Australia Day observances locally continue to generate some angst.

The latest controversy involves claims that two draft council resolutions aimed at ensuring Wellington retains its own Australia Day ceremony were “unlawful”, with a third offering now up for discussion.

The new controversy led to an extraordinary council meeting on Tuesday “to consider a motion titled ‘Wellington 2027 Australia Day Ceremony’, regarding the planning and delivery of the 2027 Australia Day celebrations in Wellington”.

Two Wellington councillors said the issue is, at heart, about trying to ensure that our second urban centre gets to have its own Australia Day celebrations each year.

Since the amalgamation of Dubbo and Wellington councils a decade ago, the tradition had been for Wello to have its event on the evening of January 25, with Dubbo having its event on the morning of January 26.

Readers may, however, recall the strong public opposition when councillors in 2025 voted to move Australia Day for both celebrations to January 25 after a little-advertised vote that defied the wishes of more than 85 per cent of respondents in reported polls on the matter.

Commentary on the issue also came from outside the region, including from prominent conservative Aboriginal advocate, Warren Mundine, who said the move as "totally out of touch".

In September this year, councillors then debated reversing their earlier decision and decided on going back to recognising January 26 as our national holiday, with the plan for Wellington and Dubbo to alternate events between the evening of January 25 and the morning of January 26.

However, the report on the compromise that had been generated via an earlier committee meeting instead recommended introducing a combined Dubbo/Wellington Australia Day event at our regional centre on the one day.

Wellington councillors wanted nothing of that, and the single Australia Day idea was dumped, with the alternate evening of January 25 and morning of January 26 arrangement for both communities agreed on.

Now seeking to ensure that Wellington retains its own ceremony into the future with only Wello locals nominated for civic awards, Cr Richard Ivey proposed establishing a committee to ensure this set up remains into the future.

Two draft resolutions on the matter, however, were allegedly refused by council’s general manager, Andrew Wilsmore, who reportedly informed Cr Ivey that legal advice had led them to being declared “unlawful” under the Local Government Act.

“My aim with the draft resolutions was to ensure that we retain Wellington’s Australia Day with oversight from a local committee who retain the power to accept nominations of locals and to present awards,” Cr Ivey told Dubbo Photo News.

“We want that committee to have more input into Australia Day and for Wellington residents to have ownership of it,” he added.

“Before the meeting, the general manager told me that the draft motion was [allegedly] ‘unlawful’, because it infringed on operational matters that are the responsibility of council’s executive staff.

“We reworded it, and again he [alleged] that it was unlawful, based on legal advice that had been obtained. We asked to see the legal advice, but were told that it was ‘confidential’,” Cr Ivey recalled.

He said that a third motion has since been drafted to be put to the full chamber with this motion that which was to be debated on Tuesday night.

“I want to see a bit of robust debate and I’m not necessarily just going to go along with it,” Cr Ivey said.

“Ultimately, it’s the public that wants to see Wellington retain our own Australia Day events, they’ve made that clear,” he concluded.

While January 26 is sometimes referred to as “Invasion Day” by some in the community, including some First Nations people, marking the date from which the European colonisation of Australia began, fellow Wellington councillor and Wiradjuri local, Adam Ryan, is firmly on Cr Ivey’s side in the matter.

“The motion is to ensure that Wellington always has its own Australia Day celebrations,” Cr Ryan said.

“I’m 100 per cent behind it, as soon as the councillors said that Wellington needs its own Australia Day, as it always has, we’ve also got to have our own committee,” he concluded.

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Data centres, AI, and the US midterm elections…

One might suppose that the high drama of American politics doesn’t often intersect with local government affairs in a regional centre in country NSW.

However, a debate to go up to the next council meeting covers one such very topical issue that is also very current in the USA.

During the recent US “mid-term elections” – named because they fall in the two-year midpoint between the four-yearly US presidential vote – pollsters found that fears of AI (Artificial Intelligence) were high on voters list of concerns.

Opposition to the huge, intrusive, high-powered data centres (mostly located in rural areas for reasons of land cost) that are driving the AI revolution was also noticeable. In fact, nearly 50 local government areas in 10 US states passed ballot measures restricting or banning data centre development.

Up until now, data centre developers in America have reportedly been able to push through projects against local community opposition via state-level fast-track planning laws, secrecy, and aggressive marketing.

Mayor Josh Black said that council will soon debate the issue, with a recent paper on the matter being presented to councillors for discussion.