T-shirt trauma as community members blocked from council meeting

Council staff blocked several people from entering the chambers ahead of the meeting, reportedly because of the T-shirts they were wearing.

Those shirts were printed with words from council's own core values, with questions on how the values applied to the wearers.

"The conditions of entry to a council meeting are being upheld to provide a safe environment for community, councillors and staff and mitigate risk of physical and psychosocial hazards, as per Work Health Safety legislation," a council spokesperson said.

"Some members of the public displayed behaviours that caused discomfort and risk to safety so were withheld from entering the meeting until they complied with the rules of entry."

However the spokesperson would not say what behaviour caused the "discomfort and risk to safety".

Some were told to remove their T-shirts before they would be allowed to sit in the public gallery.

At the previous meeting on Monday, March 25, people sitting in the gallery were threatened with eviction if they did not remove T-shirts printed with slogans calling, among other things, for an inquiry into council, mayor Amanda Findley to be sacked, and asking for decisions to be based on community needs rather than political ideologies.

Some people in the gallery had nothing on underneath the T-shirts, and the demand delayed the meeting's start by close to 30 minutes.

The incident prompted a response from council CEO Robyn Stevens.

She said council had a zero tolerance approach to any behaviour that placed its workers at risk of psychological harm or exposed them to psychosocial hazards, as psychosocial hazards and risks were part of the employers' obligations to provide a safe workplace environment.

Ms Stevens said measures had been put in place to reduce or eliminate the risks that could cause psychological stress, such as verbal and physical abuse, violence and aggression, bullying or harassment from members of the public.

"We are committed to serving the community and genuinely want to assist in the capacity of our roles, wherever we can," she said.

"Amongst our core values are integrity and respect and we simply ask that our community uphold those in dealing with us as well," Ms Stevens said.

Those core values were mentioned on T-shirts that had people blocked from attending the April 8 meeting.

Rick Woskett was one of the people prevented from entering the meeting by security staff.

"Then a staffer came out saying she was intimidated by the white T-shirts some people were wearing, and raised her shaking hands to show how scared she was," he said.

That was before the staff member had even seen what was written on the T-shirts, Mr Woskett said.

"What was she scared of? She was the one intimidating us," he said.

Deb Krause attended the meeting with her husband, and was not part of the group wearing the T-shirts with details of council's core values.

But like others she was blocked from attending the meeting, with the doors late to open.

"Finally when they did,tter a female representative from council came to the doors with two security officers to refuse entry due to them wearing T-shirts," Ms Krause said.

"As protesters debated their reasoning she then put her hands out in front of her saying her hands were shaking."

Denise Joy was told to remove her T-shirt and said she was subjected to "a barrage of female staff angrily telling us to remove our shirts and abusing us".

"I said 'But they are your own policies what's offensive about that or threatening'," she said.

Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley said the decision to block people from entering the council chambers, or force them to remove T-shirts, was an operational matter determined by staff.

"This is a workplace, it's not a free-for-all, and the staff have every right to feel safe in the workplace," she said.

"I have no opinion on the garments people wear, but what I do have is support for the staff and their right to feel safe under the new legislation that recognises council is not a free-for-all."