Two code of conduct complaints, lodged by councillor Jess Jennings and Bathurst resident Sandy Bathgate, were discussed during the confidential session of Wednesday night's meeting, which concluded just before 10pm.

Having considered the investigation report from the independent reviewer into allegations from Mr Bathgate, council will formally censure Cr Christian under Section 440G of the Local Government Act.

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In announcing the decision at the meeting on Wednesday night, council general manager David Sherley said the reasons for the censure by council included that Cr Christian allowed three untrue statements, posted by a user named Robert Throng, to remain on his public Facebook page for longer than two weeks.

Cr Christian also posted an image on his Facebook page on March 11, 2021 from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, depicting tanks labelled "dithering", "censorship", "anti-business" and "political correctness" facing an individual labelled as himself, who was referred to as "the silent majority's voice".

The image was deemed "violent" and "offensive", and "suggests that others in Bathurst, particularly other councillors, to whom it clearly is directed, amongst others, used violent means against Cr Christian".

Cr Christian was found to have breached four clauses of the social media policy, and three clauses in the code of conduct, being 3.1 (a, b, e, and g), 3.8, and 3.10 (a, b, c, and g).

Regarding the code of conduct complaint from Cr Jennings, council resolved to defer any further consideration of the matter pending a supplementary report from the investigator.

The report would address the receipt of additional information from the chairman of two council meetings this year, and others who were in attendance.

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