A mayor has been accused of behaving like a ‘schoolgirl’ who didn’t get what she wanted after pushing for a vote in council in the wake of the landslide defeat of the Indigenous voice in Parliament.
Independent Mayor Clover Moore wants the NSW Government to ’embed’ an already established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory panel into the law regulating Sydney City Council.
Undeterred by the 60 percent of Australians who voted ‘no’ in the referendum, the experienced mayor also wants the council to make ‘progress’. The voting manifesto The Uluru Statement from the Heart.
“Now is the time to show continued solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders, leaders and communities by continuing to engage with them as our work continues,” Cllr Moore said on Monday.
City of Sydney Mayor Clover Moore is pushing for her council to embed an Indigenous voice
Liberal councilor Shaun Jarrett has accused Cllr Moore of behaving like a ‘headmistress girl who didn’t get what she wanted’.
“She told us all that we were morally reprehensible for voting not to support what she wanted us to do,” Cllr Jarrett told Sydney radio station 2GB.
“She said she saw ugly Trumpian tactics and harmful disinformation that played on people’s fears and fueled racism.”
Cllr Jarrett said Sydney City’s Indigenous Advisory Panel had been active for 15 years.
“In my time on council we’ve never actually had a report from them, so a lot of it is about checking the boxes,” she said.
Talkback presenter Ben Fordham suggested Cllr Moore could claim to have a mandate because the council region bucked the national trend and cast a yes vote of around 70 per cent for the Voice.
However, Cllr Jarrett said that was not necessary.
‘She doesn’t need that mandate. She already has an advisory panel, go ahead and use it appropriately, consult with them and enable what they would like to see done in our local communities in the city of Sydney,” she said.
“Don’t treat virtue like this because it didn’t get what it wanted.”
Sydney City Council has spent an estimated $500,000 promoting Indigenous Voice in Parliament
Liberal Sydney councilor Shauna Jarrett has criticized Mayor Clover Moore for ‘virtue signaling’ with plans to establish an Indigenous voice on council
The City of Sydney Council has spent at least half a million dollars of taxpayers’ money to support the ‘yes’ vote, but Cllr Jarrett said she could not be sure of the total until an audit she requested was completed.
The package included $260,000 for a communications and engagement campaign, $160,000 for banners and up to $90,000 to support community events at historic municipal locations such as City Hall.
“It will be an awful lot of money and in-kind donations that could have been spent on Indigenous communities and other communities in the city of Sydney,” Cllr Jarrett said.
In August it was revealed that the council had also given Yes supporters $25,000 worth of free office space in the city’s CBD to help with their campaign.
The Yes23 team, in line with the agreement with the council, set up operations for three months in prime CBD real estate in the form of the Town Hall House on Kent Street.