Cumberland Council is facing backlash and possible legal action due to potentially being in breach of the Anti-discrimination Act by removing books from their public libraries of what councilor and former Cumberland City mayor Steve Christou claims to be ‘sexualized”.
“You have to understand that at Cumberland City Council, about 60 per cent of the community was born overseas and they have deep conservative values, family values and religious values, it doesn’t matter whether they’re Christian, Catholic, Orthodox, Islamic or Hindu,” Mr Christou said.
“We’ve had consistent complaints on these kinds of books and similar issues infiltrating our libraries from local residents.
At the centre of the debate is the book “Same sex parents” by Holly Duhig.
“Our community doesn’t want any form of sexualised books or our kids being opened up to any form of sexualisation in the libraries.” Said Mr. Christou.
“Let kids be kids, they are innocent, let them enjoy reading a book.” he said.
In response to alleged threats of government funding cuts Mr Christou also said.
“If the government wants to take away funding from one of the most socially disadvantaged communities in NSW because their democratically elected council stood up for the values which they believe represents their local community, well shame on them,”
The motion to remove the sexualised material from the public libraries and away from children, was passed 6-5 with the backing of Labor councillor Mohamad Hussein, in opposition to his party’s position and gaining the condemnation of NSW Labor minister Rose Jackson.
Labor Deputy Mayor Ola Hamed walked out at the beginning of the debate and did not participate in the vote. Privately it is reported that senior Labor ministers are upset with this move which gave Christou’s opposition group the opportunity to pass the motion
It has also been reported that there is a petition to be presented to the council with nearly 10,000 signatures against the removal of the books in debate. Which represents approximately 4.07% 0f the local government area population of 245 323.
Mr Christou also asked for the support of the community saying….
“I’m urging all residents to contact their four Labor state MPs saying ‘we expect you to fight for us and defend us’.”
“I’m committed to upholding the view of residents … this isn’t the end of the matter. We’ll see where it lands,” Christou also said.
What is your view, should a local government have the right to restrict what books are made available in a public library, based off the views of their local members or should that decision be made by state and federal governments?