City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali says he didn’t feel comfortable waking up on January 26 this year with the municipality not having organised anything on that day to celebrate Australia Day.
Council voted by six votes to three at its ordinary meeting on Tuesday, February 27, to review its decision from September 2023 not to fund or organise events on January 26 but to instead fund and organise events on dates either side of the 26th.
Council’s first Indigenous councillor, Yorta Yorta man Greg James, opposed the motion, along with councillors Seema Abdullah and Ben Ladson.
Crs Sam Spinks, Geoff Dobson, Dinny Adem and Fern Summer voted in favour of Cr Anthony Brophy’s motion, along with Cr Sali.
“There are two parts to it,” Cr Sali said after the meeting.
“Not only the councillors who went to the events and experienced the views of people first-hand, but also individually, for me personally.
“I didn’t feel comfortable when we got to January 26 getting up and not having our city, Shepparton, organising celebrations.
“I woke up on the 26th of January and did not feel comfortable with not having a celebration or acknowledgment of our national day.”
Cr Sali said at this stage, no changes had been made, and the resolution was only to review the current arrangements.
“Some (councillors) were happy to want to continue to maintain our current position. A majority clearly said we need to review this, and that’s effectively what’s going to happen,” he said.
“So what January 2025 — Australia Day — looks like will be worked through over the course of the next couple of months.
“Clearly, from my opinion and a majority of councillors, we didn’t get it right, so we have an opportunity to review that, which is what we’re doing.”
Cr Sali said the possible reversal of a decision on such a controversial subject did not mean the community should lose confidence in its council’s ability to make difficult decisions in the face of criticism.
“I would expect the community to still be very confident that councillors are making decisions every month and making them and sticking by them, but the community should also expect us to always be reviewing and assessing our decisions because you never know what the outcome can be of a decision until it’s implemented,” he said.