‘Collect rubbish, don’t talk rubbish,’ Abetz says

LIBERAL Senator Eric Abetz has said again that local councils should maintain their focus on core business after another Victorian council voted to cancel Australia Day ceremonies.

The inner-north City of Darebin risks being stripped of its power to host citizenship ceremonies by the Federal Government after councillors voted on Monday to stop referring to January 26 as Australia Day. A similar move was made by neighbouring Greens-dominated Yarra City Council last week.

A motion by Hobart City Council for Australian councils to consider the efforts they could take to lobby the Federal Government to change the date of Australia Day was passed by just two votes at last month’s Australian Local Government Association’s national general assembly.

Mayor Sue Hickey, who called for councils’ ability to hold citizenship ceremonies to be kept separate from the conversation to change the date, has said moves by Yarra and other interstate councils showed there was momentum in the push.

Senator Abetz, who in June criticised Hobart council for its Australia Day vote, said yesterday councils were “elected to collect rubbish, not talk rubbish”.

“The fact that local councils, such as Darebin Council, are more focused on advancing the political correctness agenda, when not engaged on interna- tional junkets, is a disappointing reflection of the national and international activism engaged in by some local councils instead of focusing on their core business,” he said.

“Claiming a mandate from a survey of less than one hundred people and then assuming they talk not only for the indigenous community but the whole community is breath- takingly disconnected from ratepayers.”

Darebin mayor Kim Le Cerf said she believed more local governments would now consider scrapping Australia Day citizenship ceremonies. Yesterday, she confirmed there had been discussions with Moreland council in Melbourne’s north, Fremantle council in WA and Hobart council.