A sign reading “Moreland City Council welcomes refugees and asylum seekers” has been erected outside the council's office in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg, on July 4.
The motion to install the sign was moved by Socialist Alliance councillor Sue Bolton, and passed council vote on May 8.
The council also committed support to the World Refugee Day rally in Melbourne, which called for an end to mandatory detention and deportations, and the closure of Nauru and Manus Island detention camps.
The resolution said that several years ago during the John Howard government, Moreland council had endorsed the Refugee Council of Australia’s "refugee welcome zones" declaration.
The motion included erecting further welcome banners on selected council buildings. The July 4 banner is the first banner that the council has erected.
Prior to the forced amalgamation of the Brunswick, Coburg and part of the Hume Council into the Moreland Council in 1994, the Brunswick Council regularly displayed banners supporting progressive causes on the Brunswick Town Hall. This included banners against the invasion of Iraq in 1991.