduct Tribunal, which found she failed to declare a conflict of interest during a vote in 2023, when the council was selecting a list of preferred suppliers.<\/p>\n

One of the businesses on the list was run by a friend and former business partner of Cr Eden’s.<\/p>\n

Tempers flared at a Cairns Regional Council meeting on Wednesday after Cr Eden made the admission and said she accepted her judgement at the time was “not correct”.<\/p>\n

Last month she admitted to two counts of misconduct for leaking confidential information<\/a> to a journalist in 2023, when she was still a first-term councillor.<\/p>\n

Mayor attempts to stop questions<\/p>\n

Cr Eden tried to block councillors from asking questions about the misconduct during the meeting.<\/p>\n

She also stopped a councillor from moving a motion of dissent when council chief executive Ken Gouldthorp intervened to correct meeting procedure.<\/p>\n

\"Formally<\/p>\n

Multiple councillors expressed concern that that mayor’s conduct was bringing the council’s reputation into disrepute. (ABC Far North: Holly Richardson)<\/p>\n

Councillor Brett Moller moved a motion of unsuitable meeting conduct, which was eventually carried.<\/p>\n

The mayor attempted to adjourn “to seek advice”, but Mr Gouldthorp advised that she did not have the power to stop the meeting.<\/p>\n

At one stage Cr Eden interrupted Mr Gouldthorp and said: “I feel like you are trying to make me look like a fool.”<\/p>\n

Cr Eden said former Cairns councillors had been treated with more respect when they made admissions of misconduct in the chamber.<\/p>\n

Deputy Mayor Brett Olds said Cr Eden’s refusal to take questions after her admission reflected poorly on the entire council.<\/p>\n

“I think the people of Cairns deserve an apology from you,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think, as a leader, you should take responsibility for your actions, and I think everyone in this room deserves an apology from you.”<\/p>\n

Cr Olds said the mayor’s conduct brought the council into disrepute.<\/p>\n

“This erodes public trust in the council and makes us look like a rabble, and I can tell you we are not a rabble,” he said.<\/p>\n

Cr Eden was unavailable for an interview after Wednesday’s council meeting, but said in a statement that she accepted the adjudicator’s decision and had learnt from the experience.<\/p>\n

“I am not supportive of the unnecessary political pontificating by councillors,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Eden said the experience would not keep her from working tirelessly and to the best of her ability for the residents of Cairns.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Amy Eden has now made three admissions of breaching the code of conduct. (ABC News: Curtis Rodda)<\/p>\n

Cr Eden, who told the ABC earlier this week that her admission was “not an apology”, said she would comply with a requirement to complete training in response to the misconduct findings.<\/p>\n

Councillors also voted unanimously for Cr Eden to repay a $15,000 excess for an insurance claim the council made for her to receive legal assistance.<\/p>\n

That assistance was sought after proceedings were brought against Cr Eden for the two allegations of misconduct relating to leaking of confidential material, which she admitted to last month.<\/p>\n

Councillors are entitled to access legal assistance when claims are brought against them. Costs are covered by councillor and officer liability insurance.<\/p>\n

If the councillor is found guilty, council policy requires the councillor to repay the excess.<\/p>\n

Cr Moller said Cr Eden had the right to defend herself and was entitled to legal advice.<\/p>\n

“This is not us councillors taking an adversarial position in any shape or form,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is we councillors looking at the legislation and policies and acting in the best interests of our residents.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mayor of Cairns has been told to apologise to her community after admitting to misconduct for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[375885,375889,64,63,375886,375890,375891,375887,23983,375888,44],"class_list":["post-801523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-amy-eden","tag-amy-eden-misconduct","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brett-olds","tag-cairns-council-code-of-conduct","tag-cairns-council-meeting","tag-cairns-council-misconduct","tag-cairns-regional-council","tag-councillor-conduct-tribunal","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801523","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=801523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}