Row brewing over move to create an Aboriginal advice group for council

A row brewing over a push to create a special Aboriginal committee to advise Northern Beaches Council on issues and projects could ‘divide the community’.

The creation of an Aboriginal community Advisory Group to offer advice to Northern Beaches Council on matters of cultural importance is set to be debated at Tuesday night’s council meeting. Picture: Manly Daily

A feisty debate is brewing over a push to create a special Aboriginal committee to advise Northern Beaches council on indigenous issues for “culturally appropriate” projects and activities.

Mayor Sue Heins, who proposed the Aboriginal community Advisory Group, says there needs to be “a formal mechanism” to engage with local indigenous people.

The group, for example, could review the creation of a formal Reconciliation Action Plan as well as advise on renaming local landmarks in an Aboriginal language.

It could potentially offer advice on “matters of importance” to local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, including infrastructure projects, heritage, council strategies and plans.

Cr Heins said it would provide advice on all issues that “require engagement on culturally appropriate policies and activities”.

Mayor of Northern Beaches Council, Sue Heins, believes an Aboriginal community Advisory Group is needed. Picture: Northern Beaches Council.

But others councillors said there was no need for the group because the council consulted regularly with existing indigenous bodies such as the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.

The proposed body, according to councillors, could also cause division in the community, in the wake of last year’s failed Voice to Parliament referendum.

Based on the 2021 Census, there are more than 1700 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living on the northern beaches.

A motion to set up the advisory group was debated at the council’s monthly meeting on Tuesday night.

In a Mayoral Minute, Cr Heins, part of the Your Northern Beaches independent Team, stated that it would “assist the incoming council (after the September council election) engage with our Aboriginal community in a sensitive and culturally appropriate manner in the future”.

Liberal councillor Dave Walton is opposed to setting up the advisory group. Picture: Adam Yip/ Manly Daily

Cr Heins said that while the council already engaged with indigenous locals, it was only on an issue by issue, or project by project basis.

“However we need a more holistic approach which directs action and is driven by an Aboriginal community Advisory Group working with staff to ensure we take actions and not just simply have conversations,” she stated in her Minute.

The council resolved in April to ask its CEO Scott Phillips to prepare a report on establishing an advisory group to “review a range of indigenous issues”.

Independent councillor Jose Menano-Pires says the council already receives advice from indigenous groups. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Phillips found that 15 councils in Sydney NSW had set up Aboriginal advisory groups or committees.

Liberal councillor David Walton said there was no need for a specific advisory body because the council already liaised with a number of local Aboriginal groups and had policies on consulting with various community groups.

Cr Walton said it could risk “creating more division” in the community that flowed from the Voice referendum.

“We seem to want to be duplicating what’s already in place,” he said.

“And (the CEO’s) report is not clear on what failures we are trying to fix.”

Independent councillor Jose Menano-Pires said the council already received advice from indigenous groups on issues related to development applications and sacred sites.

“I think we need to unite the northern beaches community, and not divide it and that's what this proposal is going to do,” he said.

The council voted to establish the advisory group, subject to funding, in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders includng the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. The council will await the results of a review of what funds may be available over the next few montsh before staff report back to a briefing on “financial options”.