Mandurah Mayor Marina Vergone admits to release of drug testing letter

Mayor Vergone admitted sending the letter addressed to Mark Newman from Labor members of parliament about the federal government’s plan to drug test welfare recipients.

The letter, parts of which were released by Mr Hastie on Saturday, acknowledged concerns held by the City of Mandurah about the drug testing trials and offered to “coordinate a meeting between the City of Mandurah and the WA federal Labor MPs to discuss your concerns and proposals further”.

Mayor Vergone wrote in a since-removed Facebook post she released the letter “to highlight the fact that the City is unhappy with Mandurah being targeted as a drug testing city”.

“It was never intended to be shared publicly or to cause a rift with the CEO and councillors,” she said.

“I was also instructed by council resolution to write to various ministers stating that the City was not happy with the lack of consultation and being a chosen city for these tests.”

Mr Hastie said in the Facebook post containing a screen shot of the letter that Mr Newman was using the drug testing trials as a “political football”.

“If he wants to play politics Mark should run for Mayor, rather than use his unelected position to try and run the community in the shadows,” he wrote.

The letter was signed by three Labor federal members of parliament in response to a letter from Mr Newman highlighting concerns held by the City about the drug testing trial, which was sent to all WA federal politicians – including from the Liberal party – after a council meeting earlier this year.

But Mayor Vergone defended Mr Newman and the decision to release the letter to Mr Hastie.

“Mark was doing as instructed by the council and I’m dismayed by the comment Andrew Hastie has made,” she said.

Mr Hastie said he went public with the letter to highlight the “politicisation of our local government”.​

Mr Newman declined to comment, but a City of Mandurah spokeswoman said: “The CEO was acting on instruction from a Council resolution to write to politicians informing them of the Council decision on this matter”.

The incident comes after the contents of a letter from Mr Newman in which he detailed the City’s concerns about the drug testing trial was reported in Perth media in September.