Councillor Nicole Johnston: "Answering back would be telling you you are absolutely the most useless chairman in history." Credit:Glenn Hunt A Queensland Police spokesman said they received the call at 2.12pm to attend and remove a person from City Hall. A statement from the council said Cr Johnston refused to leave the council chamber after being directed to do so repeated disorderly conduct. "The meeting, to debate and approve council's 2017/18 budget, was adjourned while a senior council governance officer attended to facilitate the ruling of the chamber but the councillor refused to leave despite repeated requests," the statement said. "Council then had no choice but to seek the assistance of the QPS who attended and the councillor left the meeting as soon as the officers arrived.

"The meeting resumed after a 40-minute delay. "The meeting had been adjourned for a 20-minute period earlier in the day to allow the councillor to compose herself after being warned for disorderly conduct." Calls and text messages from Fairfax Media to Cr Johnston following the incident went unanswered. Shortly after her eviction Cr Johnston posted her summary of the day on Twitter.

Answering back would be telling you you are absolutely the most useless chairman in history. Councillor Nicole Johnston Earlier in the day Cr Johnston argued with chairwoman, Angela Owen, over an amendment she proposed to the budget to shift funding from fountains and water features to invest in security lighting and drainage in flood-prone areas. Cr Owen said Cr Johnston could have moved the motion without the attitude. "I am trying to assist here and you are being demonstrably disrespectful," Cr Owen said. "There is no need for that, your continued conduct and answering back and disrespect for this place is disorderly conduct."



Cr Johnston responded to Cr Owen by telling her what she believed answering back to be.

"Answering back would be telling you you are absolutely the most useless chairman in history," she said. Opposition councillor Steve Griffiths (Moorooka) took to Twitter following Cr Johnston's removal from the chamber and said it was wrong that the police were called. Opposition leader Peter Cumming said Brisbane residents expected the councillors to focus on debating the $3 billion budget and that was what Labor councillors were doing. The incident prompted Greens councillor Jonathan Sri (The Gabba) to write an email directly to council CEO Colin Jensen.



"I wanted to put down in writing to you my concerns about patterns of behaviour among the Brisbane City councillors that I believe constitute workplace bullying," his email wrote.

"While I note that Councillor Johnston often calls out during council meetings, she is certainly not the only councillor who does so. "It takes two to tango, and I believe Councillor Owen's approach as chair has had the effect of aggravating and promoting conflict rather than resolving it. "The chairing of council meetings is often arbitrary and inconsistent." Cr Johnston has a long history of disorderly conduct in the council chambers. In July, 2015, Fairfax Media reported Cr Johnston has been ejected from council meetings 40 times since 2010.



She has been evicted several times more since this report.

