Inner West Council ‘bizarre’ woke policy on Indigenous gender diversity

An inner-city Sydney council’s ‘bizarre’ new gender policy says British colonial settlers wrongly ‘asserted men and women as the norm’.

Staff at an inner-city Sydney council will undergo “unconscious bias” training as part of a new gender policy that also makes “bizarre” claims that British colonial settlers wrongly “asserted men and women as the norm”.

In justifying its new “Gender Equity” plan, the Inner West Council claims that Victorian-era colonisers “dismantled” gender diverse Aboriginal Australians and in fact used “gender diversity in Indigenous culture as a justification” for the “genocide” of indigenous people.

It plans to “embed” the policy into its services and adopt a “gender and intersectional lens” in all its work.

Founding of modern day Australia. Picture: Oil sketch by Algernon Talmage of the First Fleet, 1787-1788/Supplied

“Through the process of colonisation of First Nations lands, colonisers have imposed Victorian era gender understandings based on binary ideologies and labelled indigenous people as racially inferior, dismantling gender diversity within their cultures in the process,” the policy, accepted at a meeting last week, states.

“These imposed ideologies have asserted men and women as the norm and excluded all others, perceiving gender diversity as inferior and in moral opposition.

“Inner West Council acknowledges that the origins of constrained gender binaries, which are widely prevalent in our contemporary world, are rooted in colonisation.”

Inner West Council claims colonisers dismantled gender diversity among Aboriginal Australians. Picture: Drawing of Aboriginal family circa 1803/Aborigine Art Historical

But One Nation MP Mark Latham says the policy ignores basic biology science, while scholar and cultural critic Dr Bella d’Abrera warns “left-wing radical gender ideology” is now being embedded into councils.

“There is no evidence of gender diverse people treated respectfully in pre-1788 Aboriginal tribes, in fact the reverse was true,” Mr Latham says. “They were expelled, and worse.”

“Indigenous tribes had clearly defined gender-based roles, more so that the Europeans who arrived in 1788.

One Nation NSW Leader Mark Latham. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The Inner West Council disrespects indigenous society by rewriting its history in a bizarre way.”

The policy is also based on the “false notion” that equality and equity are the same thing, Ms d’Abrera, the Institute of Public Affairs think tank director of Western Civilisation program, says.

“Whereas in fact they are completely different,” she said.

“Equality means equality of opportunity, while equity means equality of ‘outcomes’.

“The problem with equality of outcomes is that it is inherently unnatural and impossible to achieve.

“Despite this, its proponent will try anyway through forced interventions such as quotas, which are an attempt to put everyone in the same place.”

Ms d’Abrera said the council’s gender strategy read like a Gender Studies thesis from an Australian university.

“The left-wing radical gender ideology and identity politics which is dominating the humanities is now being embedded into our local councils whether we want it or not.”

“Mainstream Australians would be outraged if they knew.”

In response, a council spokeswoman said “it is positive to note that Inner West Council’s recently adopted Gender Equity Strategy is already bringing the issue of gender disparity and its far reaching long term consequences to the attention of the broader community”.

“The strategy and action plan grew from explorations of the impact of gender and colonisation of indigenous communities, as cited in the strategy.”

Originally published as Inner West Council ‘bizarre’ woke policy on Indigenous gender diversity