My attention has been drawn to an error in my report of 18 November, 2005 of the decision of Ashfield Council to remove the portait of The Queen on Rembrance Day, 2005 and to mark the dismissal of Mr EG Whitlam as Prime Minister on 11 November, 1975.
I had reported that a rescission motion had been brought by the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Nick Adams, and was supported by Councillor Mark Bonanno.
I had described Councillor Bonanno as Liberal. He is in fact a member of the ALP, and a former mayor. Lewis Herman OAM, Mayor Emeritus, and another member of the ALP also spoke forcefully against the motion. The Council divided 6:6 on the recission motion, which was therfore lost.
The Mayor(ALP) voted with the Greens.
The portrait was then immediately taken down with great relish by Councillor "We did it for Gough!" Dale, the mover of the motion, to his eternal shame and to very strong indications of disapproval from the audience.
We congratulate those councillors who were more attentive to the concerns of the people of Ashfield, and to their Oaths.
While Councillor Dale is, as he says , "dumbstruck" that we remain, as the Founders of this nation determined, an indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown,his was a miserable and petty act, made worse by the fact that it was intended to take effect on Remembrance Day, of all days.
We shall include mention of this, together with an estimate of cost in the rogues gallery on creeping republicanism which is under constuction, and which will go onto the site soon.
Until next time,
And a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
from all of us at the ACM National Office,
David Flint