Aboriginal people who would make great councillors are not putting their hand up for local government, says Dubbo Regional deputy mayor Stephen Lawrence.
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Cr Lawrence wants to see more Aboriginal people on council and an increase in Indigenous voters at the election in September.
He's engaged council to develop an electoral engagement strategy to help achieve the goal.
"There are so many [Aboriginal] people out there, and I'm sure all councillors have met them in the course of their duties.. who would make amazing councillors, yet election after election they don't stand," Cr Lawrence said.
"Sometimes it's just the power of suggestion. It's just someone saying to someone 'you would make a really good councillor, have you ever thought about standing?'
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"Engagement is something this council can do, I think, in a formal way to try and reach out to those great candidates and see if we can somehow be the thing that shifts them from having the talent and capacity, into actually getting elected into council."
Speaking at Monday night's council meeting, Tubba-gah Wiradjuri Aboriginal Foundation director Nathan Frank said there was a "severe imbalance" in the number of Aboriginal people on council.
He said based on 14.6 per cent of the population being Aboriginal, there should be two Aboriginal councillors.
"I hope for a day where young Aboriginal people can grow up with pride of their identity and their culture but for this to happen their leaders need to be given a chance to sit at the table," Mr Frank said.
"There are many leaders in the community who have an immense amount of knowledge and experience to share."
He called for council to take action.
Cr Lawrence said the other problem was the disproportionately low rate of Aboriginal voters.
"I've been a candidate in a number of elections in this area and I have spoken to so many Aboriginal people who have said to me things like 'oh, we don't vote mate' or 'I don't vote mate'," he said.
The deputy mayor said the majority of Aboriginal people did vote, but the Australian Electoral Commission statistics showed the discrepancies.
Chief executive officer Michael McMahon is expected to report back to council in April with Aboriginal engagement ideas.