'Islamophobic' submissions delayed Wagga Mosque

The development application was forced to a council vote, because it received 11 submissions against the construction, crossing the mandatory threshold of 10 for it to be brought before council.

Councillor Dan Hayes proposed reconsideration of the rules during the June 5 council meeting, saying the majority of objections were irrelevant to planning matter.

Cr Hayes said submissions arguing the mosque would lead to Wagga becoming a target for terrorists were "disgusting".

"This came to council because there were a number of submissions, and a number of objections which triggers the need for a council vote," he said in the meeting.

"If those objections weren't counted, this would have been approved already.

"Reading through the submissions, I got pretty angry and dejected."

Cr Hayes proposed rules around when a DA is brought up for a council vote should be amended to give council workers greater power to determine whether an objection was relevant to the development proposed.

Under current rules, a single person could theoretically send 10 pseudonymous complaints to council to force a council vote on a development.

Cr Hayes' proposal would effectively make the objections process more similar to the process for raising objections in a meeting, by allowing discretion on whether something is relevant to planning.

Wagga Church of Christ elder Phil Briggs said at the meeting he did not object to the mosque's construction, but spoke against Islam as a religion at the meeting, saying Muslim values were anathema to Australia's "Judeo-Christian heritage", and practitioners were intent on "world domination".

Mr Briggs' was forced to yield his time by mayor Dallas Tout, on the grounds he was not talking about planning matters.

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Councillors said Mr Briggs' statements reflected the nature of the "Islamaphobic" objections they had received on the mosque, and that discussions in these cases should be limited to matters directly relating to the development rather than international culture war talking points.

Councillor Richard Foley said not only were the objections Islamaphobic, they misrepresented Australia's cultural history.

"There's good people in the Christian community, but these people are just evangelical whack jobs," he said.

"We've had Muslims in Australia since the 1800s, and they helped open up the entire country.

"We've got plenty here, living, working in professional capacities, and they have totally integrated into the community."

Ultimately, council unanimously voted to approve the mosque's construction.

The development application received a total of 45 submissions, 34 of which were positive.

Cr Tout said the positive submissions should have been weighed against the negative. He said this would have promoted a fuller conversation around the development, and demonstrated clearly community sentiment was behind the mosque more than against it.

"For me, the discussions will not just be complaints, but it's the whole ability to interact with council," Cr Tout said.

"Feedback that is positive should not be discounted.

"I think the discussion that will happen with councillors and staff will not just be numbers of negative, but also the general principle of feedback from the community."

Cr Foley also spoke in favour of changing the rules around when a development application should be brought to council.

"I think if you're going to complain about a development, it's got to be relevant to the development," he said.

"We're talking about a development application - whether you like a person, or whether they're too fat or the colour of their skin, or religion or whatever should be irrelevant.

"As soon as any of that stuff is mentioned, it should be deemed as irrelevant ... if people want to object, object on the correct grounds, not just because you've got bigoted views."

Cr Hayes agreed. He said while it was rare for them to receive so many irrelevant submissions, it was important council took steps to ensure this didn't happen again.

"This is the first time we've seen that process used in this way. I want to make sure any finessing of this policy doesn't stop people from making submissions, and not expecting people to have the language of planners to express their support, or objections," he said.

"What we saw last night was people talking about a mosque in Wagga as a trigger for them to talk about Islam in other countries, terrorism, sexual violence and DV ... it has nothing to do with the building whatsoever.

"What we saw last night delayed the approval, had a cost to council and therefore ratepayers for them to prepare a report to come to councillors for a decision. It didn't need to be, and I think other councillors agree."

Cr Hayes said while the issue is not urgent, he will be pursuing a policy that allows council workers more discretion about what does and doesn't count as a valid objection to a development.

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