Neos Kosmos’ readers have reported that Whittlesea Council has refused to push for a motion that recognise the Pontian Armenian and Assyrian genocides.
Under the initiative of a passionate Greek Australian constituent of Whittlesea who launched a petition, signatures were gathered from several members of the local community; this joint letter was signed by many residents of Whittlesea including non Greeks.
The petition was then submitted to Whittlesea Council requesting the local authority to recognise the Genocides and follow the example set but South Australia and New South Wales.
It is worth mentioning that Whittlesea Council does not have an elected committee. The previous members of the Council had been removed and replaced by bureaucrats. Recently, Community Organisations took to the Federal Government asking for the Genocides to be recognised in a letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Responding to the petition, Whittlesea Council stated that the matter was outside the Council’s scope.
“We unfortunately cannot proceed with this matter as it is not within the jurisdiction of Local Government and Council is unable to comment or consider this matter.”
This stance, however, is diametrically different to initiatives undertaken by Whittlesea Council in the past.
The sender of the letter argued that the former Mayor had spoken about “Indigenous Genocide”, a position also adopted by Moreland Council. He also said that he had met with the Council’s representatives and was asked to send the letter in the first place.
“Then they changed their position saying that that is outside of their jurisdiction,” he told Neos Kosmos.
