Secrecy over Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s approval of Harry Potter-themed event at The Briars nature reserve

The granting of permission by Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula Shire Council for entertainment giant Warner Bros. and events company Fever permission to hold an interactive Harry Potter-themed at The Briars nature reserve has been questioned by local residents and transparency advocates.

Councillors have been required to sign non-disclosure agreements in relation to the night time event, scheduled for late April, preventing them from revealing details of the event in the protected conservation park which is used to nurse injured animals back to health.

Explaining the process, a Mornington Peninsula Council spokesperson advised “the non-disclosure agreement was solely for the council vote on 22 August and referred to a requirement from Fever and Warner Bros that councillors not divulge publicly the event being considered was about Harry Potter.

“There was no requirement for councillors to sign the non-disclosure agreement in order to vote on whether to host the event and it did not prevent those councillors who did not sign from having access to the full council report before voting.”

However, David Gill, a longterm councillor, said when he refused to sign the agreement due to transparency concerns he was asked to leave the room while the issue was voted on.

Advising that he did not receive a full council report, he told Guardian Australia “they wanted to deal with the matter straight away.

“I didn’t have enough information to have a reason for or against whatever the event was going to be. I just don’t agree with the idea of signing an agreement and not being transparent to the public.”

Ray Yoshida, a campaigner with the Australian Democracy Network, said it was “concerning to see a multinational company imposing a non-disclosure agreement on local councillors on a matter that was clearly of great interest to their community”.

Yoshida told Guardian Australia “how can the council do meaningful consultation if they can’t even discuss the matter?

“When it comes to government decision-making, secrecy should always be the exception, not the rule.”

The Director of the Australia Institute’s democracy and accountability program, Bill Browne, said it was not clear why the non-disclosure agreement was needed and also raised concerns about transparency.

The Council spokesperson said the process of approving the event was “no different from many other commercial in confidence matters that are routinely considered by council during closed sessions.”