By Philippa Rayment
Epoch Times Melbourne Staff
Nov 27, 2007
Mayor of Portland Gilbert Wilson with the Global Human Rights Torch. (The Epoch Times)
Portland is a vital deep water port yet manages to preserve its harmony with nature. Since its beginning, it has always been a place where industry and natural beauty coexist. This week it opened up its heart and stepped forward to stand up for human rights in China when it welcomed the Global Human Rights Torch Relay.
The wind was blowing straight off the Southern Ocean as Mayor of Portland, Councillor Gilbert Wilson, along with the Global Human Rights Torch Relay team, boarded the town’s vintage tram to make a symbolic journey of welcome.
In spite of the wind, the Torch burned unfaltering during its visit to this town, which is the oldest European settlement in Victoria.
On the steps of the Portland council offices, Councillor Wilson, resplendent in his mayoral robes, officially welcomed the Torch.
“I think it hugely important for the community to send a strong message back to the Chinese [regime] and to tell them what they are doing is not right,” Councillor Wilson said.
“Human rights should be upheld for everybody no matter how high or low we are in human society, from the poor who are usually downtrodden to the wealthy. We should all enjoy equal rights,” he said.
Councillor Wilson said it’s important to speak up for others’ human rights because “we enjoy a very good country with freedom of speech and freedom of owning property.”
“The Games should be about the participation, joy of all nations,” he said. “I find it very, very disturbing that it is going to be painful for a lot of people in China that have just been tossed aside [in preparation for the Olympic Games].”
Rikki Nicholson, a Portland resident at the Torch welcoming ceremony, said he thought the mayor made a good speech.
“It is good, we shouldn’t be scared of speaking out as we can still do business with people. The Chinese people need to be supported in their wish for freedom from destruction. My great, great grandfather was Chinese in the Gold Rush days in Bendigo and my great grandmother was half Chinese. My family and I put on the T-shirts ‘The Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot coexist’ and we were proud to wear them through the town.”
The relay is traversing 37 countries and hundreds of cities around the world seeking to bring an end to all human rights abuses fuelled by the Chinese regime.
Mayor Wilson is a descendant of an Irish family who came to Portland in 1856 and is well versed in local affairs and passionate about his town.
“My father was on the Portland City Council for 27 years so as a young boy I grew up with local government,” he said.
He is a bricklayer by trade, but works for a local manufacturer of wind towers and manages to juggle his mayoral duties with his work.
Speaking about the future, Mayor Gilbert says it is very bright for Portland. There will be about 1000 new jobs in the blue gum industry to harvest the wood chips. “We are pro-industry, but keep in mind our heritage and the environment – we are very keen to keep those two aspects,” he said.
And to prove the point, the modern council building and the heritage town hall sit happily side by side.
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