Shire adds International Men’s Day to calendar

THE Surf Coast Shire has made some changes to its awareness raising calendar for the next four years, including the addition of International Men’s Day after some debate between councillors.

The shire has run an awareness raising calendar in some form for more than 10 years, with its listings aiming to promote causes aligned with the existing Council Plan and of interest to the community, but not commercially-run events such as the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach.

The report presented to the council at its meeting on Tuesday this week originally proposed a calendar for 2026 to 2029 with 11 items:

January 26 – First Nations led Acknowledgement of January 26, previously described as Pilk Purriyn

March 8 – International Women’s Day

May 17 – IDAHOBIT (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersex Discrimination and Transphobia)

May 19 to May 25 – National Volunteer Week

May 27 to June 3 – National Reconciliation Week

June 5 – World Environment Day, which replaces NAIDOC Week

September – National Youth Week

October – Seniors’ Festival

October – Mental Health Week, including World Mental Health Day on October 10, which replaces Barwon Month of Action in Prevention of Violence Against Women

October – Children’s Week, and

December 3 – International Day of People with a Disability.

Arguing against the motion, Cr Paul Barker noted International Men’s Day (November 19) was not on the calendar.

“What this calendar represents is a sexist way of diminishing one sex over another,” he said.

Cr Adrian Schonfelder then successfully proposed an amendment adding International Men’s Day to the calendar.

“One thing I am I’m very concerned about is the suicide rates of men, particularly young men and the fact that men are reluctant to speak out about issues,” he said.

During the debate, Cr Libby Stapleton said women’s voices and experiences had often been silenced and ignored.

“By highlighting International Women’s Day, it’s not diminishing the need for us to acknowledge the challenges that men have in our community. It’s really important to acknowledge those.

“Trying to balance centuries of inequality is really important and highlighting International Women’s Day is one small way that we can we can do that.”

The proposed allocation towards the calendar is $37,000, and its entries will come into effect on January 1, 2026.