Trent Aitken #

Introduction #

Trent Aitken is a Burnie City Council councillor in north-west Tasmania who was suspended from council duties for 14 days in January 2026 after a conduct panel found posts he had published were homophobic and racist. Between January and May 2025, the Local Government Code of Conduct Panel examined thirteen statements by Aitken — seven it categorised as homophobic and six it categorised as racist — and found he had breached the councillor code by failing to show respect when expressing personal views publicly and by causing offence and embarrassment to members of the community. Aitken did not deny making the statements; he asserted before the panel that they were “the truth” and that he was entitled to make them. His suspension began on Wednesday, 28 January 2026, the day after the panel’s determination report was tabled at a council meeting.

Background Information #

Aitken sits on the Burnie City Council in a region with a long and well-documented history of hostility toward LGBTQIA+ people: a 2005 Australia Institute survey found north-west Tasmania was among the most homophobic parts of the nation, and Tasmania did not decriminalise homosexuality until 1997, the last Australian state to do so. In April 2025, the council voted 8 to 1 to convene an LGBTQIA+ advisory group and develop an LGBTQIA+ action plan, with Aitken the sole dissenting vote. Earlier that year he had made national headlines by criticising Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness on social media, and he has also claimed that young people are identifying as cats, repeating a well-recognised hoax. A local resident lodged a Code of Conduct complaint about his posts with the council on 3 June 2025, and the panel delivered its determination on 3 December 2025.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

The complaint concerned a series of posts Aitken made on social media and in the media between January and May 2025. The panel examined seven statements it categorised as homophobic, including posts criticising transgender people and opposing the flying of a rainbow flag at council chambers, and six it categorised as racist, including comments about Aboriginal people and Australia Day. Among those statements, Aitken’s posts called trans women men and claimed that children were being “brainwashed with trans rubbish”.

The post that drew the widest attention targeted Jonathan Van Ness. In a now-deleted Facebook post, Aitken called the Queer Eye star “not right in the head” for wearing a dress to the Golden Globes, writing, “As a man, I am ashamed that we let this happen,” and describing it as a “glamorised mental health issue”. “It is not normal for a man to behave like this. I wouldn’t let him anywhere kids,” he wrote. Aitken later deleted the post; speaking to The Advocate, he said he took it down because “I’m sick to death of looking at this guy”.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The panel found that a “reasonable person” would view Aitken’s comments as offensive and embarrassing, particularly to members of the Aboriginal and LGBTQI+ communities. “The posts when taken as a group are both disrespectful to the Aboriginal and LGBTQI+ communities respectively,” the panel determined, adding, “It also is possible they breach both federal and state legislation.” It suspended Aitken from council duties for 14 days from 28 January 2026 and required him to complete a training course directed by the council’s general manager within three months.

The resident who complained had asked that Aitken be suspended and required to apologise to the Indigenous and LGBTQIA+ communities. The panel imposed the suspension but declined to order an apology, finding his “views on this matter were so strongly held that any apology he might proffer would not be made genuinely” and that it was “better not to impose a requirement to apologise”. It also dismissed allegations that his conduct brought the council into disrepute or constituted bullying, citing insufficient evidence. Equality Tasmania supported the suspension, with spokesperson Rodney Croome saying local government leaders have “a right to speak out on important issues” but also “a responsibility not to abuse that right by sowing division and discrimination”, and that “Cr Aitken’s suspension shows there are consequences when local government leaders attack the diverse communities they are meant to represent.”

Current Status #

Aitken’s 14-day suspension from council duties took effect on 28 January 2026, and he remains required to complete the general manager’s training course within three months. The panel declined to compel an apology, and the Facebook post attacking Van Ness has been deleted, though its wording survives in press coverage of the case. Beyond the suspension and the training requirement, no resignation or further penalty had been reported as of early 2026, and the dismissed disrepute and bullying allegations form no part of the findings against him.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The determination leaves Aitken a sitting councillor with a formal, published finding that his public statements breached the councillor code of conduct — a record that cannot be deleted the way his Facebook post was. His sole dissent from the council’s 8-to-1 LGBTQIA+ equality motion, combined with the panel’s findings, has set him apart from a council that had voted to embrace the LGBTQIA+ community it represents. Equality Tasmania’s Croome framed the outcome as a warning that there are “consequences” for local leaders who attack diverse communities. The case also sits uneasily with the region’s history, in a state that decriminalised homosexuality last in the country and where north-west towns once drew national notoriety for homophobia. Aitken’s own position — that his statements were simply “the truth” — stands on the record unchanged, even though the panel found otherwise.