Inside Hobart council’s ‘snack saga’<\/a><\/p>\nHobart’s deputy lord mayor has admitted to and apologised for taking snacks and drinks from a council lounge over several years, but some of her fellow councillors won’t let the matter die.<\/p>\n
In his letter to the Office of Local Government and Tasmania Police, City of Hobart chief executive Michael Stretton said “notwithstanding previous consideration by Tasmania Police, the Office of Local Government and independent legal advisers, differing views continue to exist regarding both the conduct itself and the adequacy of the City of Hobart’s response”.<\/p>\n
“Given those differing views, the ongoing public interest in the matter, the importance of maintaining confidence in local government governance arrangements, and consistent with the Council’s direction, I respectfully refer this matter for any further consideration your offices consider appropriate.”<\/p>\n
Mr Stretton said the council would “continue to make available any additional records, correspondence, file notes, CCTV material, legal advice, council reports and supporting documentation should they be requested”.<\/p>\n
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Louise Elliot has led the campaign to oust Cr Sherlock over the matter. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)<\/p>\n
On Friday, Councillor Louise Elliot, who has repeatedly called for Cr Sherlock to step down, said “all I have wanted is for the proper authorities \u2026 to have every snippet of evidence and for the council to ask them to take the matter seriously with their independent eyes”.<\/p>\n
“The council’s resolution is pathetic, but better than nothing.\u00a0Instead of showing any respect for basic governance responsibilities and saying ‘This isn’t right and we need you to investigate’, the council has effectively just said, ‘Others have told you about it \u2026 said it was a policy misunderstanding, but whatever’.”<\/p>\n
Sherlock thanks supporters<\/p>\n
In a post to her social media on Friday, Cr Sherlock reiterated she had misunderstood council policy and that she had already been investigated over the matter.<\/p>\n
“In January 2026, independent legal advice also concluded that no misconduct had occurred. In March 2026, Tasmania Police also concluded that there was insufficient evidence for an offence. In June 2026, the Integrity Commission also investigated and cleared me of any misconduct,” she wrote.<\/p>\n
“While no council policy was broken, I know some people are upset about it. I have unreservedly apologised to the people of Hobart.”<\/p>\n
Cr Sherlock said she had offered to repay council for the cost of the items but “council processes mean this is difficult to coordinate, and so I’ve made a meaningful donation to Hobart City Mission”.<\/p>\n
“I hope the people of Hobart feel I am sincere in my apology and regret about the matter,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to reach out to me. Your support means a great deal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hobart’s city council has voted to refer the matter concerning its deputy lord mayor and the taking home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[274547,64,63,18401,225941,44,407459,407458,48214,370044],"class_list":["post-835585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-anna-reynolds","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-hobart-city-council","tag-louise-elliot","tag-news","tag-snack-saga","tag-snackgate","tag-tasmania-police","tag-zelinda-sherlock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835585","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=835585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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