Women councillors from local government areas across the state descended on Griffith for an executive meeting of a state-wide body focusing on women in government.
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The Griffith City Council chambers played host to an executive board meeting of the NSW branch of the Australian Local Government Women's Association (ALGWA) on Saturday, with representatives from councils across the state coming to the city to discuss issues affecting women both in and outside of local government.
President of the ALGWA NSW branch and Lithgow City Councillor Cassandra Coleman said the executive board hosts meetings in different local government areas across the state and a decision to host the meeting in Griffith was made after Griffith City Councillor and ALGWA executive member Anne Napoli extended an invitation to the board with the backing of council.
"It's good for us to experience different areas of NSW," Cr Coleman said.
"We learn a lot from it and take it back to our own councils."
On the agenda for the meeting was a discussion on the murder of Hannah Clarke and her children, with the branch passing a motion to call on the federal government for a royal commission into violence in the home, as well as planning a return to Griffith in May to host a forum encouraging women to consider running for local government.
Part of the ALGWA's vision is to have women make up half of all locally elected council representatives.
"We're hoping that women will see that it's important for them to run for council," Cr Coleman said.
"We are 51 per cent of the population, we bring a different perspective to council and it's women who generally use the services councils provide [such as] the parks and the libraries."
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Cr Napoli said it was important to highlight the city as well as encourage the role women play in local government ahead of September's elections.
"I really believe it's important to have a mixture of diversity around the table," Cr Napoli said.
"At the moment Griffith stands at 33 per cent [women representation of elected councillors], a little bit lower than the state average... [it's also] encouraging young women out there that there is a future in local government and giving back to our community.
"I'm really excited to have these inspirational women executive members of ALGWA taking their time to come to Griffith to hold an executive meeting here... I think it's important that we promote our area [and] showcase what we have to offer."
The meeting is the last before the annual state-wide conference in Shellharbour, which is due to be held between March 26 and 28.
Griffith will be sending three councillors - Cr Napoli, Councillor Rina Mercuri and Councillor Brian Simpson - to the event.