ALBURY Council will not restore its awards and a citizenship ceremony to Australia Day, with some councillors slamming a petition which sought a switch back.
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Councillor Alice Glachan moved a motion at Monday night's meeting to have the naturalisation element held on January 26, but it was voted down 6-3 with only mayor Kylie King and deputy mayor Steve Bowen supporting it.
The motion listed in the agenda by councillor Darren Cameron was then passed 8-1 with Cr Glachan the lone naysayer.
It supported not holding formalities on Australia Day in 2024, consult before 2025 and noted that such policy matters be subject to a decision in the chamber and not via briefings.
The decision followed Farrer Liberal MP Sussan Ley drawing 2187 signatories for her petition which urged the council to reverse its Australia Day change and reinstate the official activities on January 26.
Cr Cameron, a Labor councillor, noted over 90 per cent of Albury's population did not sign the petition.
"If I was Sussan Ley and (her adviser) Steve Block I'd give the game away," Cr Cameron said.
"That is a pathetic and ridiculous outcome."
Councillor Jess Kellahan said the petition would have been better targeted at Citizenship Minister Andrew Giles who allowed citizenship rites to be held on days either side of Australia Day rather than January 26 as was the case under the previous federal government.
She said she "did not entertain" 376 signatories from outside Albury and added the other 1866 petitioners, which included former councillors Kevin Mack and Graham Docksey, were absent from Albury's Australia Day event in 2023.
"They were not at Noreuil Park and they certainly haven't been at the other citizenship ceremonies we've run throughout the year," Cr Kellahan said.
Cr Kellahan said the new format of having awards and citizenship events either side of Australia Day would embrace everybody.
"These are not radical changes, these are considered they are inclusive of all people and they are optimistic in seeking reconciliation," she said.
At a forum before the meeting, Wiradjuri leader Ruth Davys and fellow Albury citizens Jen Huber, Janet Osborne and Cate Melville spoke for the council's move, while another resident Celia Hamilton voiced opposition.
Greens councillor Ashley Edwards listed a string of municipalities that have moved events from January 26, "a problematic day".
"It marks the beginning of the British colonial invasion resulting in war, dispossession and genocide against First Nations peoples and the systemic racism and intergenerational trauma that endures," she said.
Cr Glachan, who had wanted to also shift the awards back to January 26, said history could not be erased but if "we had to live and dwell in the past then I don't think the Scots would ever have forgiven the Vikings".
Cr King and Cr Bowen raised concerns with poor consultation on the shake-up.
"What I've heard is our community wants to be brought into the conversation ahead of change, for some deferring the citizenship ceremony has been described to me as stirring a sense of a loss of tradition," Cr King said.
Cr Edwards replied to that comment by asking "I wonder how First Nations people feel about 70,000 years of their traditions being impacted from January 26, 1788?".
Cr Glachan also spoke of thousands of Australians dying for democracy.
Cr Cameron lambasted that framing of Australia Day, saying it was not sacred in the same manner as Anzac Day.
He said the council was indicating it was no longer appropriate to stage citizenship conferrals on Australia Day because it is "a celebration of an Anglo-centric, a British-centric, an English-centric event in our history".
"Forcing people to take their citizenship ceremony on the day that commemorates British and English settlement of this country is a little bit off centre, to put it mildly," Cr Cameron said.
