Victorian Greens back Alysia Regan after alleged Kingston Council outburst

Alysia Regan, who is running in the Euroa electorate in northern Victoria, was allegedly seen disrupting the April Kingston Council meeting before resigning from her job with the council the next day.

During the meeting, deputy mayor Sarah O’Donnell raised concerns that councils could be required to shoulder the cost of renaming streets, beaches parks and locations named after Europeans to Indigenous names following the state government’s Treaty being signed into law.

Under the Treaty, the First People’s Assembly will be empowered to oversee place naming reforms.

Ms Regan, of Beaumaris, who was employed as a team leader of a Kingston Council child care program, began yelling “incoherently” as Ms O’Donnell was speaking, according to witnesses.

Initially refusing to leave when asked to by staff, Ms Regan – who was nominated for Kingston’s woman of the year award in 2024 – continued to interrupt debate with “rambles” before she was eventually shepherded out of the meeting.

Ms Regan was to be imminently stood down pending an investigation by the council’s HR department, sources confirmed, but she resigned from her council-paid position the day after the incident.

The Victorian Greens have backed their candidate – who unsuccessfully ran for the minor party in the federal division of Indi in 2022 – and denied allegations Ms Regan was intoxicated after witnesses reported her smelling of alcohol.

“Alysia’s reaction was completely understandable in the context of the offensive commentary about reconciliation with First Nations communities that she was responding to,” a spokesman said.

“We stand by her as a Greens candidate.”

Ms Regan and the Greens did not respond to questions regarding an apology for her behaviour.

The debate was subsequently deferred to the May council meeting, where Ms O’Donnell said the cost of changing names could reach into the millions of dollars.

“Is this just another purple bin that is being rolled out by the state government?” she said.

Cr Georgia Erevnidis said the reconciliation strategy could also open the door to new spending on staffing positions, training and other “future financial obligations that remain undefined”.

Cr Caroline White described Victoria’s Treaty as “fundamentally undemocratic”, raising concerns that Treaty-like negotiations around land use and property rights may flow from adopting the strategy.

Under Victoria’s Treaty local councils are not required by law to enter into localised treaties with localised tribes, and the reconciliation strategy did not commit council to entering into a local Treaty process.

However, Ms Erevnidis said the policy “clearly positions Kingston Council closer to future treaty participation tomorrow” that could lock council into future spending commitments.

A number of councillors spoke in favour of the policy, with Cr Tony Athanasopoulos calling the policy an opportunity to work “arm in arm” with Kingston’s First Nations community, while Cr Chris Hill said the majority of the community supported the policy.

The reconciliation strategy was ultimately adopted.