Cumberland City Council overwhelmingly rejects proposal to scrap Acknowledgement of Country

A Sydney council has come to a conclusive decision over a call to ditch Welcome to Country ceremonies — and things got heated.

A western Sydney council has overwhelmingly voted down a “shameful” proposal by one of its right-wing members to ditch Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies.

Cumberland City Councillor Steve Christou, who joined the Libertarian Party in December, brought the motion at Wednesday night’s council meeting to “remove the protocol for Acknowledgement of Country being undertaken at council’s civic functions and council meetings”.

But the move was overwhelmingly rejected, including by the Liberal councillors, with Cr Christou facing a barrage of criticism from his colleagues who accused him of “grandstanding” and “dog whistling” on a “culture wars” issue rather than focusing on ratepayers, the Parramatta Advertiser reported.

Cumberland has five Labor and four Liberal councillors, two from Our Local Community, one Green, one Libertarian and two independents.

Cr Christou’s motion was brought with independent Eddy Sarkis, who abstained from the vote leaving him without a single supporter.

“I’m unfazed by the petty attacks and the hostile environment [last night],” Cr Christou told news.com.au

“They kept rudely interjecting while I was speaking and trying to make a mockery of the situation.”

Cumberland City Councillor Steve Christou. Picture: 7News

Cr Christou insisted that “the realities are 64 per cent of Cumberland City Council residents voted No in the Voice to Parliament, and Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton has given a commitment to axe public funding of Welcome to Country ceremonies and pledged to stand under the Australian flag”.

“Yet four of his own Liberal councillors defy his wishes,” he said. “It’s hard to take the Liberal Party seriously.”

Cr Christou rejected accusations that he was grandstanding and taking away time from more important business like roads and rubbish.

“This is just opportunistic nonsense,” he said.

“I have stood up on this issue for the best part of four years with local residents. They are just sick to death of the inequality. People that were either old Anglo pioneers or migrated to Australia in the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, they helped build this country, worked six, seven days a week. To be constantly told ‘never was, never will be their land’, it’s very insulting. It’s about equality for all. I want everybody to stand shoulder to shoulder, including Indigenous Australians.”

During the meeting, Liberal Deputy Mayor Michael Zaiter hit out at Cr Christou.

Cumberland Deputy Mayor Michael Zaiter and Mayor Ola Hamed. Picture: Supplied

“How is this getting our residents to lead a more sustainable life? I can’t see that,’’ he said, the Parramatta Advertiser reported.

“I know it’s boring to talk about roads, rates and rubbish but these are the things people want from us.’’

Liberal Joseph Rahme reportedly shouted at Cr Christou for wasting time on federal issues.

“When you were Mayor for four years you never spoke about this once … now you’re grandstanding,” he said.

“Quite frankly, I will not allow state and federal grants to be cut from our residents in the name of political grandstanding.”

Labor’s Diane Colman suggested Cr Christou was insincere, noting he “has himself done an Acknowledgment of Country over 50 times in Cumberland Council events”.

Cr Colman said it was “the latest Salvo in his culture wars, dog whistling to his 3 per cent at the expense of the majority of the people in our community”.

Labor’s Enver Yasar labelled the proposal “shameful” while Sujan Selventhiran from the Greens delivered his own Welcome to Country.

Welcome to Country at the AFL Indigenous All Stars match in Perth. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Cr Christou insisted it was “not an attack on Indigenous people”.

Despite losing a “20-minute vote in the chamber” Cr Christou maintained he would “win the support of the community”.

“I don’t know why certain people voted that way, probably eight or nine weeks out from the election they’re scared to rock the boat,” he told news.com.au.

“But they’re going against the position [of their federal leader].”

It comes after commonwealth government departments last month were accused of fuelling a “multimillion-dollar industry” for Welcome to Country ceremonies after tax payers were slugged with a $450,000 bill for the protocols.

Documents obtained by the federal opposition under freedom of information revealed 300 Welcome to Country ceremonies had been performed across 21 government departments over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years, totalling to $452,953, at an average of $1266 per ceremony.

“Welcomes to Country should be genuine and authentic, not a lucrative income stream at the taxpayers’ expense,” said opposition government waste spokesman James Stevens.

“Spending millions on ‘welcome’ ceremonies does nothing to address the challenges facing Indigenous Australians. This money could be better spent on delivering real solutions to Indigenous communities.”

Originally published as Cumberland City Council overwhelmingly rejects proposal to scrap Acknowledgement of Country