Bondi Beach mural sparks censorship debate by Waverley councillors

Tempers have flared as Waverley councillors debated a divisive Bondi Beach mural protesting against Australia’s asylum seeker policy, with the mayor stating that he himself would not have approved it.

Waverley Council has voted down a motion to have a Bondi Beach mural protesting against Australia’s asylum seeker policy painted over.

Waverley Council has voted down a motion to have a Bondi Beach mural protesting against Australia’s asylum seeker policy painted over.

Councillors had voted against Leon Goltsman’s urgency motion at a strategic planning committee meeting tonight, which sought to have it removed on the basis that it was offensive and had “polarised the community”.

The meeting had heard from council officers that council had not seen the artwork before artist Luke Cornish took paint to the sea wall.

Artist Luke Cornish, pictured with his mural, has said the artwork was not an attack on border force officers of the government, but aimed at people on the beach “sticking their fingers in their ears” ignoring deaths in off-shore detention. Picture: John Appleyard

“The issue is all over the media and could bring the council into disrepute, if it already hasn’t,” Cr Goltsman said.

“This is not a debate about freedom of expression, it is about whether the correct procedures and policies were followed.”

Things had flared up when mayor John Wakefield referred to a “highly concerted group” of the gallery as “six members of the Liberal party”, before stating that he himself would not have approved the mural.

“If this had come to me six weeks ago I would have rejected it, I would not have allowed it to go up but what message does that rejection send? That a mayor at his own whim can censor art,” he said.

A sign which has appeared on the mural this week. Picture John Grainger

“I find it very difficult as a mayor, as a longstanding mayor, to stand in front of you and go down in history as the mayor who censored an artwork.

Cr Wakefield had also sought to clarify that councillors had no involvement in the approval process before councillor Paula Masselos told the meeting “life is not all unicorns and rainbows”.

“If we get offended by everyday life then those objecting (to the mural) are out of touch,” she said.

Protesters led by former councillor Miriam Guttman-Jones had set up outside council chambers with signs reading “don’t politicise Bondi Beach” prior to the meeting.

Protesters rally outside Waverley Council chambers ahead of a meeting where the "not welcome to Bondi" mural was discussed. Picture: Anton Rose

A former Border Forcer officer, one of five members of the public who spoke against keeping the mural up, told the councillors the mural “was not art” before walking out of the meeting.

“I’m trembling up here guys … that picture is vilification,” Eric Cuban said.

“It is depicting me as causing suicided in detention centres.”