Why is that this e book banned? | The Day-to-day Aus

So this week a western Sydney Council voted to remove material about samesex parenting from its Library shelves now this is a story that has been everywhere this week and it essentially came after a local counselor claimed he had received multiple complaints about this specific library book that is about samex parenting and in the end that band.

Ended up passing in a 65 vote this feels like a really American conversation to be having it's weird to be talking about book bands in Australia yeah can we start by talking about the actual book that's in question here yes so the children's book is called samex parents by Holly doig um I went to look up the book and found a blur and also a bit of.

A preview of the book so I'll quote the blurb first to give you a sense of what the book is actually about it says every family is different and unique this title explores what it's like having two Ms or two dads offers answers to curious questions from peers and shows how all families love each other regardless of gender I then looked at the preview of.

The book online and the page that's on the preview is about weddings it's set out very much like a children's book it is a children's book I think it's aimed between the ages of five and seven years old right um and on this page it says my dad and Daddy are husbands they got married when I was five I was the bridesmaid and it has a graphic of a.

Young person and then the two dads in it um a bit more about the author she's written other children's books I found a couple of them they're about change and resilience there are a lot about space every single space topic you could think of um and a couple about animals as well and so the case being put forward by this local counselor is that this book.

Had complaints right yeah so Cumberland City councelor Steve Christo said that he had received complaints from parents about this same-sex Parents book um I will just add though that based on interviews he wasn't making clear how many complaints he'd actually received so we don't know that exact number he then called for vote to strip.

Cumberland's eight libraries of same-sex parents books and materials on the matter he said and I'll quote him here our kids shouldn't be exposed to sexualized behavior through same-sex parent books he said that the book goes against his community's religious beliefs and family values do you think it's important to add here before we go.

On that the city Morning Herald specifically asked him if he had read the book uh he said no he said I have not I've been very open about that but he is the one that led this call and the motion for the books to be banned right so he's referenced there the beliefs of his community he's on Cumberland City Council can you give me a sense of the.

Demographics in that Council area um for anyone who's perhaps not in Sydney and doesn't know that area yeah so cin is the local city council for suburbs including Granville and Regent Park so it's in Sydney's west 2third of the community speaks a language other than English at home with a total of 67 languages spoken across Cumberland.

In terms of the religious breakdown and I only mention this because he specifically said that this book went against his community's religious beliefs yeah uh 40% of the community identifies as Christian so that's a clear majority 22% identifies as Muslim and 10% are Hindu and to provide a bit more context to the council itself and I.

Hadn't put two and two together it's the same Council that banned drag queen story time events at libraries and Halls earlier this year and Christo was the counselor who seconded that particular motion so this isn't I'd say an unprecedented move by this Council they have had similar discussions in the past so it went to a vote at the local.

Council it ended up passing 65 we've talked about those for arguments what were people saying against hello I'm James and I produced the video you're watching if you're enjoying what you're watching we'd love it if you considered subscribing and checking us out on our other platforms it would really help in getting the word out about what we're.

Doing here at TDA thanks very much and now back to the Deep dive yeah so you're right five councilors voted against the ban and that included the council's mayor so the person that runs the council um but that doesn't really matter either way because there still wasn't a majority um we heard from labor counciler Diane Coleman who was one of.

The people who voted against the ban she likened the ban to old-fashioned book burning she said that it was problematic on so many levels and that Cumberland City council's motto is welcome belong succeed and and that means everyone is welcome and everyone belongs but she said the bands like this indicate that perhaps that's not the case for everyone.

Um she also called the ACT censorship so that's kind of the flavor of those who were opposing the book ban um that sentiment was really reflected by the New South Wales government so it kind of escalated up the chain here it did uh the New South Wales government got involved fairly soon after the vote passed we heard from a Minister's office.

Who confirmed to TDA that the government is considering withdrawing financial support for cumberland's life liaries in the wake of this decision uh then New South Wales Premier Chris Min was specifically asked about it here's his response to a question about the ban I just think the whole thing is ridiculous I mean it's a library you can choose to.

Read a book or not it's so it seems to me to be engineered by one of these counselors because there's an election coming up but what a joke I mean PE he should trust his own citizens enough to walk into a library and read whatever the hell they want so this has clearly gone from a local council issue that concerned liaries to a state government.

Issue now have we actually heard from the local community we have so Caroline Staples who lives in the area she describes herself as a proud grandmother to a rainbow family she has launched a petition demanding that the council should reverse the decision she said here in Western Sydney we welcome people of different backgrounds beliefs and.

Cultures she said the council motion had made her fear for the safety of the rainbow families in that community and she said that she is going to present the petition to the Council next week I just want to end with where we started which is that my first thought when going through this story was how American it felt is this something that.

We have seen in Australia before you're right it does feel like this is something we've imported from the US I mean I I obviously know that I've read a lot of stories about book Banning in the US but I wanted to know if there was any empirical evidence to back up my thinking that this had become more regular in the US and I found an article.

In the conversation that said that in the US attempts to censor books of public libraries increase by 92% from 20122 to 2023 so we're seeing exponential growth of this kind of concept and idea and act in the US but it's certainly more unusual here in Australia um it'll be interesting to see what happens next for.

Cumland city council if they are stripped of some of that funding to public libraries will that force their hand and public libraries aren't of course flush with funding to start with no so we'll have to wait and see what happens and I mean I don't know that we're on the same route as the US I hope we're not but I think that you know we.

Certainly import a lot of these kind of cultural ideas from the US so um definitely want to wait and watch and could set a precedent in this country for what happens next thanks so much for that aara and thank you for joining us on the daily o this week we always appreciate the feedback that you give us and it's been really interesting hearing.

Your thoughts on all the episodes we've been doing this week we'll be back again on Monday until then have a great weekend

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