Back in Black, with Wright moves for DM

As many predicted, Cr Josh Black was elected unopposed as mayor for a second two-year term at the most-recent Council meeting. Cr Phillip Toynton (absent from the September chamber due to health reasons) did not put his hand up for deputy mayor, leading to another first-termer, Cr Matthew Wright, getting the nod as council’s 2IC after defeating Cr Lukas Butler and Cr Kate Richardson in a two-stage vote.

Cr Wright had earlier in the meeting also been nominated and seconded to run for the top job but declined.

He later told Dubbo Photo News that he didn’t think he could give his full attention to the mayoral role at this stage of his life.

“The job of mayor of Dubbo is full-time, it absolutely requires 100 per cent dedication and effort,” Cr Wright said.

“In a different time and place, I might have been happy to give it a go, just not now,” he added.

A successful local entrepreneur, he added that work commitments were not the only reason he rejected the nomination at this stage.

“I run a financial business, but it was also family and personal reasons that impacted my decision,” Cr Wright said.

“Although my children are themselves nearly all grown-up, my youngest son is still at school, so there is that… it’s just not the right time,” he concluded.

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Why we need to approve the position of deputy mayor

Trivia item from the recent election of the new mayor, council each election must agree to also create a position for the deputy mayor, which is not included in the Local Government Act 1993.

“Council agrees to create the deputy mayoral position, or not, each time we elect a new mayor,” Cr Mathew Dickerson told Dubbo Photo News.

“It’s a decision each time we make each time we elect the new mayor and deputy, we have to formally agree to create the position,” the former long-time Dubbo head honcho explained.

Under the NSW Local Government Act 1993, a council “may” have a deputy mayor, but it is not a mandatory or permanent statutory fixture in the same way the mayoral office is, so therefore must be created ad hoc each election cycle.

In related political trivia, it was only an unforeseen tragedy that saw the creation of the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Australia in January 1968. This was shortly after the disappearance and presumed death of Prime Minister Harold Holt swimming off Portsea Beach in Victoria in December 1967.

As it took a number of days to formally confirm that Holt was in fact not coming back, Australia had no formal leader of the nation for a period of time. To avoid a re-occurrence, the new position was created out of whole cloth, although the position is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution!

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Wello Aus Day celebrations saved!

Again foreseeable by the heavy opposition to a council report proposing that the Wellington Australia Day ceremony be rolled into Dubbo’s, our second town’s event was saved at the most recent council meeting.

Following the open public anger at council’s decision last year to hold both the Wellington and Dubbo events on January 25 instead of the actual date of January 26, council decided to hold a workshop on the issue.

A consensus from the councillors at this workshop suggested a compromise be reached that seemed to please most people. Under this proposal, Wellington would one year hold its traditional January 25 evening event, with Dubbo having its usual January 26 morning event the next day, with the times then swapped over the next year with Dubbo going evening, and Wello morning.

To most councillors’ horror though, the report from the Executive presented at the September meet, proposed instead folding Wello’s event altogether with the region having one event at Dubbo.

Following the meeting, Wellington councillor Richard Ivey, however, was pleased to report to Dubbo Photo News that the original alternating days schedule has been passed by council.

“The alternate days motion was put up and was heavily supported by the councillors at the meeting; the proposal to get rid of the Wellington ceremony, was never actually a resolution,” Cr Ivey said.

“So, we’re keeping both the Dubbo and Wellington events under the auspices of the National Australia Day Council,” he added.

Council also confirmed its support for January 26 as our national holiday.

“It was a fantastic result, only one councillor voting against the new schedule, everyone else supported it” Cr Ivey enthused.

“As part of the motion, it was also stated that Council continues to recognise the 26th of January as Australia Day,” Cr Ivey concluded.

For those making 2027 plans for Aus Day, councillors confirmed that the Dubbo celebration will take place on the evening of Monday January 25, while the Wellington event is scheduled for the morning of Tuesday, January 26.

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Volunteer awards to commemorate village gazettal

Talking of tradition and special days, nominations for Dubbo Day Awards – named after the date that our fair city was officially gazetted as a village on November 23, 1849 – have now opened.

These awards recognise our selfless volunteers with Mayor Josh Black encouraging locals to nominate those “who makes a valuable contribution” to the Orana.

“The 2021 Census shows that 16 per cent of residents in Dubbo volunteer, which is slightly higher than the 13 per cent of people in NSW who volunteer,” Cr Black said.

“With so many people in our community volunteering their time in so many ways, there are sure to be lots of worthy nominees; we always look forward to reading all the nominations and hearing about the amazing work these people do for our community,” he added.

Nominations close on Monday, November 2 with award recipients selected by a committee of community members that includes past winners.

This year, the Dubbo Day Awards Ceremony will be held on Thursday, November 19, at Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre.

Nominations can be submitted online at: www.dubbo.nsw.gov.au/dubboday.