A Liberal councillor has quit the party after colleagues, including the Mayor, sided with the far-left Greens and Labor and rejected her proposal for a massive Australia Day party at Bondi Beach.
Waverley councillor Lauren Townsend wrote in a letter to the Liberal Party that the lack of support was not only a “personal betrayal”, but a “fundamental difference of values that cannot be overcome”.
In June Ms Townsend called the lack of planned festivities at Bondi “heartbreaking”, and proposed beachside celebrations that could include “lamingtons, meat pies, and barbecues”.
Despite the Liberals controlling council and holding six seats, only two voted in favour of expanding celebrations, but Mayor Will Nemesh, a member of the Jewish community, said council had resolved not to support an “unbudgeted Australia Day Party” during a cost-of-living crisis.
Ms Townsend’s original motion was not progressed further after staff said expanded celebrations could cost $400,000, and the council’s Indigenous Advisory Committee recommended not celebrating Australia Day on January 26.
“Australia Day is considered a day of mourning for many Aboriginal people and committee members felt they were being asked to celebrate at the expense of history and the devastation that resulted,” the committee said in a report to council.
“The only additional activities that would be supported by the committee on Australia Day would be a ‘survival day’ activity.”
Liberal councillor Dov Frazer then proposed Australia Day markets to be run at no extra cost, and for the expansion of an existing surf club sausage sizzle, but only he and fellow Liberal Joshua Spicer voted in favour, the Wentworth Courier reported.
Ms Townsend, who did not vote on the final proposal, said in her letter she was upset as she had previously voted with her “more left-wing colleagues against my personal beliefs”, but those colleagues did not reciprocate.
“This was most recently demonstrated when some of my Liberal colleagues voted with Labor and the Greens against celebrating Australia Day,” she wrote.
She also wrote that she believed the “give and take see-saw between the conservative and the moderate faction [of the Liberal Party] is broken”.
“I feel increasingly as though I cannot openly express conservative views or vote along conservative lines while still being loyal to a Party that no longer shares them and, it feels like, is embarrassed of members who still do,” she wrote.
Mr Nemesh criticised Ms Townsend for not voting, and said she had been “frequently supported by her colleagues on a diverse range of issues”.
“We welcome thousands of people to Bondi every Australia Day and spend approximately $85,000 on the day for beach and traffic management initiatives,” he said.
“Waverley proudly flies the Australian flag every day of the year, including Australia Day.”
Header image: Left, Will Nemesh at a Chanukah celebration. Right, Bondi Beach (Alex Proimos, CC BY 2.0).
