A Rainbow Advisory Committee has been set up in Whittlesea, despite objection from the mayor.
Councillors endorsed the establishment of the committee, adopted its terms of reference and nominated two councillors to sit on the committee during the February 18 council meeting.
Council’s community wellbeing director Agata Chmielewski told the meeting that the council’s administrators had resolved to create the committee following a petition to council in May 2024, signed by 12 people.
Cr Lawrie Cox nominated Cr David Lenberg as council’s representative on the committee, with Cr Blair Colwell as his proxy.
He said the LGBTIQA+ community was a “strong community within our community and within our staff”.
Mayor Aidan McLindon disagreed with the committee’s formation, adding that he didn’t believe it was a “local government issue” and questioned whether it should be created off the back of a petition signed by 12 people.
“I firmly believe our focus needs to be roads, rates and rubbish and do the basics brilliantly,” he said.
“I do believe services are in place to help these people.
“Our childcare centres, kindergartens and primary schools need to let our kids be kids and adults be adults.”
When Cr Colwell raised a point of order to question the relevance of kindergartens to the committee, Cr McLindon said he believed kindergartens would be enveloped in the committee.
“We need to find out if the committee will take in children,” he said.
During the debate Cr McLindon issued two warnings to Cr Cox, whom he said was “making statements designed to embarrass council or the mayor” after Cr Cox said the mayor had failed to rule on the point of order and had instead debated the issue.
As tension flared, council chief executive Craig Lloyd was forced to step in and urge Cr McLindon to not escalate the situation.
