Cumberland Council discusses monument for all its cultural groups
A council in one of Sydney’s most multicultural communities has discussed having monuments to honour multiple groups weeks after a similar plan was labelled a ‘cheap grab for votes’.
Parramatta
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A councillor who slammed a proposal to install a monument for Cumberland’s Afghan community has again demonstrated his objection – by suggesting tributes for the Chinese, Lebanese, Greek, Italian, Korean and Sri Lankan communities as well.
Last month, Joseph Rahme voted against a motion by councillor Steve Christou for the council to look into constructing a monument for the Afghan community.
He labelled it a cheap grab for votes and said it would set an unwanted precedent, particularly for cultural groups that outnumbered the Afghan 6500-strong community.
“I won’t be supporting it purely based on the fact that I don’t want to set a precedent and we’re not in the business of putting up monuments for every nationality,’’ he said.
At the most recent meeting, he acknowledged his motivation for suggesting multiple monuments was to show an individual cultural group could not be singled out.
Cr Rahme accepted Cr Kun Huang’s suggestion to build one monument to honour all the groups instead of more than 126, which was “not practical”.
“It is fitting that we need to have a monument that reflects the cultural diversity of our local area,’’ Cr Huang said.
“If council is going to put up anything it will have to be reflective of all the community, not just one.’’
Cr Rahme welcomed the amendment and said “maybe we could save a bit of money by incorporating the Afghan one into this”.
Councillor Paul Garrard rejected a monument and said a garden would be better.
The council will now prepare a report to investigate opportunities for the installation of the monument celebrating the multicultural communities.
It will also propose location options and costs.
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