“Shut up”, “bottle it” and “get some experience”: Baw Baw Shire Mayor Danny Goss suspended for misconduct

Baw Baw Shire Mayor Danny Goss has been suspended from the office of councillor for three weeks after an external arbiter's decision was handed down at a council meeting on Wednesday night.

Multiple former councillors lodged application about Goss’ behaviour

In May 2024, previous Baw Baw Shire councillors Annemarie McCabe, Keith Cook and Farhat Firdous lodged an application claiming Goss had breached several standards of conduct.

The councillors complained that Goss’ behaviour at several meetings last year had been “intimidating and threatening ... disrespectful”.

Arbiter Dr Lily O’Neil said in her findings at Wednesday’s council meeting that she had “determined that Cr Goss breached the relevant Standards and that therefore findings of misconduct are made out”.

According to the report, at one of these meetings Goss told other councillors to “stick to the  knitting”, a comment the application stated was “misogynistic and disrespectful”.

At a closed session during a meeting in March 2024 Goss told then-mayor McCabe that the voters in Drouin would “come after her with baseball bats” about a policy position she was taking. During a closed session the public gallery and media are removed from the meeting.

Goss told another councillor at this meeting, Jasmin Tau, to “shut up”, “bottle it” and “get some experience”.

When giving evidence about this incident, Tau said the baseball bat comment was “really crazy”, “nasty” and had been said “aggressively”.

At a council meeting in March 2025, Goss made a public apology, which he also posted about on Facebook.

Goss said that in 2024 he was “involved in a very acrimonious and bitter debate, involving all councilors at that time. In the heat of that moment I lost my temper and said some things that I deeply regret”.

He went on to offer his unreserved apology to then-mayor Annemarie McCabe and all of the councillors present at that meeting.

Goss responds to suspension in council meeting

Goss has been suspended for 21 days after the arbiter's report concluded his behaviour in 2024 council meetings resulted in “misconduct”.

In response to the arbiter’s report Goss told Wednesday night’s meeting: “To say that this is a disappointing outcome is a gross understatement … To those of you out there enjoying what they see as my public humiliation, let me assure you it is far from that. I’ll be back even more determined to make a positive difference to this shire.”

The mayor said that a “robust decision maker and a debater such as myself” knew criticism came with the territory. “I will not and cannot be broken,” he said.

He was adamant the suspension would not define him: “Out of the 625 weeks I will spend here, I will not be remembered for the next three weeks.”

Goss claimed that without the support of staff at Baw Baw Shire Council he would have resigned from the mayoral role.