Wrong, rushed, and transactional.

That’s how councillors Abigail Goodman and Damien Ross of the Naracoorte-Lucindale Council described the council’s recent decision to drop the prayer and replace the Acknowledgement of Country with a shorter and more “inclusive” two-line statement.

During the council’s March meeting, a motion for a revised code of practice for council and committee meeting procedures, which includes the new welcome statement, was put up for endorsement.

The motion was moved by Cr Cameron Grundy and seconded by Cr Darren Turner.

While the motion was carried, it did not receive support from Cr Monique Crossling, Cr Goodman and Cr Ross.

Crs Trevor Rayner, Craig McGuire, Tom Dennis, Peter Ireland, Crash Downward, Darren Turner and Cameron Grundy voted in favour of the motion.

Speaking during the motion, Cr Goodman said she agreed with the changes proposed in the policy update but strongly disagreed with the removal of the opening prayer and welcome.

“With that, I can’t support the policy motion as it is put here,” she said.

Cr Goodman said the prayer was relational.

“It spoke to how we respect and value the roles that we as councillors perform and that we are elected to do, who we represent, and how we conduct ourselves in the chamber,” Cr Goodman said.

“This is about setting the culture of the council, which is reflective of our community, and I don’t feel it recognises how the new words recognise the council role as I see it.

“I think the new words that we have don’t reference the relational nature of the work that we do, which is everything that we do is built around trust and respect, and I think the new words are transactional, and that takes away from how our council sets to do its business.

“I think the removal of the acknowledgement was framed around being an inclusive move, however, broadly, the feedback that we have had through emails, face-to-face, and Facebook hasn’t been how great it is that we are more inclusive.”

Rather, Cr Goodman said it has been about “how it’s good that we don’t acknowledge a group anymore, and that’s the exact opposite of what the intention was for this.”

“And worse than that, some of the speeches, emails, and Facebook commentary have been negative and derogatory in nature, and as such, some of these posts had to be removed from Facebook pages, which is hugely disappointing.”

She said “these kinds of things” were not publicly spoken about or posted on Facebook prior to the council’s decision.

“So, as leaders in our community, we have a responsibility for ensuring that these kinds of things do not occur,” Cr Goodman said.

“I think it was the wrong decision to remove these things at our last meeting, and I think it’s the wrong decision now, and I won’t be supporting the motion.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Cr Ross asked Mayor Patrick Ross if he discussed with local member Nick

McBride what the implications would be of removing or changing the acknowledgement to country.

Mayor Ross replied: “No.”

Council CEO Trevor Smart was also asked by Cr Ross if there were any programs within the council due for review that involved external government funding in the near future.

Mr Smart said the Country Arts SA program expired on June 30, 2024, and was up for review at the moment.

Cr Ross said his point was that the council removed the prayer, which was a pledge, more than anything.

“It’s about making decisions based on merit and the pitfalls of each matter that is placed before us,” Cr Ross said.

“So, I don’t believe that we are basically making a good judgement call.”

He said the decision was carried 6–4.

“So, yes, it was enough to get it across the board,” Cr Ross said.

“But it showed that there were still four people that were willing to make input—all 10 people acknowledged that the wording could be altered, and let’s put some input into it.

“I believe it’s a rushed decision, really, one that was not well thought of. Initially, it was brought in as a point of discussion, I don’t believe it should have been judged and a decision made that evening without some serious thought put into what the ramifications could be.”

Cr Ross said, “We are here to remove all our biases and to make sure we act on the community at large, and I don’t believe that was done in the decision that we made.”

Cr Tom Dennis

Contributing to the debate, Cr Dennis said the community was appreciative of the new wording.

“My feedback from the community has been appreciative of the new wording, and I think that summarises the work of the council.”

Cr Cameron Grundy

In his input, Cr Grundy highlighted the overwhelming support for the new version of “welcome to the meeting.”

“A few who did oppose our new version were mostly from taxpayer-funded organisations and could have been described as `activists’,” Cr Grundy said.

“I am content that we remain aware of being divided as a community and push back against being divided by race, as it is un-Australian and does not fit well with our feedback.

“The new welcome is the right and proper way, I believe.”

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This article appeared in the Naracoorte Community News.