Aleph Melbourne launches 2020 Local Council Election Voters Guide

Aleph Melbourne launches its 2020 Local Council Elections Voters Guide

MEDIA RELEASE
5 OCTOBER 2020

ALEPH MELBOURNE LAUNCHES 2020 LOCAL COUNCIL ELECTION VOTERS GUIDE

Aleph Melbourne is proud to announce its 2020 Local Council Elections Voters Guide. The Voters Guide is designed to inform voters living in councils with high Jewish populations how to best identify candidates for the 2020 Local Council Elections who have pledged to support and promote the efforts of local governments to foster a culture that is inclusive, responsive and accessible to LGBTIQA+ Victorians.

Links to the Aleph Melbourne 2020 Local Council Elections Voters Guide:

The Voters Guide is primarily based on the Victorian Pride Lobby‘s Rainbow Votes site which calls on candidates to campaign for and support:

Rainbow Tick accreditation for council-run services.
the establishment or continuation of an LGBTIQA+ advisory committee to council.
the development and implementation of a LGBTIQA+ action plan for council.
flying the rainbow flag from council buildings on LGBTIQA+ awareness days.
marching in Pride March or participating in Midsumma or local pride events.

Our guide contains the names of those candidates who have responded to the Rainbow Votes pledge in full, in part, or as a refusal. The guide will be reviewed and updated periodically.

We encourage voters to locate their voting ward, review their candidates’ levels of support for LGBTIQ issues and vote in a manner that prioritises LGBTIQ equality.

We also encourage voters to contact candidates directly if they require additional information not included in the Voters Guide.

The Aleph Melbourne 2020 Local Council Elections Voters Guide follows on from our 2013 Voters Guide to Marriage Equality in Jewish Melbourne, 2016 Voters Guide to Marriage Equality in Jewish Melbourne, 2018 Victorian State Election Voters Guide for LGBTIQ Equality and 2019 Voters Guide for LGBTIQ Equality.

ENDS

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Michael Barnett
0417-595-541
contact@aleph.org.au

Aleph Melbourne 2020 Voters Guide for Local Council Elections

[ Jump to the Voters Guide ]

The Aleph Melbourne 2020 Voters Guide for Local Council Elections is designed to assist voters living in councils with high Jewish populations how to best identify candidates for the 2020 Local Council Elections who have pledged to support and promote the efforts of local governments to foster a culture that is inclusive, responsive and accessible to LGBTIQA+ Victorians.

We have selected councils with a Jewish population of at least 1000 based on data in the 2016 ABS Census. The six councils included in this guide in decreasing order of population are Glen Eira, Stonnington, Port Phillip, Bayside, Kinsgston and Boroondara.

The Voters Guide is primarily based on the Victorian Pride Lobby‘s Rainbow Votes site which calls on candidates to campaign for* and support:

✅ Rainbow Tick accreditation for council-run services.

✅ the establishment or continuation of an LGBTIQA+ advisory committee to council.

✅ the development and implementation of a LGBTIQA+ action plan for council.

✅ flying the rainbow flag from council buildings on LGBTIQA+ awareness days.

✅ marching in Pride March or participating in Midsumma or local pride events.

Our guide contains the names of those candidates who have responded to the Rainbow Votes pledge in full, in part, or as a refusal. Candidates who have not responded are omitted from the guide. Listed party affiliation is drawn from the candidate’s registration, party membership, or social media sources.

Updates to the guide will be made as candidates provide their responses to the Rainbow Votes page. We encourage to you contact individual candidates directly if their name is not listed in our guide.

Ballot packs will be mailed to registered voters from 6 to 8 October. Completed ballot packs must be returned before 6 pm on Friday 23 October.

The Victorian Electoral Map will help you determine which council and ward you are voting in.

Feedback, corrections and updates are invited via our contact page. Information is provided here in good faith and on the understanding that it is correct.

The guide is currently best viewed on a desktop browser.

* Victorian Pride Lobby have clarified their expectation of “campaigning”:

“By campaigning, we are simply asking for candidates to push for these LGBTIQA+ priorities if they are elected, for example, by moving a motion.
We will provide support to any Councillors who take the pledge on how best to push these priorities in their council. We do not expect that a candidate can achieve this on their own if you are elected, but we stand ready to work with them and any other supporters elected to Council to implement the priorities of LGBTIQA+ people.”
Victorian Pride Lobby

Voters Guide

Please select a Council from the dropdown list above

Candidate statement: David Zyngier Greens for Camden Ward – Glen Eira Council

The following political statement has been supplied by David Zyngier who is running as a candidate for Camden Ward – Glen Eira Council in the 2020 Local Government elections.

Aleph Melbourne will endorse all political candidates who unconditionally support equal rights for LGBTIQ+ Jews and whose values align with ours.

David Zyngier, Greens candidate for Camden Ward, Glen Eira Council: Supporting our LGBTIQ+ Community.

I am running for elections for Camden Ward in the forthcoming Glen Eira Council elections and will be an advocate for the LGBTIQ+ community in Glen Eira. I am requesting the support of Aleph and its members.

Beginning with my university days at Monash in the 1970s, I have been an advocate for the equal rights of LGBTIQ+ people and for members of the Jewish LGBTIQ+ community in particular.

As far back as 1999, I wrote a letter of support for Aleph Melbourne which was published in the Australian Jewish News (and featured on Aleph website). I condemned the Jewish Community Council of Victoria’s bigoted behaviour in rejecting the membership of Aleph Melbourne. I wrote at that time:

“In a momentous and shameful vote of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, on Monday 10 May, the Jewish gay support group, Aleph was refused membership of the JCCV. It has been only a generation since Jews and homosexuals were forced to wear badges of coloured cloth – how quickly we seem to forget that we are inseparably linked by a very common but tragic history. … I can only say how ashamed I feel to be part of such a community that has turned its back on our fellow Jews.”

Twenty years later, in 2019, I was contacted by Aleph Melbourne to support their efforts to right this wrong. I worked together with Aleph Melbourne to write and facilitate a formal public apology from the JCCV. This was a bittersweet victory – yes, an apology had been received, but only after two decades of struggle by the LGBTQI+ community and its allies.

In my role as an advocate for public education, I led a campaign together with Fairness in Religious Education (FIRIS) to remove the bigoted and homophobic Special Religious Education program from our public primary schools. I have been a strong and loud public advocate of the Safe School Program. I have joined the call for the scrapping of the federally funded School Chaplains Program. Along with other activists, I have called for those funds to be invested in secular, unbiased and inclusive support for students through counsellors and through antibullying initiatives such as the Safe Schools Program.

The Greens, more than any other political party, will always advocate for the rights of LGBTIQ+ residents in Glen Eira and beyond, championing diversity and calling out discrimination, bias, and bigotry. As the first party to support and actively campaign to remove discrimination in marriage, we are so proud of what a strong and united community campaign can do to make positive change.

Yet, we recognise that there is so much more to be done. Our MPs, councillors, and members are committed to stand at the forefront of efforts for equal rights, social acceptance, and human dignity for all.

The Greens Party is proud of our strong and active LGBTIQ+ membership who have led the way in developing the detailed statement of policies outlined here, https://greens.org.au/vic/policies/sexual-orientation-gender-identity-and-intersex-policy

Authorised by M. Shields 1/45 William St. Melbourne Vic 3000