Advocate, JUDY HERBERT P.D03 – 3 July 2012

MY suggestion to wipe the debt owed to the council by the Devonport Football Club has ignited passionate debate.
I stress that the option is my personal view, not the preferred or desired outcome, and was designed to seek public debate – which it has done.
This issue needed leadership and an option put forward because negotiations over the past nine months about the debt, which is now 16 years old, failed to reach an outcome.
The time had come to bring the issue to a head.
We are working towards a satisfactory outcome and hopefully this will happen by the end of August.
Each year in July around Australia a greater understanding of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are highlighted in NAIDOC Week.
In Devonport on Sunday we saw a flag raising ceremony at the Bluff followed by the launch of Aunty Patsy Cameron’s book Grease and Ochre.
This year also marks 50 years since Aboriginal people were given the right to vote and it’s 36 years since Tiagarra was opened at the Bluff. The centre has been a strong collaboration between the Aboriginal community and the council – that relationship will continue to get stronger.
Soroptimist International of Devonport celebrated 60 years last weekend.
They have been a driving force behind a number of outstanding community projects but many in the public would not know of the Soroptimists’ contribution.
It has been an incredible 60 years – thank you and congratulations!
A copy of the council’s Annual Plan and Estimates is available at www.devonport.tas.gov.au/plans- reports Thank you.