By JOLENE OGLE
NOOSA Council held a third touring Information Night at Council Chambers, with locals on Wednesday night raising an array of issues including same-sex marriage which was again thrown onto the agenda.
Local architect and equal rights activist Robin Bristow along with fellow supporter and activist Alex Baker asked Noosa Councillors whether they personally supported same-sex marriage.
Councillors Sandy Bolton, Frank Pardon, Frank Wilkie and Joe Jurisevic all agreed they supported equal rights across all platforms, while Cr Tony Wellington said he had previously lobbied for equal marriage rights and was a supporter of same-sex marriage.
However, speaking on local radio this morning, Mr Bristow said the general response from attendees at the information night was not supportive.
“I got the feeling from what the rest of the public had to say, they were very uncomfortable discussing this matter,” he said.
“They were not in favour of the council looking at issues outside the scope of council. So I can see why the council is worried. We have an older, conservative community in Noosa and they generally tend to be unaccepting of these kinds of things which is even more the point why the council should act on this.”
Mr Bristow has previously asked the council to support a movement by local governments to petition the State and Federal governments to support same-sex marriage.
To date, more than 40 councils throughout Australia have joined the movement including Byron Bay, which was the first council to do so.
Until last night, the Noosa Council and councillors had remained silent on the issue, choosing to not comment.
Speaking with the large group of local residents, council CEO Brett de Chastel said the council’s refusal to comment on or support the same-sex movement isn’t the first or only movement the council had refused to carry.
“We are approached regularly with all sorts of requests for many different issues,” he said. “This isn’t the first one we have not supported.”
Mr de Chastel said the council was in a “re-building” stage and was busy focusing on issues the council had control over.
