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Tuesday 29 October 2002, Media Release

ABORIGINAL WIN AT LGA CONFERENCE

The Local Government Association of NSW today elected three Aboriginal candidates to its executive committee at the LGA Annual Conference held in Broken Hill this week.

Two of the newly elected LGA committee members are also NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) councillors. They are NSWALC Treasurer, Robert Lester, and Cr Rod Towney, who will represent metropolitan and country interests respectively. Deputy Mayor for Dubbo City Council, Cr Warren Mundine, was also elected to the executive committee.

Each of the 13 Regions of the NSWALC were granted membership to the LGA in July 2001 following a resolution at the 2000 conference to include Regional Aboriginal Land Councils as members.

The Chairperson of the NSWALC, Les Trindall, hailed the election as a great victory for the NSWALC and the Aboriginal people of NSW.

"We are delighted that two of our Councillors have been elected to the executive committee so soon after our membership to the LGA. I also congratulate our brother, Warren Mundine, for his election," Chairperson Trindall said.

"We are confident that these elections will have a great impact on how the NSWALC network works in the future with local government.

"While we celebrate this as a victory, we remember that our people still suffer discrimination in many areas of NSW and many of our communities remain without basic infrastructure such as clean water or adequate sewerage systems.

"We are hopeful that the election of two of our NSWALC councillors to the committee, will have a profound and lasting impact on the lives of our people."

The Local Government Association (LGA) represents and promotes the interests of metropolitan and country councils in NSW. The Association has a 25 member Executive Committee which includes five office bearers and 10 members representing metropolitan councils and 10 representing country councils.

Pat Dixon was the first Aboriginal person on the LGA executive committee, following her appointment as Vice-President General in August 2001.