Many of Australia’s local councils appear to be competition with each other to see which can be the most virtuous, the most woke, and the most ideologically pure.

In March, desperate shop owners and residents of the City of Port Phillip in Melbourne turned up at a council meeting and begged their elected officials to do something about the serious anti-social behaviour and crime which is making parts of Melbourne look like Downtown Los Angeles.

Some of the concerns expressed by beleaguered ratepayers included ‘harassment, assaults, fights, camping on the streets, slow or no police response, property damage, break ins, thefts, mental health episodes, open drug dealing and use, overdoses, urination, defecation, masturbation and fornication in public.’ One resident stated that he has ‘never felt more uncomfortable than walking the streets of South Melbourne.’ Urgent action is most definitely needed.

The Council does have a plan of action. To be more precise, it has an ‘LGBTIQA+ Action Plan 2023-2026’ which is currently in draft form. I’ll say this much for the plan-there is an awful lot of action being planned, though none of it will help the hardworking and beleaguered ratepayers of Port Philip.

Items include ensuring that all council workplaces will have ‘all gender’ bathrooms and changing rooms by 2025. No one shall be forced to ablute in the wrong lavatory ever again! All staff will be required to identify themselves by their pronouns, which will be drummed into them during their mandatory gender diversity and inclusion awareness training.

Insofar as the broader community is concerned, Council promises that there will more LGBTIQA+ presence at schools and in businesses. It will also give preference LGBTIQA+ owned and/or operated businesses and will continue full steam ahead with the pointless Rainbow Tick Accreditation across all council run services, but which costs hundreds of thousands of ratepayer dollars.

Speaking of dollars, Council currently spends $65,000 annually on the Midsumma Pride March.  It is also home to the second largest LGBTQI+ centre in the world. Apparently, the structure itself, which cost $50 million, was ‘inspired by an emu egg to celebrate the Boon Wurrung First Nations Indigenous people.’ Partially funded by the Victorian government along with the City of Port Phillip, the Council gifted the piece of land valued at $13 million on the understanding that 80 per cent of the building would have to be tenanted by LGBTQI organisations. Everybody else it seems, can fend for themselves.

It is telling that the Action Plan states that ‘Council acknowledges the very real struggles against disadvantage, inequality and discrimination experienced by LGBTIQA+ people. Everyone has the right to be safe, to be themselves and to lead lives free from discrimination.’ Everyone that is, except people who don’t fly the rainbow flag, so to speak.