Councillors bash Bible plan

A LOCAL councillor’s move to include Bibles in its show bag for new Australian citizens has been quashed.
Shire of Yarra Ranges Walling Ward councillor Len Cox recently called for the council to offer Bibles to new citizens as a gift, but his move was not supported.
Cr Cox accused the council of ‘snatching’ the Bible away from residents following affirmation ceremonies.
He believes that the Bibles should be offered to new citizens as a memento.
But the council recently decided that its current policy of giving its new citizens a copy of its community directory, Vision 2020 statement and a native plant was more than enough.
This comes after a council report requested by Cr Cox recommended that the memento policy should be changed.
Cr Cox said either a Bible or one of the council’s history books should be given to new citizens as a gift.
He said giving new citizens a show bag with the community directory, vision 2020 statement and a plant was not enough of a memento. Cr Cox called for the council to support his motion to supply new citizens with Bibles or history books but his motion was not supported.
But Cr Jeanette McRae said that the current gift bag was more than enough for new citizens.
She said the citizenship ceremony was not about material things but was about committing an allegiance to Australia.
The council moved to keep the current gift bag system.