Advance Australia Fair to be played at City of Albany council meetings after motion voted in by councillors

The national anthem will now be played at the beginning of City of Albany council meetings after councillors approved the motion on Tuesday in what is understood to be a WA first. Cr Tom Brough tabled the motion to sing Advance Australia Fair before council at its March 24 meeting, stating that the song’s inclusion would be a “unifying expression” of shared national identity and civic pride. Although a handful of local governments in NSW and Queensland sing the anthem before council meetings, the Advertiser understands no councils in WA currently have the anthem listed on their meeting agendas. “The commitment to Australia is the only thing needful to be a true Australian,” Cr Brough said. “This is what Australia’s national anthem represents. Not ancestry, not origin, not when you got here, just the shared fact of being Australian and the civic commitment that goes with it. “There is no good reason why the national anthem of the country whose laws we administer and whose democratic institutions we serve should not also feature at the commencement of these proceedings. “Advance Australia Fair is not a partisan statement. It’s a unifying one.” Concerns around whether monthly council meetings were the appropriate location for the anthem were raised by Cr Rebecca Stephens. “I loved singing the national anthem, and I still do when you’re standing at a citizenship ceremony or a school assembly, and I think that’s the time and place that it should be sung,” she said. “I think you have all levels of government, Federal, State and local, that the national anthem is not played and I don’t think that we should change what we do here in Albany if it’s not reflected in other jurisdictions.” American-born Cr Lynn MacLaren said that, having grown up in a country where the national anthem was sung “at the drop of a hat”, she appreciated Australia’s measured use of the patriotic song and feared it would add length to already time-consuming meetings. The motion was carried 7-2 with Crs Stephens and MacLaren voting against. The playing of the national anthem will join the prayer and acknowledgement of country that take place prior to City of Albany meetings.