A Greater Dandenong Council proposal to take the ‘Australia Day’ out of the title of its annual community awards on 26 January has been voted down.
At a meeting on Monday 14 August, a council review recommended changing the title from ‘Greater Dandenong Australia Day Awards’ to ‘Greater Dandenong Awards’.
Councillor Jim Memeti, backed by Cr Tim Dark, noted and asked for an amendment to the review.
According to Cr Memeti, the council were simply “jumping the gun.”
“We have been having the Greater Dandenong Australia Awards for over two decades.
“It’s a great day to have our community come along and recognise these people who do fantastic work within our community.
“I understand there could be talks in the future, maybe five years down the track, this might be scrapped but from local government level I think we’re jumping the gun,” he said.
“We should leave these decisions to the Federal government, whether they want to change the date or name.”
Opposed by Cr Rhonda Garad, she claimed the community will be able to enjoy the awards day as a proud Australia but with a different name to it.
“Just a reminder that the awards will take place on that day, the community will attend, they will feel proud and celebrate but we are changing the name to an appropriate name which is the Community Awards because that’s what it is.
“This isn’t anti-Australian, this isn’t being political, this isn’t about the federal government, this is not catastrophic.”
Out of 20 nearby councils, only four have continued to hold Australia Day Awards of that name, according to Cr Garad who is a “proud Australian of 15 generations.”
“This isn’t a national awards, this is a community award to recognise community heroes and we’re just changing the name to an appropriate name.”
Cr Dark supported the amendment saying if there was a wide-spread federal change “then that could be a question to the council.”
“To go in now and lead a change which people of my ward don’t agree with, I can’t support.”
Other councillors supported Cr Memeti in the amendment as Cr Garad stood alone and voted against the decision.
As the amendment was carried, Cr Bob Milkovic said, “Thank you to my fellow councillors on a common sense decision.”
