Time for indigenous voice on Orange Council, Power

It’s time that our original Australians were represented on Orange City Council, Gerald Power believes.

The local Indigenous leader says that it is high-time that a self-identifying Aboriginal ratepayer got elected to Council.

‘Definitely, there has never been an identified indigenous voice on Council, not that I know of. Not only indigenous but a diverse group of people, not just middle-aged white men.”

Orange is now a multi-cultural community, and the Council should reflect that,” he added.

“I think a lot of them have been there a long time and there has to be a question mark over their effectiveness.”

Making his fourth pitch for Orange Council, the Orange City Life Mock Councillor believes that now is the time for change.

“I’m going on the ticket now with a group of independents designed to reflect the community of Orange in all its diverse aspects.

“We’ve also got someone from India, who are now one of our highest populations in Orange,” he said.

He is running in September’s poll on a “diversity ticket” after being pipped on preferences at the poll four year’s ago. This was after looking to have secured last spot but eventually losing to one of the big-ticket councillors who rode home on the coattails of second and third preference votes.

“This is my fourth time; I went pretty close in 2017. I was the last person to be knocked-off out of about 88 candidates, everyone thought I was in, but the preferences of the Labor candidate rolled over the top of me… in the end, I lost by about 40 votes,” he said.

He added that having a small “ground game” —  people to hand-out how to vote cards and canvas on his behalf, also probably cost him his spot.

“I only had how-to-vote helps in four out of 13 booths, and most of them knock-offed at about lunchtime, so I was running-around everywhere trying to get to polling booths,” he laughed.

Gerald believes, though, that this time things will be different. “I’ve spent much of the past four years campaigning,” he said. “And I’ve got a good ticket and good support in the community,” he added.

Having watched the current Council up-close in his role as Mock Councillor, he believes that there is  not enough community input into decision-making at the top.

“I think that there’s a lack of consultation, such as with the proposal for the sporting facility at south Orange and the plan to knockdown the trees and the like,” he said.

“There needs to be more consultation and thinking outside the box,” he said.

Gerald also believes that many of the current crop of councillors have become stale.

“There’s such a stalemate inside there, they’re sitting there and treading water and not sure whether they’re going to run again or not.

“They’re twiddling their thumbs, but they should be working hard for us, that’s what they’re being paid for,” he added.

From the Juru people of Bowen near Townsville in north Queensland, he came to Orange nearly four decades ago at a time when racism was still highly-prevalent in Australia.

“When I was growing-up, it wasn’t cool to be black and I travelled to many towns, but Orange was different, the people here really accepted me as a person.

“I experienced racism many times, and then I came to Orange and I thought, ‘Jeez, they’re friendly here’,” he said.

A sports lover, Gerald played years with the Cabonne Shire Cricket Club and was, up to recently, President of the Orange Basketball Assocation, until his other duties took-over his time.

This includes his work running the Aboriginal business enterprises, Indigenous Cultural Adventures and Bush Tucker, in the region.

With indigenous Australians now increasingly making their voice heard in Australian society, now is the time for that new reality to be recognised on Orange City Council.

“Definitely, the voice of the indigenous person, the voice of the community, is vital.

“The people that were here first, that have been here 30,000 years, why don’t we have that voice?” Gerald concluded.