A number of local indigenous leaders used public question time to speak passionately in support of Councillor Jess Jennings’ contentious notice of notice calling on council to formally oppose plans to repeal Section 18C of the Act.

Among them was Aboriginal elder Kalmadyne Goombrydge, who shared a story about how the kangaroo and emu came to be on Australia’s coat of arms.

“Many years ago when they set up government here in Australia they asked an old dark gentleman ‘what are the two most important native animals in Australia?’ and he told them the kangaroo and the emu,” Mr Goombrydge said.

“When they asked why, he said: ‘I’ve yet to see a kangaroo or emu run backwards’.

“With changes to 18C they’ve got the feathers of the emu and the fur of the kangaroo and they’re holding them down.

“I don’t want my people being called boongs and coons and abos any more.”

Mr Goombrydge said the community came together recently for Sorry Day in a celebration that gave him hope for the future.

Fellow elder Bill Allen described his struggle to build a life for himself and his family after arriving in Bathurst from Kempsey in 1963, but said he only encountered racism after buying his first house on the corner of Morrisset and Stewart streets in 1967.

“The other people in Morrisset Street at the time took up a petition to have me and my family moved out of Bathurst – they didn’t want us living next to them,” he said.

“How I found out about that was that John Matthews, the mayor at the time, pulled me up in the street and told me about the petition.

“I asked him what he did and he told me he hounded them out of his office. And my family and I said ‘tough’, if they don’t want to live next to us then they can move.

“But the thing is, all those racists ended up pretty good friends with my boys and my girl.”

But Mr Allen said there was still work to do in Bathurst, especially with regard to the employment of Aboriginal people by local private firms.

“I only know of one Aboriginal person working with a private enterprise, and that’s my son Brett,” he said.

“Everyone else is working in government- funded roles, but an Aboriginal worker is just as good and just as smart as a white employee.”

Charles Sturt University lecturer Dr Michelle Evans said the attorney general planned to replace Section 18C with a weakened section.

“One of the things we need to take into consideration is the tension between our rights as citizens of Australia and responsibilities as citizens of Australia,” Dr Evans said.