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The news was delivered from the council’s head of governance via email: Melton councillor Ashleigh Vandenberg would be suspended from her position for two months, and forced to complete social media policy training over a series of “misleading” Facebook posts she made last year that brought discredit on her colleagues.
Not to be deterred, Vandenberg, within days, had doubled down, publicly repeating one of the claims for which she had been sanctioned – that the council was using AI to monitor residents’ social media activity – and even upping the ante on her original post, which had likened Melton Council to Big Brother.
“I will be seeking action and find out how many other residents are being monitored by their own council,” Vandenberg posted on her official Facebook page on Thursday night.
Vandenberg’s suspension will be formalised on Monday night, when an independent arbiter’s report is tabled at Melton Council’s next meeting. It is the latest twist in a spiralling conflict entangling the council, a former state government minister and Vandenberg’s partner.
Then there are court cases and, further down the road, a potentially uncomfortable intervention in a key marginal seat at this year’s state election.
Vandenberg, a long-standing Labor Party member, has urged voters to put Labor last in November and says she will run as an independent in the seat of Sydenham, held by retiring former minister for treaty and Aboriginal affairs Natalie Hutchins with a margin of just 1.8 per cent.
Her tilt comes after Hutchins publicly attacked Vandenberg’s long-term partner, Simon Vallone, in state parliament this month, accusing him of having “lied about being Aboriginal” to gain paid roles meant for First Nations people.
Vandenberg, a Wiradjuri and Nari-Nari woman, said Hutchins’ statement was “a baseless attempt” to harm her family.
She also vowed to seek a judicial review of her suspension from the council in the Supreme Court.
The arbiter’s report found she had brought Melton Council into disrepute, disrespected another councillor and misled residents.
“Without foundation, she made various posts implying corruption within council. She posted misleading material relating to the council and issues within the municipality. She used social media to unfairly target a colleague,” arbiter Diana Price wrote. “These are serious matters, and in my view a period of suspension is required.”
The ruling follows a complaint brought against Vandenberg by eight of Melton’s nine other sitting councillors.
Vandenberg’s suspension, and her rebel campaign against Labor, caps a sustained period of intense personal and political conflict on Melton City Council, which is one of a dwindling number of Labor-majority councils in Melbourne’s outer west and north.
Vandenberg told The Age last week that she would run as an independent candidate for Hutchins’ seat of Sydenham, against Labor candidate Uros Rasic.
“Due to the reluctance of politicians to get things done in the community and the parachuting of Uros Rasic not only as the candidate but also the Vic Labor party president, I will be running as an independent representing our community and as part of the rank and file,” Vandenberg said.
Labor held Sydenham with 51.8 per cent of the vote after preferences in 2022, but the seat is believed to be among dozens vulnerable to surging support for One Nation in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, according to seat-by-seat modelling by RedBridge, which was presented to Trades Hall earlier this year.
The outer-urban seat of Melton, which is Labor’s on a margin of 4.5 per cent, is also a key battleground for the Allan government as it seeks a fourth term at the same time as it struggles for ascendancy in the polls.
Vandenberg has previously been supported by Hutchins, who oversaw Victoria’s treaty process. But Hutchins used parliamentary privilege to condemn Vandenberg’s partner on June 2.
“He used that fake, false claim to take up senior roles that were meant for First Nations people in this state,” Hutchins said.
“He assumed cultural authority, he benefited from systems built to support Aboriginal [and] Torres Strait Islander communities after generations of exclusion and dispossession. This is not a mistake with paperwork. It’s identity theft.”
Vandenberg said Hutchins’ parliamentary statement was “nothing more than a baseless attempt to cause my family further harm and not be able to seek employment.
“A former First Nations minister publicly targeting a First Nations family is all you need to see to know how destructive it is within the Victorian Labor branch at current and why we need change,” she said.
The Age does not suggest Vallone’s claimed Aboriginal identity is false. Hutchins made the allegation under parliamentary privilege and the allegation has been denied.
Hutchins told The Age that her attack on Vallone’s claimed Aboriginal identity was based on conversations she had with some of his family members and with traditional owners.
She said Vandenberg was a local councillor who “needs to get on with her job”.
Vallone, who claims Italian and Wiradjuri descent, is a former senior adviser on Aboriginal cultural safety in the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. He was expelled from the ALP in July 2025 after an internal tribunal found that he had bullied and harassed Labor-aligned Melton councillor Phillip Zada.
His “abusive conduct”, through Facebook posts, emails and texts, included “threatening and obscene language” and bullying of an “overt, ugly and unabating nature”, the tribunal found.
Prior to his expulsion, Vallone was president of the Victorian Labor Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Committee.
He faces a mention in Sunshine Magistrates Court next week for having allegedly breached a public safety intervention order taken out by Zada.
Vandenberg was also found in the arbiter’s report to have disrespected Zada on social media, after labelling his move to wear a T-shirt supporting a community campaign for new traffic lights “not professional nor was it acceptable”.
Zada had been given council approval to wear the “Leakes Needs Lights” T-shirt at a council meeting. Zada declined to comment when contacted by The Age.
Vandenberg took her AI claim further on Thursday night, saying Melton Council “has been referred to VCAT by the Office of the Victorian Information Commission on behalf of a resident for breaching the Privacy and Data Protection Act”.
A Melton Council spokesperson said the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner had received a privacy complaint about the council in August 2025.
The office “declined to entertain the complaint on their view that the complaint was misconceived”, and the complainant referred the matter to VCAT.
“The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner must refer the matter where this notice is given by a complainant and does not indicate that the complaint has any merit. Importantly, OVIC is not party to the matter currently before VCAT,” the council spokesperson said.
On Friday night, Vandenberg’s partner posted a video on his public Facebook page. In an animated monologue, he labelled the eight Melton councillors who took action against his partner “morons” and stated he was the one who had been tracked using AI, asserting that the arbiter’s report risked perverting the course of justice.
“Diana Price, I’d appreciate you revoking that arbitration application. If not, we’ll just be at court ourselves,” he said.
Vallone’s claim is listed for compulsory conference at VCAT in August.
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