To flag or not to flag

THE Surf Coast council rainbow flag saga just won’t quit.

There’s a vote and it goes up. There’s a vote and it’s set to come down.

This is one of those issues where there is little meeting of the minds and where each side struggles to fathom where the other is coming from.

The pro-flaggers believe they are giving comfort to members of their community who are gay (or LGBTQI) and advocating for a good cause, gay marriage.

The anti-flaggers see the proflaggers as using local government to campaign on a federal political issue (the changing of the Marriage Act) outside the council priorities (like getting the bins picked up on time) that they’re elected to pursue.

What is the best way to resolve such an impasse?

Certainly not the increasingly popular method of shrill shouting down of those who disagree by those who feel the most morally righteous.

Democracy is, of course, the answer — the vote should determine it. But in the Surf Coast flag debate that cuts both ways.

Pro-flaggers would point out that a sitting of the full council with no one away would determine the issue their way.

Anti-flaggers would say they won Tuesday night’s vote to bring the flag down — but their mandate was stopped by the lodging of a notice of rescission.

It is a fraught issue and there is merit on both sides. What is increasingly clear is that rightly or wrongly the rainbow flag issue (and the political rivalries and contests around it) is now occupying a good deal of the Surf Coast Shire’s time and energy.

And what is it really delivering for the residents of this shire?

These ratepayers are on the whole easygoing, open-minded coasties — not bigoted hicks in need of education from officials.

There may be the best of intentions behind the flag push.

But the saga may yet become a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when councils stray from striving to do a good job on local government’s core functions.