Book ban uncovers uncomfortable truths for Labor in Sydney’s west

Labor councillor Mohamad Hussein had no qualms about supporting the removal of a book about same-sex families from the shelves of Cumberland City libraries. It was not about targeting any particular group, Hussein insisted. Except it was, and that was how his colleagues in Macquarie Street saw it.

“Stop being weirdly obsessed with how other ppl live their private lives and thinking you look tough punching down on minorities. It’s pathetic,” Youth Minister Rose Jackson scolded on X, formerly Twitter. “Don’t like the books? Don’t read them.”

Councillor Steve Christou says he has not read the book he wants to ban from council libraries.

Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said much the same on X. “Families come in all shapes and sizes. Every single one is precious,” Sharpe wrote. “Banning books about families is one of the worst things.”

Arts Minister John Graham wielded a big stick. He warned the Labor-controlled council that it could lose funding for its libraries if it does ban the book Same-Sex Parents by Holly Duhig, which features two men and a child on the front cover.

The banning and burning of books has a long, sordid history. Almost 91 years ago to the day – May 10, 1933 – Nazi students burnt books by independent authors, journalists, philosophers and academics. An installation in Berlin’s Bebelplatz commemorates what is missing through an underground library with enough empty shelves for 20,000 books – the number that went up in flames in the plaza.

The first reported banning of books was in the US state of Massachusetts in 1637, but the practice is far from a relic of the past. The American Library Association says more books were banned in 2023 in US schools and libraries than in any other year for which records have been kept. The voices targeted, according to the association, were those of the “marginalised”, books daring to discuss the “the lives of those who are gay, queer or transgender, or that tell the stories of persons who are black, indigenous or persons of colour”.

We would perhaps expect as much from the US. Yet councillors on Cumberland Council have stormed straight into the same culture wars.

The motion to axe the same-sex parenting book was the brainchild of the former mayor and conservative independent councillor Steve Christou, who has form in stoking division. Only months earlier, Christou wanted “drag story time” banned from the council’s libraries. Never mind that the council had no plans to host such events. Christou’s ill-informed scaremongering saw hundreds of vocal locals turn up to the council meeting to support his drag story time ban.

Christou defended his latest motion targeting the same-sex parenting book. In a swipe at the inner city, he said Cumberland was “not Marrickville or Newtown” and insisted he was representing the views of residents who he claimed wanted their kids kept safe from any “form of sexualisation”.

His motion passed six votes to five, thanks to the support of Hussein and the absence of a Labor councillor, Sabrin Farooqui. Another Labor councillor, deputy mayor Ola Hamed, abstained from the vote. Hamed said she had received threats after the rowdy council meeting where the drag story time ban was debated, and police are investigating.

Cumberland Council sits largely in the federal seat of Blaxland, held by Labor’s education minister Jason Clare. Blaxland was the electorate most opposed to same-sex marriage in Australia. Almost 74 per cent of those who voted said “no” in the postal survey of 2017.

But to suggest Christou was only responding to the wishes of his deeply religious community is to ignore the broader disquiet that exists in western and south-western Sydney. Christou, the one-time federal independent candidate for neighbouring Parramatta, is fanning the anger that western Sydney communities have towards federal Labor over its stance on Palestine. Clare’s seat is a safe one, but he could come under serious pressure if those Islamic communities vent their anger at next year’s federal election. So too could be Employment Minister Tony Burke in the neighbouring seat of Watson and even more at risk is Anne Stanley in Werriwa.

Hussein issued a statement late on Wednesday, saying he “stood by his decision” to support Christou’s motion. It was “made in line with my religious beliefs and I will not be compromising those beliefs”, he said. His actions and those of fellow Cumberland councillors can be dressed up in any way they please but, ultimately, they also have LGBTQ constituents. It is these citizens, and their children, who have become their collateral damage.

Alexandra Smith is the Herald’s state political editor.