No more Australia Day politics, please

AS PER usual at this time of the year, there have been reports in the media about the level of support from local councils for citizenship ceremonies to be held on Australia Day.

In fact, the media has reported that 81 of the 537 councils across Australia have opted not to include citizenship ceremonies in their celebrations of Australia’s national day this year.

Some are threatening to scrap Australia Day altogether.

And we’ve even seen the Australian High Commissioner to the UK, the former Trade, Defence and Foreign Minister the Hon Stephen Smith becoming embroiled in it by deciding not to celebrate on January 26 this year.

One of the reports listed Bass Coast among the recalcitrant, although this has now been refuted by the council’s administration.

“There are some stories floating around this morning and Bass Coast Shire Council is listed as not going ahead with the Australia Day ceremony this year. This is incorrect. We will be holding a ceremony as usual at the Wonthaggi Workmen’s Club on January 26.”

Good news.

The shire also states on its website: “We host several citizenship ceremonies during the year. These are held on Australia Day (26 January) and two more times per year.”

Hopefully that will be the case again this year, but we could do without the grandstanding by the former mayor Cr Michael Whelan that marred the occasion last year... and hopefully someone remembers to bring along a recording of the national anthem!

A decision on whether Australia celebrates its national day on January 26 or some other day is not an issue for the Bass Coast Shire Council and those councillors who wish to prosecute a particular view should not be using the council platform provided to them by the local community for other purposes to do so.

It’s just another example, during this present regime, of councillors not being prepared to “stay in their lane” and concentrate on the myriad of local issues facing Bass Coast at the moment, chief among them being town planning and the lack of attention to the residential environment.

The abandonment of the $35 million Surf Beach Sunderland Bay road and drainage improvement scheme was likely a symptom of councillors taking their eye off the ball to concentrate on such issues as the Voice to Parliament referendum, climate change and their own politic agendas.

At least in these last 10 months, before they face the voters again, they should be getting back to the core business of council.