Five years after being accused of orchestrating a damaging smear campaign in a bid to sway elector votes, a former local government councillor has been cleared.
Hugh Nguyen has staunchly rejected claims he had anything to do with the creation of a pamphlet featuring critical commentary about then-fellow councillor Brett Treby, distributed to thousands of homes in Landsdale ahead of the 2019 WA local government election.
Cr Hugh Nguyen (right) rejected claims he created an election pamphlet criticising fellow councillor Brett Treby (left)Credit: Composite image
“I have no idea who made it; if I knew, I would have told the court,” he told WAtoday.
“We may never find out.”
Before the 2019 elections, Nguyen, who was not then up for re-election, was the campaign manager for two candidates, Vinh Nguyen (no relation) and Siham Carollissen (now Benz), who both ran against Treby for the other South Ward spot, and created them a set of campaign materials each.
It was around this time an unknown person distributed the controversial pamphlet.
The WA Electoral Commission later charged the then-South Ward councillor and lawyer with “distributing electoral material without the name and address of the person”, a charge that carries a $2000 penalty.
Five years on Nguyen said he felt exonerated by Joondalup Magistrate Raelene Johnston’s not-guilty verdict, handed down on June 19.
He also said there was still no love lost between himself and Treby.
“It all comes down to envy and jealousy... I’ve got nothing personal against him, but it was a childish campaign,” he said.
After the verdict he took to Facebook to tell his 2000 followers the charges against him were “politically motivated” and pushed by individuals with “ulterior motives”.
A Landsdale resident made a complaint to the WA Electoral Commission after receiving a pamphlet containing defamatory material against then-Wanneroo election candidate Brett Treby.
Despite the damage the pamphlet apparently intended to Treby’s reputation, he had the last laugh, winning the election with 13.43 per cent of the votes in front of the two candidates Nguyen had been managing.
“[The pamphlet] was indeed defamatory,” Treby told this masthead.
“But having to prove damages would mean that I had some detrimental cause against me and the reality was, so many people were offended, I won the election.
“People were so outraged that it threw them towards supporting me.
“At the end of the day it’s water under the bridge, life moves on.”
He was later elected by the council as deputy mayor from 2021-23 when he retired from his seat – ending a more than two-decade career on council that included a stint as acting mayor.
Nguyen held his seat from 2013 to 2021, returning to throw his hat in the ring at the 2023 mayoral election, which lost to current Mayor Linda Aitken.
He is not quite prepared to let the matter drop, writing on social media, “I have formally reported the matter to the Corruption & Crime Commission of WA and will be requesting them to review the matter in light of the court’s decision yesterday.”
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