17 December, 2019

17 December 2019

NSW Aboriginal Land Council Chair and Deputy Chair re-elected

North West Region Councillor, Anne Dennis has been re-elected as Chairperson of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC). 

Northern Region Councillor, Charles Lynch was also returned as her Deputy.

Councillors Dennis and Lynch were appointed by the nine member NSWALC Council, which met for the first time following the election of Councillors held on 30 November. 

Cr Dennis thanked her fellow Councillors for the faith they had placed in her.

“Being only the second woman to Chair Australia’s largest member based Aboriginal organisation is both an honour and huge responsibility,” she said.

Cr Dennis said her priority for the next term would be to leverage the return of land to build education, employment, economic development and housing opportunities for Aboriginal people.

“This is the third wave of Land Rights, where we move our people beyond survival so they are culturally rich, politically strong and economically self-reliant,” she said. 

Cr Dennis is a Gamilaraay woman from Walgett who was elected to NSWALC in 2011.  She became Chair of the Land Council in August 2019.  A former teacher, she is a life member of the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group.

Cr Lynch is a Gomeroi man born in Tamworth.  He is an accountant and was first elected to NSWALC in 2015, before becoming Deputy Chair in August 2019. 

NSWALC Councillors are elected by eligible voting members of LALCs to serve a four-year term. One Councillor is elected to represent each of the nine regions in NSW. The elected Council then appoints a Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson for a two-year term, after which, they are eligible for re-election.

Media contact: Paul Cochrane on 0437 543 626