The Project‘s Waleed Aly has proposed changing Australia Day to March 2 and he’s got a good reason.
On Tuesday night’s episode, the host said the date should be moved to end division over the public holiday and to mark an important date in Australian history.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he wanted to keep Australia Day celebrations on January 26 but was open to another separate day to celebrate Indigenous Australians.
Discussing Morrison’s proposal, host Lisa Wilkinson said she believed most Australians weren’t opposed to changing the date, but they enjoyed the timing of the current Australia Day.
“It could be as simple as they quite like the idea that it sits at the end of Christmas holidays and it kind of signifies the last barbecue, I wonder if that is part of it,” she said.
Aly agreed, saying people would shift easily if there was a good alternative date.
He suggested shifting the holiday to March 2, which was the day then Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Queen Elizabeth signed the Australia Act 1986.
“The Australia Acts were passed in Australia but also in Britain, and up until that point the British government could’ve more or less eliminated Australia. They could’ve just passed a law and said Australia no longer exists … and that was in the 80s that we passed that law.
“So it was only then that Australia really became a properly, fully independent or sovereign nation, and the weather’s good in March so let’s get to it!”
Australia Day, called ‘Invasion Day’ by some, has become increasingly divisive. This year ‘Invasion Day’ protests were held around the country, and Triple J moved its popular Hottest 100 countdown from Australia Day to January 27.
Currently celebrated on January 26, Australia Day marks the arrival of The First Fleet in 1788.
Led by Captain Arthur Phillip, they declared that the land they had ‘discovered’ belonged to no one. In turn, they dispossessed all Indigenous Australians.
Aly has previously advocated to change the date. He wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in January arguing that the current date “cannot emerge unscathed from the moral seriousness of the objections.”
What do you think of Waleed Aly’s suggestion? Tell us in the comments below.
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Top Comments
There is so much confusion about our 'Australia' Day. The Aborigines wisely did away with time, which as we now know, is a subjective measurement peculiar to the human brain, and a great source of stress. For example:
The First FleetAustralian History Research -- www.australianhistoryresear...
"The fleet arrived at Botany Bay between 18th and 20th January 1788".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi... :
"On 21 January, Phillip and a party which included John Hunter, departed the [Botany] Bay... Phillip discovered that Port Jackson, about 12 kilometres to the north, was an excellent site for a colony.. .Cook had seen and named the harbour, but had not entered it. ... The party returned to Botany Bay on 23 January.'
On the same page is an image of a painting captioned 'The First Fleet entering Port Jackson on 26 January 1788 by Edmund Le Bihan'.
[Fact check: re-entering.]
https://maas.museum/observa...
"..[Captain James Cook] was using nautical time that began at noon and was 12 hours ahead of the civil day. Thus in his journal he recorded his landing at Botany Bay on the afternoon of Sunday 29 April 1770. In civil time that was the afternoon of 28 April and that is the time inscribed on the Captain Cook monument at Kurnell. However, as Cook did not add the extra day on crossing the IDL it is now usual to correct his date to 29 April. These messy corrections are discussed in authoritative detail on the Canadian Archives & Collections Society website."
Messy's the word. Let's just have a Disney-type 'Very Happy Un-Birthday' every day for our questionably acquired GondWonderland.
This idea of Walweed's make some sense! It would be far preferable to the day we now have as this really only "celebrates" (not the right word I know) the day invasion occurred when Englishmen invaded our lands. The poor bloody natives stood not much chance against these well armed men.