Australian state bans men from applying for council job

A city council in Melbourne has banned men from applying for a street sweeper job and opened up the applications for other genders.

The Darebin City Council shared the vacancy for street sweeper operator last month and invited applications from people who identify as “female, non-binary and gender-nonconforming”.

Advertising the position, the Victorian local council said it is a diverse and inclusive organisation that reflects the community. “To help remove barriers, we are actively identifying some positions in recognition that some groups are underrepresented in areas of our workplace,” the vacancy on Darebin Council’s website read.

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The council cited the Special Measure Provision, Section 12 (1) of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic), which allows groups to take “special measure for the purpose of promoting or realising substantive equality for members of a group with a particular attribute.”

The job description requires the applicant to “clean and mechanically sweep residential streets, shop fronts, hard waste pick up, dumped rubbish collection, and laneway? cleaning” and pays $63,000 a year. The applications will be closing mid-September.

Darebin City Council, the application stated, is an Equal Opportunity Employer and “does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices”.

A government spokesperson said that “recruitment of staff is a matter for the council”, according to a local report.