‘Ridiculous’: Premier Demands Repeal of Same-Sex Book Ban

NSW Premier Chris Minns has broken his silence after a western Sydney council voted to remove a same-sex parenting book from its libraries.

NSW Premier Chris Minns speaks to media the during a press conference at NSW Parliament, Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 23, 2022. AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

New South Wales (NSW) Premier Chris Minns accused the Cumberland City Council on May 9 of using the gay community for political point-scoring over its decision to ban a book on same-sex parenting from its libraries.

Earlier this month, at its general meeting, the council voted by a small majority to remove same-sex parenting literature from the council’s library services.

However, Mr. Minns took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on May 9 to call for councillors to reverse their decision.

“Cumberland councillors need to repeal their decision to ban same-sex parenting books now,” he said.

“We should have faith in our community to choose what they read.

“It’s clear the LGBTQ+ community is being used as a political football here—leaders in our community should know better.”

Mr. Minns also posted a video to X of him addressing the media when asked about threats by the NSW Arts Minister John Graham to pull library funding in the wake of the decision.

“I just think the whole thing’s ridiculous,” he said.

“I mean, it’s a library, you can choose to read a book or not.

“It seems to me to be engineered by one of these councillors because there’s an election coming up.”

Region’s History of Defiance Against Same-Sex Topics

It’s not the first controversy that has arisen from the Cumberland region involving same-sex debates.

The division of Blaxland, which incorporates Cumberland, was the electorate with the most ‘No’ votes in 2017’s gay marriage referendum.

A majority of Blaxland residents were against same-sex marriage, with 73.9 percent voting against the proposal which was later approved after a national majority voted in favour.

Data from the 2021 Australian Census shows that while Blaxland, the greater electorate containing the Cumberland council area, has a largely Western background demographic, Cumberland itself is a heavily migrant community.

Chinese and Lebanese communities make up the top two populous cultural backgrounds in the region.

Data also shows the most common countries of birth for people in Cumberland as India, China, Lebanon, Nepal and Afghanistan, with 73.4 percent of people coming from two parents born overseas.

The multicultural background of the Cumberland region was one reason put forth by mayor-turned-councillor Steve Christou, who put the book-banning motion forward.

He told media that residents of the community had wanted the book removed, and that people in Cumberland had a different cultural mix and different family values.

On Wednesday, he shared a post to his X profile, where a user had named him a “legend” for making the move to ban the same-sex parenting book and all other books of a similar nature.

The debate has raged heavily on X over the book ban, with supporters heralding it as a win for conservative values, while opponents have attacked the move as hatred and censorship.

The councillors who voted for the motion were Steve Christou, Greg Cummings, Paul Garrard, Helen Hughes, Mohamad Hussein, and Michael Zaiter.

Against the motion were councillors Diane Colman, Glenn Elmore, Kun Huang, Lisa Lake, and Suman Saha.