A Busselton ratepayer’s group has attempted to replay the 2024 Albany campaign against LGBTIQA+ books in the local library, according to community members in the southwest.
In the last few weeks of 2025, the Busselton Area Residents and Ratepayers Association (BARRA) sent a series of questions to the local Council about protecting children from abuse and “grooming.” Critics say the questions have all the hallmarks of the campaign in Albany from last year.
BARRA Committee members also raised alarm in local papers over LGBTIQA+ books in the local library available to young people. According to locals, BARRA formed as a group in 2025 as new advocacy group for local ratepayers.
Spokesperson for Busselton Pride Alliance (BPA), Clare Paine, said she was well aware of pockets of anti-LGBTIQA+ sentiment in the town which resurfaced during the local Council elections last year.
“The September elections saw the re-emergence of Mr Stephen Wells, whose association with neo-NAZIs has been widely reported. Several candidates also refused to respond to BPA’s candidate survey form, which asked them about Pride Wellbeing funding, library autonomy and establishing an LGBTIQA+ reference group for the town.
“We believe from the way the recent BARRA questions to Council were framed, and the targeting of LGBTIQA+ books in the local library, that there was an attempt here at copying the moral panic stirred up in Albany in 2024. We anticipated this possibility given similar attempts elsewhere.
“Thankfully, the newly elected Council now has more sensible people focused on practical community issues rather than being drawn into culture wars. Most local residents seemed bewildered by this morals campaign and have no time for it.”
Paine said that unlike Albany, Busselton is not a bible-belt community and the shifting demographics to young families, FIFO workers and retirees from Perth means that imported culture war narratives do not readily attract support.
“BPA doesn’t take this for granted, however, and we have written to all Councillors to explain the background of the Albany campaign, the anti-LGBTIQA+ bias behind it, and the connections between this and other fringe groups.
“Since the pandemic started, a number of fringe groups, such as anti-vaxxers, Covid conspiracy theorists, Sovereign Citizens, climate change deniers, Neo-Nazi sympathisers and anti-LGBTIQA+ campaigners have connected through social media and began targeting local governments and community libraries,” Paine said.
BPA has also written to Local Government Minister, Hannah Beazley, urging local government reforms to tighten the eligibility criteria for candidates.
“It would be good to see candidates having to subscribe to a code of conduct before being allowed to run,” she said.
OUTinPerth approached BARRA for comment but did not receive a response.
