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CASEY councillors have been warned to keep an open mind about a Doveton mosque — and, if they cannot do so, they should ask to be excused from voting on it.

Municipal Association of Victoria chief executive Rob Spence told the Weekly councillors must put aside their personal beliefs — including religious ones — and keep an open mind on a contentious application for the mosque.

He said the Supreme Court could overturn a decision if a single councillor could be shown to have prejudged the issue.

His comments come after Cr Rosalie Crestani revealed that anti-Islam cleric Danny Nalliah had asked her to stand for his new ultra-conservative political party, Rise Up Australia, in the September federal election.

Mr Nalliah is spearheading opposition to the mosque, planned for a site next to where his own church and headquarters are being built.

Cr Crestani told the Weekly she would make up her mind on whether to run for Rise Up Australia after the application for the mosque, in an industrial area of Doveton, is heard — which is expected to be at a planning meeting next week.

Cr Crestani is one of two councillors who will consider the application who are openly anti-Islamic. In November, Casey deputy mayor Sam Aziz sought to impose a planning condition "not to preach hatred from the pulpits" on the mosque.

Cr Crestani has questioned whether the mosque would be used for military training.

Councillors cannot abstain from voting on an issue but can seek to be excused if they feel they have a conflict of interest or cannot bring an open mind to an issue. Mr Spence said the councillors' role in planning decisions was to make an administrative decision in accordance with the planning law. "The overarching obligation is to apply the principles of natural justice. You have to consider it based on the information put before you. You can't prejudge.

"You're not entitled to say, for instance, that you will not have a mosque. You can say you have concerns about traffic management or issues of over-shadowing."

A guide for councillors, released in 2010, states that in considering whether a councillor has prejudged an issue, a court would apply a test of objectivity: whether "a fair-minded and informed member of the public" would consider a decision had been made with an open mind.

The principle is known as the Winky Pop principle after a company that appealed against a Hobsons Bay Council planning decision on the grounds that a councillor had prejudged the matter. The Supreme Court found in favour of Winky Pop.

By CATHERINE WATSON
Casey Weekly - Cranbourne
March 1, 2013