NSW Councillor Defends 'Disgusting' CEO Remarks as Retaliation

A NSW councillor has defended describing his council's CEO as a "disgusting, despicable woman", telling an industrial relations tribunal that he was only responding to insults.

WARNING: This article contains racist, sexist and offensive language.

The elected councillor from Snowy Monaro Regional Council (SMRC) is the subject of a stop bullying application, brought by the Development and Environmental Professionals' Association (DEPA) on behalf of SMRC CEO Noreen Vu.

Andrew Thaler gave evidence to the commission on Tuesday morning about evidence from Ms Vu that he had sent her multiple emails since November 2025 and made multiple social media videos about her.

In frequently fiery exchanges with the barrister representing DEPA, Ian Latham quizzed Cr Thaler on whether he had used derogatory language when describing Ms Vu.

Cr Thaler admitted to using the following terms to describe Ms Vu.

"[A] calculating, conniving, unreasonable person and a liar."

"A despicable, disgusting woman ..."

"A little Vietnamese girl with a boy's name ...

"A corrupt, a bullying psychopath ..."

"That short little f****** witch."

Cr Thaler gave a range of justifications for using the terms, including saying that he was mocking her or that he was being deliberately disrespectful to someone he did not respect.

"There's a broader context you're trying to ignore or selectively truncate," Cr Thaler said.

He claimed that Ms Vu had attacked him and impugned that he was a paedophile, which was rejected by Mr Latham.

Cr Thaler said the behaviour towards Ms Vu was part of "give and receive, to and fro, attack and reply".

"If people violate limits to attack me, then those limits won't apply to me in response," he said.

"If the limits are to apply to me and no-one else, then we have a failed society."

Cr Thaler also made wide-ranging allegations against Ms Vu, SMRC Mayor Chris Hanna, SMRC staff, the United Services Union, the Office of Local Government and Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig.

'A grandstanding exercise'

During the cross-examination, the lawyer representing SMRC, Oshie Fagir, interjected twice that in using his answers to put serious allegations on the public record without supporting evidence, Cr Thaler was verging on an abuse of process.

"We're just beyond the pale. Some of the answers have been completely and utterly scandalous and non-responsive," Mr Fagir said.

Commissioner Christopher Muir said that several of the answers given by Cr Thaler were well beyond the scope of the question and that non-responsive answers were unhelpful.

In his closing submissions, Mr Latham said Cr Thaler often made belittling and grossly offensive comments to Ms Vu that were unreasonable and repeated.

"This is not an application that says criticism is not allowed in politics, because it is,"

"What is important is the way in which that criticism is made and what it is about."

But Cr Thaler's lawyer, Sharangan Maheswaran, argued Ms Vu has been unreasonable in perceiving a fear of harm or intimidation from Cr Thaler.

This included a discussion at council chambers in Cooma on January 23, 2026, as well as in comments he made to her about accountability.

He said Cr Thaler lived in a "unique and politicised environment" as an elected official and that he was stymied by her in his legitimate role as a councillor seeking information in good faith.

"Ms Vu is entitled to move a code of conduct [complaint]. She can move on any number of these things,"

Mr Fagir said accountability could be pursued by a councillor towards council staff, but it did not justify the social media posts and emails sent by Cr Thaler.

"What need is there for the kind of public castigation that occurred in this case?"

Multiple legal actions underway

Cr Thaler has been subject to multiple code of conduct complaints since being elected to SMRC in 2024.

He was suspended from council for three-month periods twice by the Office of Local Government due to alleged breaches of conduct, with the latest suspension ending in May.

A third suspension was overturned by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), but that decision is being appealed by the state government to the NSW Court of Appeal with a directions hearing listed for June 10.

If reinstated, the third suspension for misconduct would automatically disqualify Cr Thaler from holding civic office in NSW for five years.

During cross-examination, Cr Thaler confirmed that he had also been referred to NCAT later this month under the performance improvement order that SMRC had been under since February 2025.

He also confirmed a second matter involving him was being brought to the Industrial Relations Commission.

Additional written submissions will be received by Commissioner Christopher Muir before June 12, and a judgment will be delivered after that.