Western Australian Premier Roger Cook has weighed in on the calls for sex education books to be restricted in the south-west town of Albany.
“This is essentially a decision for the City of Albany and I can’t tell them what is their priorities, as I’m sure there is a lot of things they need to do in the community,” Premier Cook said on Tuesday when reporters asked him about the issue during a press conference.
“Last night’s meeting obviously attracted a lot of attention and a lot of heightened debate and language.
“I just urge everyone to take a common sense approach in relation to this.
“I don’t think it needs to take an alarming and quite — by the sounds of the reports — quite distressing electors meeting to be able to step through these issues in a careful and common sense manner.” the premier said, his comments reported in the Albany Advertiser.
The premier’s comments follow a Special Electors Meeting held at the City of Albany Council on Monday night where activist group Keep Children Safe Albany led a call for bans on twerk workshops being open to people under the age of eighteen, and a push to restrict or remove several books from the town’s library.
During the city’s 2024 Pride Festival in February a twerk workshop was held in the Town Hall, organisers say the event was only ever for people over the age of 18, and no young people attended the event. Keeping Children Safe – Albany have alleged that the event was initially promoted to children.
At the special meeting on Monday night a series of local residents spoke about their desire for the town to disallow similar events in the future, and crack down on the availability of sex education resources in the local library. Some of the speakers called for the establishment of a Christian festival, while other’s made references to Biblical passages that refer to homosexuality as an abomination.
Many speakers however spoke about the importance of sex education resources being available to young people, and expressed alarm at the approach being taken by Keep Children Safe Albany describing it as “fearmongering” and a push for censorship.
Five motions were passed at that meeting, among them calls for specific books to be removed and restricted, and a strict background check on entertainers working in the region. There was also a motion for all youth events in the city, including those run by religious organisations, to adopt all the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Intuitional Child Sex Abuse.
The motions will be considered by the council at their September meeting.
