The three Rs of Council business – Rates, Rubbish and Roads – now includes Religion. Judging from the social media squall, no one is happy.
In March, the Queensland State government handed down its latest version of best practice standing orders for local government meetings in which public prayer is no longer included. In order to comply with the document, councillors on the Southern Downs had to decide whether to adopt best practice or vote to continue to include public prayer as part of the monthly meetings.
“When the policy was coming up from staff, that was a discussion point, so we knew that it was going to be debated at the meeting,” Mayor Hamilton commented to The Town & Country Journal.
The motion, to be clear, was never to abolish prayers and condolences for the recently departed on the Southern Downs, but to move prayers and condolences to five minutes before the official start of council meetings. In that way, any members of the public, council staff or councillors who did not want to participate in Christian prayer, could leave the room.
“At yesterday's council meeting, we discussed the placement of prayer within our proceedings. Despite concerns raised in our community, no councillor proposed removing prayer altogether,” Cr Joel Richters posted.
Alan Colyer, a self-described Minister of Religion, posted – erroneously – that the Mayor was behind the motion to comply with State guidelines and urged some councillors to be voted out.
Mr Colyer’s post contrasts with Fiona Gray who posted that the act of prayer brings “harmonious interactions” and “respect” between people.
“Prayer is an integral part of our meetings,” Cr Russell Wantling wrote on his official Facebook page, which he described as “deciated [sic] to my time as councillor.”
Cr Richters, who voted to move prayer to immediately before the meeting, posted that he believes “it is important to respect the rights of individuals who may not wish to participate in a religious prayer, as this aligns with principles outlined in the Human Rights Act. For this reason, I voted against including prayer in the formal part of our meetings.
“I want to clarify that I am a Christian who attends church, more so than many of my council colleagues. My decision not to support the motion yesterday was motivated by a desire to uphold respect for diversity of belief and personal choice.”
Cr Richters, and probably all of his colleagues, would now like to “focus on the issues that are important for our region’s growth.
What happened in chambers:
In last week’s ordinary meeting of Council, it was recommended that council “adopt the amended and updated Council Meetings Policy PL-CS036 as provided as Attachment 2 to this report” and adopt a compliant order of business which did not include prayers or condolences as per the best practice guidelines from the State.
The motion allowed councillors to engage in wide ranging debate including Australian secularism, Federation and the wording of the preamble to Federation, the statistics of religion in the Southern Downs.
Cr Richters moved to amend the motion to include prayer and condolences.
Cr McDonald spoke about church vs state saying that “our community maintains Christian values” while recognising not everyone feels the same. She claimed that 64% of residents in the Southern Downs identify as Christians.
She asked for prayer to be reinstated as a future agenda item.
Cr Harslett spoke against the motion pointing out that while Australia is a majority Christian country, it is not entirely Christian.
“Australia is a secular country and it has legislated separation of the church and state and we have no official state religion. We should not prohibit the free exercise of any religion – and we should not impose any religious observance on others, and that’s the bit that is being contravened.”
Voting for the amendment “means that we have to sit here and be part of that prayer. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it; I don’t disagree with the respectfulness of it, and I don’t want to take away people’s right to pray… I simply don’t understand why that can’t happen before the minuted part of the meeting. That way anyone who isn’t Christian or who doesn’t want to be part of that process doesn’t have to be.”
“If you put it in the minuted part of the meeting you have to be [present] and that is imposing religion on people who may not wish to.”
Cr Wantling contributed his view.
“So as said 64% of the people in the Southern Downs are, they follow some sort of religion, Christian religion yeah. There’s 40 denominations in the Southern Downs, So, I just think that it’s important that it stays into our means.”
Mayor Hamilton spoke against the motion, noting the 64% figure, and pointing out that 36% of residents in the Southern Downs are not religious and if “we are going to be cohesive, we have to ensure everyone has access to this chamber and feels comfortable. We should focus on what we were elected to do, which is our roles and responsibilities under the local government act, to be inclusive.”
“Local government should respond to the cultural diversity within the community while preserving what is most democratic about it.”
She argued against excluding 36% of people from “this room”.
“There should be respect for everyone no matter what their religious persuasion.” The public should be able to attend council “without engaging in prayer that is inconsistent with their beliefs”.
Debate continued around breaches of the Human Rights Act and other implications of prayer being included as part of the political process.
Those voting in favour to include prayers and condolences as part of Council meetings included Crs McDonald, Wantling, Deane, Windle and Bartley.
Those against the motion included Cr Hamilton, Richters, Pidgeon and Harslett.
The motion carried.
