During the debate over the fate of the Captain Cook statue in Catani Gardens, one of the councillors asked what is the definition of woke? The rhetorical question was put in response to the proposition that the removal of the statue would be a capitulation to woke ideologies. 

Woke is now the new term for political correctness and is a cultural revolution driven by identity politics and victimhood. The woke movement is best understood as a religion - one that makes grand claims to moral purity and tolerates no dissent. Its disciples even have their own language, rituals, and a determination to root out sinners through what has become known as 'cancel culture'.

The term originally described an awaking to social injustices but has now become a term of abuse and derision, largely in part due to the intolerance and authoritarian behaviours of woke practitioners. 

Woke is a belief system that is hostile to individual liberty and insists that nobody is an individual and everybody belongs to some category of identify based on ethnicity, sexuality, gender, race, religion.  Once you get identified you are ranked according to your degree of victimhood, where people are classed as either privileged oppressors or as victims. 

Woke is fundamentally divisive because it pits one group against another: you are either an oppressor or the oppressed. For example, identity politics dictates that all women are oppressed by men. This may be true in some circumstances, but it's not true for all men and women. Women have the same rights as men under Australian law and discrimination against women by men is a crime. 

It is now common for people including some of our Councillors to claim victimhood status in the false belief that their victimhood confers unearned moral virtue and authority. 

Life can be challenging, and everyone must deal with adversity at some time in their lives. We can become ill, lose our jobs, become addicted to alcohol and drugs, we can be betrayed by friends, fail to get promoted, not have enough money, lose loved ones and ultimately, we die. 

Our best chance of dealing with adversity is being grateful, rather than feeling embittered and resentful. We have agency as individuals to deal with adversity. Behaving as a resentful victim does not improve our circumstances but it might get you a government handout. 

Woke is authoritarian and illiberal. Woke seeks to characterise alternative views as misinformation and disinformation. If you are woke, you are told what to think, not how to think. 

This ideology has no place in a liberal democracy which must embrace the rule of law and freedom of speech. We must embrace diversity of ideas not just characteristics such as race, religion, gender, and sexually. 

Woke seeks to find offence and to stifle dissent. If you don't agree with wokeness, you are categorised as racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, far-right or neo-Nazi.

The Councillor who asked for the definition of woke made claims of moral righteousness and a far-right slur towards his colleagues with whom he disagreed. Woke is not interested in hearing views with which it disagrees.

Cr Tim Baxter falsely claimed these Councillors “were more interested in protecting a statue – a lump of metal” than “protecting queer children and rainbow families from death threats” in reference to the cancellation of drag story time at council libraries last year. His comments were not truthful because these planned events were cancelled to ensure the protection of children and their families. 

Name calling, personal attacks and telling lies are part of the woke tool kit. 

This Councillor accused his colleagues of engaging in culture wars when he realised the divisive motion would fail. Culture wars are worth fighting against when people are seeking to rewrite history and when are our values are threatened. The woke scream culture wars when they are losing control of their divisive agendas. 

They claim a lack of democracy or of not being heard when democracy doesn’t support their position. Democracy is valued only when supporting their version of the world. 

Cutting down the Cook statue was described as a ‘hate filled political crime’ by Jason Briggs of Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council. The act of vandalism was designed by political activists who seek to divide our community when we should be engaging in bringing our community together. 

Woke is the enemy of social cohesion and the desire to unite all Australians based on a set of values rather than the false and fractious beliefs of identity politics.