Normally I tune out to this annual debate since it feels so polarised and stale, but the messaging from Woolworths, Cricket Australia, the Australian Open and others this year suggests big companies are concerned about an attitude shift within Australian society. It seems they’ve decided the inevitable backlash is now worth it because the silent majority has begun leaning in favour of change.
Is this just a natural result of this being the first post-referendum Australia Day or is there a longer-term change unfolding here?
I think there are probably at least 4 groups:
- A - don’t want a national day.
- B - want a national day, but actively want to change the date.
- C - want a national day, don’t care when it is, even if it is the 26th January.
- D - want a national day, and are staunchly opposed to changing the day.
I don’t think D has never been a huge chunk of the population; the reason people take that position is for a range of reasons (I suspect one is they see being opposed to people who like B is part of their identity, and otherwise wouldn’t care, or maybe they actually like the racist undertones of the date, or they are just conservative and don’t like change, and it’s been that day all their life).
B is probably growing, but C is the position of apathy. I’d imagine C is probably the largest.
The real question is then how A + B balances out D. I imagine that in some states, there is probably more A + B, but other states have a strong D contingent.
Well, I’m C , I think it should be on the day we became a nation but it really doesn’t matter to me much.
The knuckle-dragging mob mentality is going to take a long time to steer into something approaching an reasonable view on historical injustice.
Arseholes like Dutton and Hanson do not help one little bit.
These companies have entire public relations departments that can see the writing on the wall. The people who want to celebrate Australia day as it currently is are dying out / becoming irrelevant. Millenials will soon be the largest generation. Sure there are still millenials that have no problem celebrating Australia day, but they are increasingly in the minority. Even moreso in gen z.
Personally I don’t even know if i think the date should be changed anymore. Maybe it would be better if we embraced Indigenous Australian’s experience and treated it as a day of mourning. Essentially, stop cebrating on this day and treat it more like rememberence day. A day where we reflect on the ongoing impacts of colonisation and commit to rectifying injustices. A day of truth telling. I’m happy to go with what Indigenous Australians think is best.
I’ve thought for a little while now that we should treat it like ANZAC day. The beginning of the day is reserved for ceremony and respectful reflection, which is followed by gradually more social things, like a community breakfast, then by lunch a more celebratory tone is adopted.
In this way the day comes round to identifying with all the emotions someone may hold in themselves about this place.
My workplace allows us to swap the Friday public holiday for any other day within one week so that’s something new. I’m guessing that it isn’t very widespread though
It’s certainly being discussed more and more in my circles, and while we’re talking about it please check out Pay The Rent and consider making an ongoing commitment!
My work let’s us swap the day off. With it being on a Friday this year I don’t think many are swapping. Plenty did in previous years when it fell mid week. Ends up being a bit ridiculous with everyone taking different days though.
I’m really not attached to it being on the 26th. I think shifting it to always being the last Friday in January or first Friday in February would be better anyway. I reckon most people don’t give a shit either way about the actual date and just want a long weekend in summer.
When I was younger it was always a fun day, hottest 100 party and the fireworks in Perth. Hottest 100, I don’t even know when they do that and the fireworks have been canned also.
Maybe if a new day is picked then it can go back to being a unifying celebration. Probably not likely though, I think those pushing the divide and conquer thing like having excuses for culture wars. Getting people angry about stuff other than the massive wealth inequality in our country is their priority.
There is a longer term change happening here.
I think more and more Australians are starting to feel genuinely ashamed at the idea of celebrating a day/event that is a source of pain and grief for many.
There’s no point in having a day to unify the nation if the majority aren’t on board or if it obviously excludes some groups.
There are a few dates around that should be of greater national significance (i.e. major legislation or a historic sitting of parliament). A good one would’ve been the day that Australians overwhelming voted yes in a referendum to recognise the first peoples of Australia, healing the wounds of the past. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and won’t happen probably for another 30 years
I would say do it on the day we became a nation, like every other country does. I can’t remember the exact date but it’s early January
Technically it’s 01/01/1901
@eatham @unionagainstdhmo Perhaps the date of proclamation could work as a national holiday?
“The Proclamation Declaring the Establishment of the Commonwealth was a royal proclamation made by Queen Victoria on 17 September 1900 federating the six separate British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia.”
Another option would be 3 March, when the Australia Act passed, which effectively ended British rule over Australia:
"The Australia Act ended all power of the UK Parliament to legislate with effect in Australia – that is, “as part of the law of” the Commonwealth, a state or a territory (s 1). Conversely, no future law of a state would be void for inconsistency with (being “repugnant to”) any UK law applying with “paramount force” in Australia; a state (like the Commonwealth) would have power to repeal or amend such an existing UK law so far as it applied to the state (s 3). State laws would no longer be subject to disallowance and reservation by the monarch (s 8) – a power that, anomalously, remains for Commonwealth legislation (Constitution ss 59 and 60).[n 6]
…
“The Acts came into effect simultaneously, on 3 March 1986.”
@ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo I think 9 May, when federal parliament first met in 1901. It’s the right year, and more convenient than 1 Jan.
@timrichards @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo isn’t May problematic because of May/Labour Day in one of the states?
@timrichards @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo yeah, Queensland and NT.
@skribe @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo Could always be moved.
It could be argued that that leaves out Indigenous Australians. What about the 21st of May to mark Indigenous Australians being given the right to enrol to vote.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/indigenous-australians-right-to-vote
That is, if we want a day that all Australians and can be proud of. Giving everyone a fair go.
Eh I feel it’s more most people just don’t care about Australia Day.
We’re more concerned about having a day off than celebrating someone landing in Sydney.
That’s part of it, but it’s not the end of it. If that were all it was, then Woolworths, Cricket Australia etc, wouldn’t be actively avoiding it
Well if less people care for it, those companies would also have less reason to do it, no?
Chief executive Brad Banducci told Today that a declining demand in sales of the merchandise was behind the move.
They don’t want to get caught in the middle. If it were just declining sales, they’d gradually fade it out.
But they don’t want turn off people who are upset by it, and they’re not invested in selling it, especially given declining sales, so they silently remove it in one go. Then when they get caught up in the middle of it anyway, they claim it’s just declining sales, because literally anything else will make them the centre of a news cycle about a topic they’re trying to stay out of
In the case of Woolworths, yes, but I’m not sure rising ambivalence is the reason why sporting events are avoiding it. In this situation, outcry following change is generally louder than outcry for change so it would make more sense to just proceed as usual if ambivalence was actually the consideration here. Either way, diminishing support for Australia Day will only strengthen the cause of its detractors.
That’s me. Couldn’t give a toss about the reason behind it, so do whatever you like. Just make sure we get to keep the day off and I’m down for whatever.
Yeah 100%. You can see the change just in gen z’s attitudes towards this. The rallies are also getting bigger each year.
I have no idea, i think it should stay the same.
I say this as an Aboriginal Australian.
Australia day is still a day for celebrating Australia amd all thinga great. The only thing the 26th has is they named the settlement.
First fleet arrived before then.
Besides people will complain one way or another no matter what, ans unfortunately it seems everybody wanta something and if you winge enough you get it.
