Indigenous groups across Gippsland have united to object to the Australian Electoral Commission’s plans to rename the federal seat of McMillan to Monash.
The Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, Bunurong Land Council and Bass Coast South Gippsland Reconciliation Group have called on the AEC to rename the seat in favour of a local Aboriginal name.
Bass Coast South Gippsland Reconciliation Group secretary Marg Lynn said giving the seat an Indigenous name would be a true act of reconciliation.
“Everyone in Gippsland was happy we are getting rid of the name McMillan but justice would be well-served if an Aboriginal name was put in place,” Dr Lynn said.
“It would be a real act of reconciliation to recognise that we owe the Aboriginal people a lot for the suffering they endured by living under the name McMillan.”
Explorer Angus McMillan led massacres of Indigenous people across Gippsland in the mid-1800s. A push to rename the seat has been supported by local Liberal MP Russell Broadbent.
The group is suggesting the name Bunjileene-Purrine after local Indigenous leaders. The proposed name was a collaboration between Gunnaikurnai and Bunurong communities.
Dr Lynn said they were dismayed the AEC did not indicate why it chose the name Monash and were asking for the opportunity to renegotiate an Indigenous name.
“The name Monash was bittersweet – we were very pleased at the name change – but were disappointed by the choice of Monash,” she said.
She stressed they were not diminishing the work of Sir John Monash who founded the State Electricity Commission nearly a century ago among his many achievements.
However, she said Monash was already honoured with a university, scholarship, hospital, freeway, municipality and the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux in France.
“Monash already has a lot of recognition. Aboriginal people get so little recognition. This should be a name chosen by the Aboriginal people themselves,” Dr Lynn said. “Through a joint objection, we feel we’ve made a powerful case to the AEC.”
