South Perth mayor Greg Milner leads vote to block CEO’s plan for external psychosocial assessment of city

City of South Perth mayor Greg Milner has led a vote to halt a proposed psychosocial risk assessment initiated by the city’s chief executive officer aimed to bring what’s happening at the trouble-ridden city to light. Mr Milner put forward an urgent business motion at Tuesday night’s meeting to “discontinue all work on the psychosocial risk assessment described in the email dated 23 March 2026”, which would essentially block the CEO’s plan to engage an external provider to assess psychological risks in the organisation. Chief executive officer Liz Ledger sent an email on Monday at 4.10pm outlining her major concerns and her intentions to hire Azuhr to conduct an independent psychosocial review of the city. Mr Milner put forward his motion to block it at 4pm on Tuesday, two hours before the meeting began. Five councillors, including the mayor, voted to redirect Ms Ledger’s request to council-led governance channels. Ms Ledger, corporate services director Bree Websdale and governance manager Toni Fry were all absent from Tuesday night’s meeting, leaving Mr Milner a forlorn figure at the head of the chamber. PerthNow understands Ms Ledger is on stress leave and both Ms Fry and Ms Websdale are on leave. Mr Milner also announced it would be governance administration officer’s Kira Digwood’s last council meeting. Mr Milner argued Ms Ledger’s proposed assessment risked duplicating work already being done by State-appointed monitor Gail McGowan. He said his intervention was a matter of proper process and accountability. “This is very, very, very important to get right, to follow best practice and withstand both councillor and media scrutiny,” he said. Instead of continuing with the CEO’s plan, the council will instead hold a staged internal governance approach, including a workshop with councillors, the CEO, independent audit and risk committee members and the monitor, followed by formal consideration by the audit, risk and improvement committee before returning to council. PerthNow recently requested the audio of a public ARIC meeting held in March — which discussed damning governance and integrity reports that the committee rejected — but the city refused, arguing it was “not required to” and suggesting a Freedom of Information application being lodged and to look at the minutes. Some councillors said Mr Milner and the council were overstepping into operational territory and interfering with the CEO’s legal duties under workplace health and safety laws. Cr Tim Houweling argued Ms Ledger’s plan “falls within her (CEO) remit, it is her responsibility”. He said it was “highly unusual” for a council to intervene in such circumstances. “I do not know of a circumstance where a local government has tried to stop a CEO,” he said. He warned that delaying the assessment could have real consequences for staff, arguing that “by that stage, it’s too late. People will have left the organisation as a direct consequence of some of the psychosocial risks.” He also rejected the suggestion that the monitor’s role overlapped with the proposed work as “the monitor is not charged with that responsibility”. Cr Blake D’Souza said he did not have enough information and supporting the motion could represent interference into operational matters. “Within this motion, is there a risk that we would fall shy and be in breach of our obligations under the Workplace Health and Safety Act?” Cr D’Souza asked. Mr Milner said he “can’t possibly answer that”. “I can’t possibly answer that Cr D’Souza, I only got notice of this email at 10 past 4 yesterday, sorry — that’s that’s not something I’m qualified to do,” Mr Milner said. Cr Hayley Prendiville said she was “reluctant” to interfere in a decision and action that the CEO had taken because the issue was complex and councillors were given only a short timeframe to consider it. Cr Kathy Lees spoke in support of Mr Milner’s proposal, saying the “decision has not been in consultation with the council” and it was “premature”. “Before the monitor has completed her reporting is premature,” she said. She also raised concerns that “the proposed focus areas relate solely to the council not the administration”, suggesting the scope needed to be more carefully defined. Cr Jacqueline Raison pointed to governance processes already in place and said issues of this nature would ordinarily be considered through the audit and risk framework. Ms McGowan declined to provide direct advice as she said it was not in her role to do so. “There are issues afoot at the moment,” she said. “It’s a balancing act for you.” She said once the meeting had concluded she would talk further to council.