Victorian councillor Tosh-Jake Finnigan has released a statement explaining how they recently came to be tasered by police after a recent council meeting.
Finnigan serves on the council of the Colac Otway Shire. Prior to being elected to local government as an independent councilor Finnigan founded the Restore Democracy Sack Dan Andrews Party and ran unsuccessfully in the state election.
They first game to prominence as a whistleblower in the 2015 ‘Red Shirts’ scandal that found Labor MPs were using public funds to pay staffers to undertake party campaigning. Last year they voiced their support for former Liberal MP Moira Deeming.
In a statement the councillor said they had no recollection of the event but had now received the medical treatment they needed.
“I suffer from a number of mental illnesses, including Borderline Personality Disorder, Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and others, and like one would for any other chronic illness, I receive treatment, take medication, and have undergone therapy to better manage the impacts.
“Courtesy of the in-depth therapy I’ve previously received, I have learned many skills which have enabled me to best manage my illnesses and maintain a relatively “high-functioning” baseline, but sometimes, things can go awry, and I can become quite unwell.”
Councillor Finnigan said a council meeting in late February was one of those occasions where things did get off track.
“During Wednesday evening’s Colac Otway Shire Council meeting, I suffered from a mental health emergency, which required the postponement of the meeting, and the attendance of emergency services.
“Though I have no recollection of the meeting past an early agenda item, I am told when an item was made confidential on the fly as I was asking questions, my demeanour changed markedly, stating that I was being gagged, before placing a post-it note adorned with the word “GAGGED” over my mouth and remaining unresponsive for the rest of the meeting.
“After the meeting was adjourned matters escalated, and I ended up hurting myself. At this point emergency services were called, and upon their arrival, police elected to deploy the use of a taser to prevent me from further harming myself, and I was sent to hospital in Geelong via ambulance for emergency treatment.
“Upon discharge from Geelong Hospital I was referred to a community mental health team, and am continuing treatment from home, with a view to a future inpatient admission when there is a space available.
“As I have announced with my business, I will be taking a step back from some aspects of my council duties, including physical full-time attendance at briefings and council meetings until I am well enough to return full-time.
“I care deeply about my community and will still be making an effort to help ratepayers and residents with their issues.” the councillor said.
OIP Staff
You can support our work by subscribing to our Patreon
or contributing to our GoFundMe campaign.
