In response to calls to change the date of Australia Day, the man who purports to want to bring us all together has suggested we should instead have a different “special day” set aside to recognise indigenous people.
He further added that those who recognise the pain caused for many by using January 26th are engaging in “indulgent self-loathing.”
According to Scott, we must celebrate on January 26th because that is the day we “moved into the most recent, modern form of our history.”
Others would argue that the birth of modern Australia was on New Year’s Day 1901, when the British colonies of Australia formed a federation.
The PM stripped Byron Shire Council of its authority to conduct citizenship ceremonies earlier this week after the northern NSW council announced plans to shift the date to January 25.
In response, the mayor said “I thought we were actually celebrating Australia Day, not ‘modern’ Australia Day.”
“Is it true mateship to willingly, wilfully and continually celebrate what rightfully is great to be an Australian on a day that some Australians are pained by?”
One would think this is some great tradition under attack when, in actual fact, prior to 1994, the public holiday was always on a Monday regardless of the actual date. Granted, it was the Monday closest to January 26th, but it’s not like we cared about that actual date – we just wanted a long weekend. And I am fairly certain if you phrased the question that way – would you rather a long weekend or just some random day of the week off – most Aussies would be happier to have Monday (or Friday) off.
Australia Day should not be a day for drunken white yobbos with Southern Cross tattoos and flag capes to terrorise anyone who doesn’t look like them, as happened in Scott’s own electorate in 2005.
Why should we celebrate a foreign state invading and claiming this country to use as a penal colony? I am fairly certain my ancestors who were transported here as convicts would not have been celebrating either.
Let’s get real here. The date is nothing to celebrate. Being Australian is. Surely, as a civilised society, we can consider others’ feelings and avoid deliberate hurt.
Can we cast off the shackles of a colonial past and move forward together in respect and understanding? Or are we to bow to the Anglophiles and sink into the hatred and division fostered by the ugly Hansonites?
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