‘Silenced me’: Adelaide councillors divided over funding of ‘Survival Day’ event

An Australian local council is at war over a ‘Survival Day’ event which is meant to be held on January 26.

An Adelaide councillor has claimed she was “silenced” after she opposed the council’s decision to fund a ‘Survival Day’ event on January 26, and asked the community to vote over the matter in a now-deleted social media poll.

The Mount Barker District Council, in the Adelaide Hills, shared a post on Facebook on Friday inviting locals to “respectfully mark” Survival Day on January 26 at an event organised by the Ruby Hunter Foundation, which is supported by a $5000 council grant.

“This year’s FREE Survival Day community event is believed to be the only one happening in the Adelaide Hills,” the post read.

Some refer to January 26 as ‘Survival Day’ or ‘Invasion Day’ to recognise the ongoing impacts of colonisation and the survival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and their culture.

In response to the council’s social media post, councillor Rebecca Hewett, who plans to run for One Nation in the seat of Mayo in this year’s federal election, created a Facebook poll asking the community if they supported council funding of the event on January 26.

Ms Hewett said 85 per cent of the 1,2000 responders voted against the move before the poll was deleted.

The council invited locals to “respectfully mark” Survival Day at a community event on January 26, in a post on Facebook. Picture: Facebook/Mount Barker District Council

Ms Hewett deleted the poll after receiving multiple emails from Mayor David Leach, requesting her to “immediately” take it down.

“Your actions in the attached Facebook post are not acceptable and a breach of the behavioural standards for council members,” Mr Leach wrote in an email to Ms Hewett on Sunday, obtained be news.com.au.

The following day, Mr Leach again suggested that she “take down the posts, and in mitigation also consider a retraction on Facebook”.

“You also have an opportunity tonight to make a personal statement to the council, where you may choose to apologise for your actions,” he added in an email on Monday morning.

Mr Leach requested Ms Hewett “immediately” remove the post. Picture: Supplied to news.com.au

Mr Leach said it breached the behavioural standards document. Picture: Supplied to news.com.au

Speaking to news.com.au, Ms Hewett said she was prompted to create the poll after receiving feedback from ratepayers who were “all unhappy with the council’s decision to spend their money on a divisive ‘survival day’ political event to be held on Australia Day”.

“The ‘survival day’ movement is a political campaign aimed at changing the date or abolishing the concept of a celebratory national day in Australia altogether,” she said. “The council has no business funding divisive national political campaigns with ratepayers’ money.”

Ms Hewett said she attempted to address the matter in the council chamber on Monday night but when she mentioned the Mayor’s emails asking her to remove the post, she was “silenced”.

“When it came time for my short speech on Monday night, I was repeatedly interrupted by the mayor denying that he had said the things he said to me, telling me I was misleading the council when all I was doing was telling the truth,” she said.

“All I have done is what elected representatives are supposed to do – gauge the views of my constituents and represent them in the council chamber.”

“I will not be silenced by someone so clearly out of touch with the views of his community, pushing an agenda that very few people support. And I will never apologise for doing my job or being proud of my country.”

Mount Barker councillor Rebecca Hewett. Picture: Supplied

Mount Barker Mayor David Leach. Picture Dean Martin

Mr Leach told Adelaide radio station FIVEaa he interrupted Ms Hewett’s speech because he has “an obligation as the mayor of the council to ensure that no harm comes to anybody by the words and actions of other people”.

“ I know they have resulted in harm, because Aboriginal people who are my friends, and people that I met on the street, say to me that they are harmed by those words.”

Mr Leach said the Facebook poll does not represent the views of everybody in the council nor the 45,000 residents who live in the Mount Barker area.

“We do market research and we have a community plan and the scorecard reveals that the community is strongly supportive of council being inclusive … and celebrating diversity,” he told the radio station.

“A Facebook poll which could be anybody in the world or anybody in Australia, of (what is) claimed to be 1,000 people, is not representative of the 45,000 people who live here.”

A flyer for the Peramangk Watta Survival Day event. Picture: Supplied

Mr Leach said the council is supporting two events on Australia Day – one being the Ruby Hunter Foundation Survival Day event, and the other the Wallis Family Fun Day.

“They are running at different times on Australia Day. It allows the diversity of the community’s views (and) to exercise their choice on how they will spend Australia Day,” the mayor said.

Eric Richards, the chairman of the Ruby Hunter Foundation, told The Advertiser he was “upset” by Ms Hewett’s Facebook poll.

“It shows Aboriginal people that we do not recognise an Aboriginal nation in this country.”

Ms Hewett earlier voted in support of funding the Survival Day event at an August council meeting.

However, she claims she was not aware the event would be held on January 26.

“I fully supported them being able to run a Survival Day,” she told The Advertiser. “At the time, I did not know that it was going to be run on January 26, so that information wasn’t provided to me when I voted for it.”

News.com.au has contacted Mr Leach and Mount Barker District Council for comment, however, a statement was not provided before publishing.