THE LNP has objected to the electorate of Cleveland being renamed Oodgeroo by the Queensland Redistribution Commission.
Its submission says Cleveland has remained much the same since its creation in 1992 from the then district of Redlands.
“However, the commission has taken the opportunity to change the name to Oodgeroo,’’ it says.
“It is somewhat difficult to comprehend why, when very limited boundary changes are recommended, that the name of the district should be altered.’’
The submission says Cleveland is a well established district name and Cleveland is the retail and administrative centre of the district and Redlands.
“There is a strong sense of community identity which revolves around Cleveland itself and the broader Redlands community,’’ the LNP says.
“While Oodgeroo Noonuccal is widely recognised as a poet and activist, there do not seem to be compelling reasons to remove the name Cleveland.’’
Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Cameron Costello said the LNP also had opposed the naming of a Glass House Mountains electorate Tibrogargan which made him wonder if the party was philosophically opposed to Aboriginal names.
Mr Costello said he wanted Cleveland MP Mark Robinson to tell voters what he thought about the issue.
He said the award-winning poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, a North Stradbroke Island local, had been prominent on the national stage.
“If she’s not good enough to have the electorate name after her, then who is?’’ he said.
Dr Robinson said he did not wish to comment on names.
He said he was happy the new seat was largely the same but was sad to lose a few small areas of Birkdale and Thornlands.
Oodgeroo is one of Australia’s most lauded poets. She won an MBE (which she returned to the government in 1988 in a protest against Aboriginal disadvantage during bicentennial celebrations) and numerous doctorates from universities as well as her likeness appearing on stamps.
Last year the Queensland Poetry Festival set up the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize in her honour.
She was a political activist on Aboriginal rights and conservation issues. She became a Communist Party member in the 1940s as it was the only party that did not support the white Australia policy.
Mr Costello said it would be odd if a poet who had received so many awards could not be honoured in the area in which she was born.
“I can’t think of anyone else who has said she’s not good enough,’’ he said. “She seems to me to be a logical choice.’’
