Mark Nielsen, Onkaparinga Council mayor candidate says councils are too political

A southern suburbs mayoral candidate has clarified his comments after he suggested suspending acknowledgments to First Nations people, calling it a statement from ‘thieves’.

A mayor candidate for one of Adelaide’s largest council areas has called for council to refrain from political agendas, vowing to suspend Welcome to Country acknowledgments.

Mark Nielsen, a mayoral candidate for the Onkaparinga Council, condemned council being a third tier of government and becoming involved in political movements such as the Ukrainian war and acknowledging the First Nations people with Welcome to Country ceremonies.

Mark Nielsen took to Facebook saying he will suspend acknowledgment of First Nations people if elected.

Posting what he will be prioritising if he is voted in as mayor, Mr Nielsen answered several questions on the Onkaparinga Council Watch Facebook page including that local governments should leave politics alone.

“I don’t believe councils should be engaged in political statements,” he said.

“There was a referendum in 1974 and in 1988 asking people if they wanted councils to become the third tier of government and they voted no.

Mr Nielsen went on to state councils and governments had ignored residents and had subsequently gone on to politicise “things like acknowledgment for First Nations people, flying foreign flags etc.”

Screenshots of Mark Nielsen saying he will suspend acknowledgment of first nations people

Screenshots of Mark Nielsen saying he will suspend acknowledgment of first nations people

“I believe we should suspend all these acknowledges (sic) until we have properly consulted rate payers,” Mr Nielsen wrote.

“Leave it up to rate payers to decide. Stop telling rate payers what they have to do.”

When contacted by the Messenger, Mr Nielsen clarified his comments calling the Welcome to Country a ‘statement from thieves to victims’.

“I have said the acknowledgment is a hypocritical statement from the thieves to victims and it needs to change to something that’s real,” he said.

“We will need to consult residents of Onkaparinga and all tribal elders across the country rather than accept what is dictated to us by the thieves.

“All of government is party to this theft. We will address this if we are elected.”

On his candidate page, Mr Nielsen pledges to ‘return to the basics’ and that the government should take on political agendas.

“What we don’t like is paying for things which are political and partisan in nature and almost always engaged in by council, at great expense to rate payers, without their consent,” he said.

“If any issue has only partisan support; if rate payers have differing opinions based only on their political affiliations then council should have nothing to do with it. Hand it back to government.”