Update
Sutherland Shire Council has done a backflip and reinstated the Young Citizen of the Year for the 2019 Australia Day honours.
The council announced the move on Wednesday after front-page and online reports by the Leader revealed the award had been dumped without explanation.
The decision was strongly criticised on the Leader’s Facebook page.
A council statement on Wednesday afternoon said:
“We are always looking into ways we can improve Council initiatives offered to the community and with the Sutherland Shire Citizen of the Year award open to all ages, this award was able to accommodate nominations in both adult and youth categories.
“Having considered the views of mayor, Cr Carmelo Pesce, and his fellow councillors, expressing their passion towards supporting young people within our community, and recognising the contribution they make, we are pleased to continue to offer the specific category of Young Citizen of the Year for the 2019 Australia Day Awards.”
Earlier
Sutherland Shire Council has dropped the Young Citizen of the Year award from Australia Day honours.
The council confirmed the move after the Leader questioned why it was not mentioned in a statement by mayor Carmelo Pesce calling for nominations for the 2019 Sutherland Shire awards.
The 2018 recipient of the award was volunteer youth leader Polina Pavlenko, who the council said at the time was “a committed and enthusiastic bi-lingual youth leader with over 90 hours volunteer hours up her sleeve in the last 12 months’
“Polina is also actively involved in many projects to challenge social injustices and affect change,” the council said.
Other nominees for the 2018 Young Citizen of the Year award included the founder of an Oxfam group in the shire and volunteers working to help young people with mental health challenges.
The council did not explain why the award was dropped, but said other ways to recognise young people were being examined.
“This year, council will award two 2019 Australia Day awards – Citizen of the Year and Community Group of the year,” a spokeswoman said.
“The 2019 Sutherland Shire Citizen of the Year award is open to nominations of any age category and will recognise a Sutherland Shire citizen for their outstanding contribution to our community.
“We are looking into ways we can improve our recognition of the young people within our community.
“To recognise and reward youth, we have initiatives in place such as Youth Week and the Youth Council, where young people can self-nominate to be involved in personal and professional development opportunities including training courses and conferences.”
“We look forward to sharing further youth initiatives as they are rolled out through emerging programs.”
The 2018 award nominees, and the qualities cited by the council, included:
Jacqueline Jamieson: “Jacqueline has always been someone that deeply cares about people that need help. Jacqueline founded and organises the Oxfam Sutherland Shire community group, where members create awareness about refugees, human rights and how our community can help.”
Aaron Royall: “Aaron is presently running 18 sanctioned marathons (42kms) around Australia along with special events such as the Larapinta Trail/Alice Springs (138kms) to raise much needed funds for the Black Dog Institute. The main aim is to create awareness & educate around mental health & youth suicide.
Elisha Tripp: “Elisha has volunteered with headspace in the youth reference group for over two years. Elisha attends monthly meetings participates in staff interview panels, attends events, school presentations and presents at youth forums.”