Inner West Council members have come under attack for ‘cheapening’ a motion to acknowledge Wear It Purple Day.

Speaking during Tuesday night’s Inner West Council meeting, Independent candidate and self-described “out and proud member of the LGBTQI+ community”, Melinda Dimitriades says a second point tacked on to the motion is exploitative and political point-scoring.

In the motion tabled by Councillor Mark Drury, councillors were asked to note and celebrate Wear it Purple Day, but a second point required them to also note a decision by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal made three years earlier that Councillor Julie Passas had engaged in “homosexual vilification”.

In order to celebrate Wear it Purple Day, councillors would have been forced to agree to the second motion. Ms Dimitriades says the motion had been designed to fail.

“What is the point in raising an issue that was dealt with in 2019 … using the ‘Wear It Purple Day’ platform,” she asked councillors during the online meeting.

“It wedges councillors into voting no … it seeks to ‘virtue signal’ to the LGBTQI+ communities whilst sabotaging the councillors who reject the way the motion has been designed.

“But we queers aren’t that gullible.”

Ms Dimitriades, who is running in the Marrickville Ward in the upcoming Local Government election, closed her remarks with a warning: “People are fed up with this stuff. I am only scratching the surface and am going to throw the doors wide open on council deliberations and inform the public going forward.”

She urged councillors to get their house in order.

“To use chamber privilege, time and resources to set up your colleagues is cheap and disregards the sentiment of the motion. Rarely do social causes get a broad platform from which to speak or be acknowledged.

“Get on with your jobs and work together to find consensus and good policy outcomes. “Get your house in order or my kind will slowly replace you.”

Councillors did not vote on the agenda item because of time constraints.