By Victoria Stone-Meadows
Casey Council is wading into areas of federal policy for the second time in as many council meetings- this time speaking on marriage equality.
Conservative councillor Rosalie Crestani will raise a motion at the general council meeting on Tuesday 1 August, calling on council to oppose changes to the Marriage Act.
The move comes in the wake of council calling for the reintroduction of National Conscription, which motion drew a backlash.
The motion to be raised on Tuesday calls on council to specifically write to two federal Liberal politicians, WA Senator Dean Smith and NSW Lower House MP Trent Zimmerman, who have spoken in favour of marriage equality.
Cr Crestani said she had the backing of her community in urging Casey Council to stand opposed to changing the Marriage Act to allow same-sex couples to marry.
She said members of the Casey community had contacted her, saying they felt like they were not having their views heard without a national plebiscite on the issue.
“This is a response from the community that over several months and years of people approaching me and being in discussion with various parts of community who have expressed concerns,” she said.
“People are concerned the government is not honouring the promise they made to them and the reality is people feel robbed of a choice.”
The decision to raise this issue at council has drawn criticism from many people on social media, but Cr Crestani said she was representing the views of the community.
“Without having millions of dollars to survey everyone, I can only go by what I know, and that is of those I speak to, 99 times out of 100 people support the act as it is.”
“That is right across the community, encompassing all of the faith communities that make up a significant part of Casey.”
While Cr Crestani is hopeful her motion will have support from other councillors, other members of Casey Council have been quick to speak against it.
Councillor Wayne Smith has said he would not support this motion and was also a vocal opponent of council’s push for national conscription.
“Just like conscription, this is not a local government thing,” he said.
“If I thought I could get away with getting a motion up with us that goes the other way, I would have done it years ago, but I don’t believe it’s council’s place to rule on issues we can’t influence.”
Cr Smith said writing to federal politicians, opposing any changes to the Marriage Act will not only make no difference, but will cause undue division in the community.
“Us writing an letter is not going to have one iota of effect,” he said.
“No matter what decision we make, we are going to alienate a section of the community; we have got a huge LGBTIQ community and if this goes through, they will feel much worse and it will cause a lot of angst for the pro-marriage act people, too.”
“My view is why set up division when there doesn’t need to be, especially when it is not going to have any effect on the level where it matters.”
Cr Crestani said other councils around the state, including neighbouring Cardinia Shire, had set a precedence by passing resolutions to support marriage equality, and Casey was free to speak on the issue.
“Why shouldn’t Casey, as the largest and leading council, have a strong say on this?” she said.
“Many councils have flown that blooming rainbow flag without consulting their communities, so why shouldn’t Casey have a say either way?”
Cr Crestani will be moving the motion along with a petition of 500 signatures to support her cause, but Cr Smith said a petition didn’t represent everyone in the community.
“If I went out to do a petition, I could get as many if not more who support a change to the act; petitions are easy to get,” he said.
“That just ignores the fact our having an opinion is not going to have effect where it needs to, and it’ll just cause division in the community.”
This is not the first time Cr Crestani has attracted controversy with her views on rights for LGBTIQ people.
In 2014, she staged an unsuccessful attempt to have any council support for LGBTIQ people shut down and just last month led a successful charge against the State Government’s ‘building respectful relationships’ and ‘safe schools’ programs.
