New Australia Day

[smithy]

Ron Barassi has proposed a new date for Australia Day.
I was thinking about this just yesterday and I reckon he's spot on.
We are celebrating an invasion.
Let's celebrate the date when indigenous australians were able to be treated as equals rather than lepers.

RON Barassi has called for Australia Day to be moved to May to commemorate the day Aborigines were given equal citizenship rights.


He said it was wrong to celebrate the day of the European invasion of Australia when "we took" this land from Aborigines.

Barassi, a hero who rushed to save mother-of-three Tess Green who was being bashed in St Kilda on New Year's Eve, said he was willing to take on this new fight even if people disagreed with him.

The 10-time premiership player and coach said Australia Day should be May 27 - the day in 1967 that clauses in the Constitution that discriminated against indigenous people were removed.

In the 1967 Referendum, 90.77 per cent of Australians - the biggest majority in a national referendum - voted to enable Aboriginal people to be counted in the census and to be subject to Commonwealth laws, rather than just state laws.

Barassi said recognising the May 27 date would be the next step on the path to reconciliation.

He said it would be a natural progression after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said "sorry" to the indigenous population last year.

"Australia Day is the day put aside to focus attention on just what a great country this is. But I reckon we're celebrating the wrong day," he said.

"I think we should change the date of Australia Day. We were invaders and conquerors in 1788 when the First Fleet arrived and we took this land from the Aborigines.

"January 26 just doesn't sit right with me and I'd prefer it were changed."

Barassi, 72, said Australia's other cultural landmark, Anzac Day, would be an inappropriate swap.

"The national day couldn't be Anzac Day, because we were fighting a stupid war and we lost."

Barassi said the changing the day we celebrated our nationhood would be an important symbol to the indigenous population.

"I think the day we should dedicate as Australia Day is May 27, the day Aborigines were given citizenship rights," he said.

"I think it was the day that the native people of this land were treated as equals in our democratic country.

"It is a genuinely significant day in our history, one which we should celebrate, but which currently is totally overlooked

[JK]

He makes a pretty good point.

Oh, and whilst I agree with his bit about not moving it to Anzac Day, I think his comments of "because we were fighting a stupid war and we lost" are a bit rough ... Noone wins in war, and to me celebrating Anzac Day is to pay tribute to the numerous brave souls who sacrificed, not because we won or lost.

[smac]

Can we move it so that we get a good run of public holidays all year round? This one straight after Christmas is silly, needs to be mid February or sometime late July or early August.

[Psyber]

I think we should keep "Invasion Day" and add Reconciliation Day and also an Australia Day to celebrate the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia.
We need more Public Holidays...

[Dogwatcher]

Has someone hacked Psyber's account?

[TroyGFC]

No Fukn way!!! Grrrrrr. Australia Day in Jan 26 is always great weather!! Okay yes to an extra day though in May but not in exchage for any others!!

[The Big Shrek]

Agree entirely with the sentiment but pragmatically the likely weather during the public holiday needs to be taken into account.

[Stumps]

you have got to be kidding ? weather?
Should be moved- have always been embarassed by it

[MightyEagles]

Q - What does January 26 mean to Australians?

A - Everyone gets the day off to watch the Cricket. (which usually is played here in Adelaide)

[TroyGFC]

Keep Aussie day as a public holiday
Make ANZAC Day the national day. Alway a public holiday if falls on a Sunday!!
If there has to be another day off so be it, make i my bday so I dont have to keep annoying the doctor for a sick certificate.

[Mickyj]

This reply might get deleted but here goes .I applaud Rudd for saying sorry a Pm needed to do it .
But Australia Day should stay on Jan 26
After seeing a segment on the news last night no matter what the current generation of non indigenous aussies do to say sorry etc it will never be enough .And i took note that the"indigenous aussies" complaining about Rudd only saying sorry because he had to, had a large amount of non indigenous blood.I just wonder what an indigenous aussie with more indigenous blood in them would have said .
And just for the record my "Irish" ancestors were raped murdered killed and those left alive were transported to Australia.Where once they gained freedom it was illegal to be Roman Catholic Christians living in an English controlled country.
Funny my ancestors were the same colour as their English masters.
And for the record I love indigenous aussie culture and have had indigenous aussies as friends .And i have watched indigenous aussie footballers run non indigenous aussies into the ground .

[Punk Rooster]

why would that be deleted?
Topsy Waldron is possibly the only person on earth who could find fault with that- & he's not a moderator...

[Punk Rooster]

January 26th will always be the day for me to celebrate living in this wonderful country- a day to celebrate what we have achieved as a nation. People are free to interpret it's meaning & what it stands for, however they wish- just like Christmas Day, Easter, or any other Public Holiday.
What I don't like, is do-gooders (mainly non-indigenous people) trying to make other n-i people feel guilty about celebrating today.
My experience is that immigrants from all over the world who've settled in Australia enjoy celebrating Australia Day as much as those born here- where's the negative in that?
Any event that draws people together & creates a sense of community cannot be the terrible atrocity that's implied....

[ubeauty]

Ron Barassi has proposed a new date for Australia Day.
I was thinking about this just yesterday and I reckon he's spot on.
We are celebrating an invasion.
Let's celebrate the date when indigenous australians were able to be treated as equals rather than lepers.

its very difficult to take u seriously smithy with that avatar of yours.......

[Psyber]

Perhaps as the date of federation clashes with New Years Day we could re-christen January 26th "Federation Day", celebrating the first month of nationhood, and call the date of the reconciliation speech "Australia Day" and run up a flag that includes black and white to represent the peoples of Australia.

[TroyGFC]

Probably have to change Easter and Christmas now that we are multi-cultured to give Muslims Rumadum off and all other religious days. Also since we have Labour Day I guess a Liberal Day should be in order!!

[Mr66]

Keep 26th January but get rid of the Queens Birthday.
A foreign monarchy is irrelevant to Australia.

[Sojourner]

I got to participate today in the City of Playford Cavalcade of Cars as a part of their Australia Day Celebrations which included the citizenship ceremonies, the car run went all around the City of Playford area and we went through 8 nursing homes where the residents were brought out and clearly had a massive amount of pleasure watching the 250+ vintage and classic vehicles go through.

My highlight of the day however was going past one home where a Sudanese family were out front enthusiastically waving their Australia flags as we rolled on by, its really awesome that people can come and be a part of Australia like that and embrace Australia Day as their own and I feel that really is the point of Australia day irrespective of what nation you have come from!

[Psyber]

Keep 26th January but get rid of the Queens Birthday.
A foreign monarchy is irrelevant to Australia.

Hey! We can't just scrap a public holiday - it has to be renamed. Throwing away a public holiday is un-Australian.
Perhaps it could be Republic Referendum Day and every year the public could vote for or against a model for the republic until one they will accept has been put up sometime in the next century.
After that it becomes "Independence Day"...

[The Big Shrek]

Keep 26th January but get rid of the Queens Birthday.
A foreign monarchy is irrelevant to Australia.

Hey! We can't just scrap a public holiday - it has to be renamed. Throwing away a public holiday is un-Australian.
Perhaps it could be Republic Referendum Day and every year the public could vote for or against a model for the republic until one they will accept has been put up sometime in the next century.
After that it becomes "Independence Day"...

Mobile public holidays are the answer. A public holiday is declared whenever the temperature is forecast over 35 for three days in a row over summer, 30 for two days in a row during spring and autumn and any day over 22 in winter.

When global warming kicks in we should clean up.