‘Serial pest' suspended from council. Again.
Thaler, a bloke in desperate need of a hobby, has a history of relentless harassment of (mostly female) elected officials and local businesses, often targeted in crude, rambling Facebook posts and YouTube livestreams.
Despite being banned from the council chambers after a series of abusive tirades against officials, Thaler, a serial political candidate, scraped in at last year's local government elections.
He was subsequently suspended from the council by the Office of Local Government (OLG) over abusive social media posts, including one calling a fellow councillor a 'fat dumb blonde' and a 'nasty liar'.
Thaler appealed that decision to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, where he was represented by former Labor MP Adam Searle, who's seemingly become the Saul Goodman of bizarre local government snafus, last seen by CBD representing former Liberal MP John Ajaka at an inquiry into Liverpool council.
Loading
When that suspension was upheld this month, Thaler launched into yet another social media tirade, declaring that 'my crime is being a man' and accusing the council of being 'broken' and 'run by liars'.
This week, he was suspended again for misconduct by the OLG over a series of Facebook posts and videos made back in March, including one which referred to a fellow councillor as a 'mad honking goose'.
It's strike two for Thaler, who will be barred from serving in local government for five years if suspended for a third time.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Perth Now
18 hours ago
- Perth Now
Killer's shocking lies before triple murder
A taekwondo instructor who confessed to a shocking triple murder in Sydney's west has confirmed his pleas as he gets set to learn his fate. Kwang Kyung Yoo, 51, earlier this year pleaded guilty to murdering Min Cho, 41, and a seven-year-old child at Yoo's North Parramatta taekwondo studio as well as Ms Cho's husband, Steven Cho, 39, at his Baulkham Hills home in February last year. A statement of agreed facts tendered to the court do not state Yoo's motivation for the horrific murders. However, they do reveal that in the lead-up he lied to his wife that he was being given a BMW as a work car and instead took Ms Cho's BMW X5 after killing her. The court documents also reveal he was obsessed with wealth and had told lies about his academic credentials and having competed at the Olympics. Yoo confirmed his three guilty pleas in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Friday. 'Yes,' Yoo said, appearing from prison via videolink, as he confirmed he would plea guilty to each murder. Yoo hung his head during Friday's mention in the Supreme Court. Kwang Kyung Yoo murdered three people. Credit: Supplied Yoo falsely claimed he competed at the Olympics. Facebook Credit: Supplied Yoo ran the Lion's Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy at North Parramatta and was known to his students as 'Master Lion' at the time of the horrific triple murder. According to court documents, in January last year, he lied to his wife when he told her that a primary school – where he had a part-time job – was giving him a BMW as a work car. In the 11 days leading up to the horrific murders, Yoo was captured on CCTV driving into the complex where the Cho family lived in his grey Toyota Camry on five occasions The court was told that about 6.22pm on February 19, after the other parents and students had left his taekwondo studio, Yoo strangled Ms Cho in a storeroom before dragging her body into the office. Later that evening, he was captured on CCTV taking Ms Cho's car keys before he later called his wife to say his new BMW had arrived. 'The car has arrived,' he told her during a brief phone call. Murder victims Min Cho and her husband Steven. Supplied Credit: Supplied He then killed the seven-year-old boy in the storeroom by strangling him. At 8.48pm, he drove Ms Cho's BMW X5 away from the scene to her Baulkham Hills townhouse where he broke in. Mr Cho returned home and was stabbed to death by Yoo, with blows to the head, neck and chest. Mr Cho stabbed Yoo in self-defence but was killed in the altercation. Yoo returned to his studio and called his wife, saying: 'I've been stabbed with a knife.' He drove to Westmead Hospital and was treated for a collapsed lung and stab wounds. He claimed to police that he had been stabbed by three people in the carpark of a North Parramatta Woolworths; however, officers quickly established that was a lie after viewing CCTV footage. Police searched Ms Cho's BMW, which Yoo had driven to hospital, and found traces of blood inside. Mr Cho's body was discovered the next day when friends became concerned and went to the couple's home. Police then went to the Lion's Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy, where they noticed blood on the front steps before the bodies of Ms Cho and the boy were found inside. Yoo's taekwondo studio where two bodies were discovered. NewsWire / Gaye Gerard Credit: News Corp Australia Police outside the Chos' Baulkham Hills home. NewsWire/Gaye Gerard. Credit: News Corp Australia 'During the investigation, police obtained evidence that suggested that the offender (Yoo) had interests in luxury items, social status and wealth,' the court documents state. Police found evidence of Yoo inspecting properties and falsely telling agents that he was acting on behalf of his wealthy employer or his parents who had a budget of up to $50m. He showed the mother of one of his students a picture that he falsely claimed was taken from his home with Harbour Bridge views. He had further lied about owning property in Sydney's eastern suburbs and luxury cars and that he holidayed in New York and California. Yoo also told people, including his wife and sister, that he had a master's degree and PHD from Macquarie University and The University of Sydney. However, both institutions had no record of him. He was also found to have lied about competing in taekwondo at the 2000 Olympics. Yoo will appear in court again next week when a date will be set for sentence proceedings.

ABC News
20 hours ago
- ABC News
Government backflip on YouTube social media ban is one of Olympic proportions
As any gymnast will tell you, it's not easy landing a backflip, and as any politician will tell you, a political backflip is harder again. It's also less likely that people will applaud you when you land, even if you nail it. The government's announcement this week that YouTube would be included in the teen social media ban is a political backflip of Olympic proportions, and its first since the election. In late April, the then-minister for communications, Michelle Rowland, was still doubling down on her commitment to the company's CEO to do the exact opposite, citing YouTube's educational benefits and community expectations, but little else. A spokesperson for Ms Rowland told the ABC in April the decision "was made in November last year, publicly stated in a media release and reflected in the second reading of the legislation". "That decision has been made and there has been zero reconsideration or communication to suggest otherwise," the spokesperson said. Three months on, the new minister, Annika Wells, is just as resolute that YouTube will in fact be part of the ban, citing strongly worded advice from the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant in late June. "The eSafety Commissioner's advice was clear," Ms Wells told Question Time in Parliament on Wednesday. "Four out of 10 Australian kids have had their most recent or most harmful experience on YouTube," she said. "On top of that, YouTube uses the same persuasive design features as other social media platforms like infinite scroll… auto-play and algorithmic feeds." Despite the famed difficulty of publicly changing your mind in politics, the government seems to have pulled off the manoeuvre with a surprising amount of grace. It could have been a more awkward landing if their final position was less well supported by the eSafety Commissioner, policy experts, and the well-documented harm being visited upon younger YouTube users. Additionally, the fact Ms Rowland had said so little about her reasons for promising YouTube a carve out in the first place means Labor now finds itself with relatively few words to eat. But no landing is perfect. At their media conference on Wednesday morning, Ms Wells and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were asked what might be the biggest question of all on social media policy, by a somewhat frustrated Mark Riley from Seven News: "Parents will be hearing this and thinking it's a great thing to limit kids' access to this harmful content, but they'll also be asking, 'why is that harmful content there in the first place?' If any of us in our media organisations were to publish or broadcast this stuff, we'd be straight up in front of ACMA or the courts, justifiably. When will the day come when governments can stop these organisations allowing this stuff to be posted in the first place?" "That's a great question, Mark," Ms Wells began, displaying immaculate technique for the judges. "… and ultimately one for the social media platforms to answer," she continued. Usually, thrusting responsibility solely back into the hands of social media giants is not a bad political instinct. But to do so at a press conference otherwise devoted to "cracking down" on those same companies is a different kind of gymnastics — it's contortion. After all, the teen social media ban depends on the assumption that the government can force social media companies to change their dealings with Australians, and that asking nicely won't achieve the desired result. So when faced with the question: "Why is the harmful content there at all and when will governments intervene?", it was arguably the perfect moment for the new minister to mention the government's own plan, announced in November last year, to implement a Digital Duty of Care on social media companies. The Digital Duty of Care is designed to place an obligation on social media companies themselves to actively prevent foreseeable harms to Australian users of all ages. Launching the policy eight months ago, Ms Rowland described it as "a shift away from reacting to harms…. and moving towards systems-based prevention". It was one of more than 60 recommendations made by Delia Rickard after a year-long statutory review of the Online Safety Act. But unlike the teen social media ban, it has rarely been mentioned in public since it was first announced. The government's reticence on the proposal this year has prompted quiet speculation among policy experts that it would never materialise, but Ms Wells told the ABC the government was still committed to legislating the change. "I'm looking forward to doing more work on it," Ms Wells told 7:30 this week, before adding: "I'm still a new minister". Neither Ms Wells nor her predecessor have given a timeline for implementing the change. The government is also yet to reveal when it will respond to the rest of Delia Rickard's recommendations. As for why the minister opted not to mention the government's own policy when the opportunity came on Wednesday morning, it's worth remembering how tricky these political backflips can be. Bringing up an eight-month-old plan that hasn't visibly progressed since it was first announced comes with its own risks. With a new minister in the portfolio and less than three months before the teen social media ban comes into effect, it might be a while still before the government is eager to broach the topic unprompted.


West Australian
21 hours ago
- West Australian
Sydney Harbour Bridge pro-Palestine protest: Supreme Court to rule on march plan opposed by NSW police and Minns
Civil rights groups have hit out against a premier who said his city would 'descend into chaos', with protesters vowing to march across a national landmark to put a spotlight on the starvation of millions of people in Gaza. Thousands of people were expected to join the Sydney Harbour Bridge procession on Sunday to protest Israel's war on the blockaded enclave, before police confirmed they would not permit it. NSW Police has taken court action to categorise it as unlawful and unauthorised, with the matter is listed for 12.30pm on Friday in the Supreme Court. Organising group Palestine Action Group Sydney has vowed to rally regardless, without specifying where, of the court outcome, ending a Facebook post with 'whatever happens, see you on Sunday'. At the same time, five NSW Labor MPs are amongst a 15-strong group of politicians planning to march on Sunday. 'We the undersigned members of the NSW Parliament support, and will attend, Sunday's March for Humanity and Palestine across the harbour bridge,' they said in a joint statement. 'We call upon the NSW government to work with the organisers to facilitate a safe and orderly event, on Sunday 3 August, or on some other agreed date.' Premier Chris Minns, who has blamed demonstrators for draining police resources for nearly two years in their facilitation of weekly protests in the city's centre, said he 'cannot allow Sydney to descend into chaos'. NSW has a permit system that allows protest participants to block public roads and infrastructure, but police can go to court to deny permission. But in an open letter, lawyers have again questioned NSW's protest laws and argued they run contrary to Australia's civil rights obligations under an international treaty. 'As a party to the core United Nations human rights treaties, Australia has recognised that freedom of assembly is a fundamental human right and, in consequence, NSW must protect it,' Australian Lawyers for Human Rights vice president Kerry Weste said. 'The right of peaceful assembly extends to all gatherings for peaceful purposes, wherever they take place. and regardless of whether they occur in the form of demonstrations, protests, meetings, processions, rallies, sit-ins, candle-lit vigils or even flash mobs.' The number of Palestinians killed during the war on Gaza is more than 60,000, according to local health authorities, while dozens of people are reported by the United Nations to have died in recent weeks due to starvation. Israel's military campaign began after militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people and taking more than 251 hostages. The bridge has previously been shut down, including for a reconciliation rally in 2000, which attracted more than 250,000 people, a World Pride event attended by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and a Hollywood film production.