Burnie councillor Trent Aitken lashes out at colleagues after being kicked out of second meeting in three months

A Burnie councillor, who was kicked out of a meeting for refusing to withdraw a comment, says being on the council is ‘horrible’. Why he was booted.

Burnie councillor Trent Aitken. Picture: Supplied.

Trent Aitken has described his role as Burnie councillor as ‘horrible’ after being kicked out of his second meeting in three months over a comment about homeless people.

Mr Aitken was booted from the most recent Burnie City Council meeting after he refused to withdraw the comment “homeless druggies”.

He got into trouble during the questions without notice section of the meeting.

“When Burnie has a homeless shelter that receives $1.9m per year, why do we still have issues in our city with homeless druggies?” Mr Aitken said on Tuesday.

Local Government Burnie City Council building

Councillor Amina Keygan then raised a point of order.

“The characterisation of people suffering from homelessness in our CBD as ‘homeless druggies’ is offensive and should be withdrawn,” she said.

Mayor Teeny Brumby upheld the point of order and asked that Mr Aitken rephrase the question.

“The question went ‘why do we still have homeless druggies?’,” he said in response.

“That’s not a claim that all homeless people are druggies; that’s a claim that we have issues with homeless druggies.”

Ms Brumby asked Mr Aitken multiple times to withdraw his comments before eventually being kicked out of the meeting.

Mayor of Burnie Council Teeny Brumby. Picture: supplied

“No, Mrs Mayor, I’m not making any changes,” Mr Aitken said just before being ejected from the meeting.

“It’s an important issue, and it’s an issue that needs addressing in Burnie regardless of terminology and who’s offended by the terminology.”

After the meeting, Mr Aitken said he was frustrated by the ordeal.

“Councillors are entitled to be offended; I wish they’d address problems instead of worrying about what I’m saying,” he said.

“I wish they’d actually listen to what I’m actually saying and actually do something about what’s going on instead of sitting around being woke and offended and actually not addressing anything, and they know full well we have issues.”

Mr Aitken said he found being a councillor “horrible”.

“I sit there at that council table, and there are other councillors waiting there for me to say anything at all so that they can be offended by what I say in an effort to get me kicked off the council.”

He said he would serve a full term as councillor.

“I made a commitment to the people that supported me when I decided to run that I’ll at least see out four years,” Mr Aitken said.

“The people who support me do not have an issue with my behaviour at council meetings; they do not have an issue with my terminology at council meetings.

“They do not expect me to instantly become a politician, and they probably would be disappointed if I was just to become a yes man and a politician.”