Latrobe Council is holding elections this spring. This background piece revisits reporting first published by the ABC in March 2024, and by The Examiner in the days that followed, about the council’s sitting deputy mayor. It is not a new development. Every claim below is attributed to those reports. Readers should read the originals for full context.

Why this matters now

Tasmania’s local government elections are under way. Latrobe Council, like every one of the state’s 29 councils, will elect a mayor, a deputy mayor and its councillors. Under recent changes, Latrobe will elect seven councillors, according to the Tasmanian Electoral Commission (TEC).

The TEC says candidate nominations opened on 7 September and close at 12 noon on Monday 21 September, with candidates announced at 12 noon on Tuesday 22 September. Ballot packs will be mailed from Monday 5 October, and voting closes at 2pm on Tuesday 27 October. Voting is by postal ballot and is compulsory for everyone on the state electoral roll.

Vonette Mead is Latrobe’s current deputy mayor and has been a councillor since 2018. At the time of writing, the candidate list had not been published. Readers can check who is standing on the TEC website once nominations close.

What the ABC reported

In March 2024, ABC News reported on questions about how Ms Mead managed a conflict of interest during the council’s tender for the redevelopment of Camp Banksia at Port Sorell. At the time, she was also a Liberal candidate for the state seat of Braddon. The Examiner reported the redevelopment cost $5.3 million.

According to the ABC, Ms Mead and her husband Tim Mead co-own the construction company Mead Con. The company bid for the work while she sat on the council that was shaping the tender.

The ABC reported that councillors, Ms Mead among them, took part in workshops on the project. The broadcaster said it had been told that towards the end of the process councillors had access to the weightings, the assessment program, key timelines and the council’s budget, including its contingency fund — which, the ABC reported, was not publicly released.

The ABC also reported that Ms Mead successfully moved a motion increasing the amount the council was seeking from the state government for the redevelopment, from $1 million to $1.5 million. That funding request was rejected.

The timeline, as reported

The ABC set out a sequence of dates that sits at the centre of the questions put to Ms Mead.

  • 8 November — the earliest record the ABC could find of Ms Mead declaring a conflict of interest about the Banksia redevelopment, at a council meeting. This followed earlier workshops and votes on the project.
  • 13 November — the window for tender submissions opened, five days after that declaration.
  • 17 December — the last day of the tender window. Documents cited by the ABC show Mead Con tendered that day for $3.48 million. The submission was signed by Tim Mead and identifies Ms Mead as the company’s operations manager.
  • Before assessment — Mead Con withdrew its tender. The Examiner reported the withdrawal came just days before the council was due to consider submissions.
  • April — asked at a meeting whether she had tendered, minutes record Ms Mead responding that Mead Con “did not have an active tender in that process”. By then the bid had been withdrawn.

The contract went to another Tasmanian firm, AJR Construct, and the ABC reported the redevelopment was finished in late 2023.

What the law requires

Under the Tasmanian Local Government Act, as summarised by the ABC, a councillor must not participate in any meeting of council, council committee, special committee, discussion or vote on a matter in which they have an interest, or in which they are aware — or ought to be aware — that a close associate has an interest. Councillors should declare a conflict of interest to the general manager within seven days, and a record of the declaration is to be kept.

The ABC reported that the council did not provide it with a copy of Ms Mead’s declaration.

What the integrity expert said

Geoffrey Watson SC of the Centre for Public Integrity reviewed the conduct for the ABC. He did not describe it as corruption. He described it as poor process.

“This is a poor management of a conflict of interest because it could’ve been seen at any time the building company of which she was a beneficiary could’ve been a contractor on the project.”

Mr Watson told the ABC that Ms Mead “should’ve excluded herself from negotiations from the start or directed the building company … not to engage in the tender”, and that “the fact that the tender was withdrawn is evidence it shouldn’t have been made in the first place”.

What Ms Mead said

Ms Mead gave the ABC and The Examiner a brief written statement:

“I have always acted on the advice of the General Manager. Integrity is paramount, and out of an abundance of caution I asked Mead Con to consider withdrawing that tender.”

The ABC reported that she did not respond to its further questions — including when she first declared her conflict of interest, whether she felt she had managed that conflict properly, and why she told the April meeting she did not have an active tender. The Examiner reported that she initially declined to be interviewed.

Labor’s Dean Winter, then a candidate, told The Examiner that the deputy mayor “participated in workshops and meetings and did not declare a conflict of interest until far too late”.

Where it stands

No public finding has been made against Ms Mead on this matter. None of the allegations has been tested by any court or tribunal, and no wrongdoing has been established. Ms Mead was not elected at the 2024 or 2025 state elections and remains Latrobe’s deputy mayor.

Read the ABC’s original report and The Examiner’s follow-up for the full story, and the Tasmanian Electoral Commission’s election pages for candidates and voting information.

Ms Mead is welcome to respond to anything in this article. Contact the desk and we will publish her response in full.