FORMER Wodonga Mayor Rex Chamberlain has defended Sophie Mirabella’s right to argue for Albury to keep the name of QEII Square.
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Mr Chamberlain said the federal member for Indi had a right to speak out on any issue she felt affected Australia.
“In fact she has a duty to do so if she thinks something is not correct,’’ he said.
Mr Chamberlain, 85, a World War II veteran with 18 years in uniform, was Wodonga Mayor from 1977 to 1980.
He served many years as Wodonga RSL sub-branch vice-president and longer as the RSL welfare officer.
Mr Chamberlain said he was dismayed that Cr Amanda Duncan-Strelec had claimed Mrs Mirabella should stick to her federal responsibilities “rather than interfering in local government particularly in a city that isn’t in her electorate’’.
Mrs Mirabella said Albury should not abandon the name selected in 1988 when the Queen visited Albury.
“We are supposed to be twin cities as Albury-Wodonga,’’ Mr Chamberlain said.
He was also incensed by Cr Duncan-Strelec’s view that the name should honour “our Aussie fighting heroes rather than an overseas monarch’’.
Mr Chamberlain said Queen Elizabeth II was legally the Queen of Australia and the nation had rejected a republic in a referendum that might have changed that.
Australian sailors, soldiers and airmen like himself had fought in the name of monarch of the time and they held imperial honours in the monarch’s name, he said.