Historians recommend moving Australia Day away from January 26 to ‘clear the deck’   
Controversy continues to dog the contested date of Australia Day, and two Aussie historians say there’s only one real solution.


News.com.au
January 3, 2025

Moving Australia Day away from January 26 could be the only way to resolve the day’s tensions, two historians have warned, as the country continues to splinter over the meaning of the date.

Multiple local councils will hold citizenship ceremonies outside of January 26 in 2025, with some flagging Indigenous sensitivities for the move, while others vote to restore key ceremonies to the national holiday.

“There won’t ultimately be any resolution between people who have fundamentally different concepts of January 26,” CQUniversity historian Dr Benjamin Jones told NewsWire this week.

“There is a greater sense of awareness that there are at least conflicted views.”

January 26 marks the date the British flag was planted in Port Jackson, or what is now modern Sydney, in 1788, setting in train the development and foundation of modern Australia.

ANU historian Professor Angela Woollacott said the now annual blast of controversy around the day had developed alongside a “growing awareness” of the country’s disputed history.

“I’m old enough to remember when Australia wasn’t controversial,” she told NewsWire.

Tensions around Australia Day have escalated in the past two decades, according to two leading historians.

“I think it has become controversial in the last couple of decades because of growing awareness around the suffering of Indigenous people and the symbolism of calling it Invasion Day, having that date stand for everything that British settlement or invasion of Australia represents.”

The date’s controversy, though now amplified across social media, is not new, Professor Woollacott added.


In 1938, Indigenous and non-Indigenous protesters held a “day of mourning” protest in Sydney on Australia Day, and in 1988, 40,000 marchers protested the day as the nation marked its bicentenary.

But there is some growing pushback against moves to reposition key ceremonies outside of January 26 and to paint the date as a black mark in history.

In September, Councillors with the City of Unley, a small council area that covers Adelaide’s prosperous southern inner-city, voted 8-4 to restore its citizenship ceremony and Australia Day Awards to January 26, after earlier voting to move the events to the evening of January 25.

The reversal, proposed by Councillor Rebekah Rogers, followed a community survey that showed 60.6 per cent of residents wanted the council to keep the ceremonies on January 26.

A ‘Survival Day’ protest in Adelaide, South Australia, on January 26. For some in Australia, January 26 is not a day to celebrate.

“We cannot ask our community for their opinion and then not listen to the result,” Ms Rogers said before the vote.

“Tonight’s vote is on a consultation process. The community wanted a say and we gave them a say.”

Geelong Council followed Unley in December, voting to restore its ceremonies to January 26.

“People who come to this country recognise how fortunate they are to be living in Australia,” Geelong Mayor Stretch Kontelj told NewsWire at the time.

“I come from an immigrant background and I’ve always appreciated the opportunities that Australia gives.

“For me, Australia Day is celebrating everything that is great and good (about Australia) and citizenship ceremonies are a part of that.”

The drama at the council level surged following a change to the Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code, introduced by the federal Labor government in 2022, that allowed councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on January 26, or on the three days before or after the date.

Some councils that decided to move ceremonies away from January 26 told NewsWire they would hold to the decision for 2025.i

“The City of Hobart shifted its January citizenship ceremony away from Australia Day in January 2023, following the changes to the Citizenship Ceremonies Code,” a City of Hobart Mayor Anna Reynolds said.

“We do not plan to reverse this decision. On average we host between 5 to 6 citizenship ceremonies every year.”

NewsWire asked Hobart council whether it had surveyed the community to inform its decision-making, as Unley had done, but the council did not respond to the question.

The Coalition, meanwhile, has pledged to force councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on January 26 if it wins power at the next election.

“A Coalition government will require councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day,” Liberal Immigration spokesman Dan Tehan told NewsWire.

“(Anthony Albanese) says he has no plans to change the date but he does nothing to show support for Australians who want to celebrate on our national day because he is scared of the backlash from the Greens, especially in his inner city electorate.

Opposition Immigration spokesman Dan Tehan has pledged to mandate citizenship ceremonies on January 26 in a re-elected Coalition government.

“The Coalition believes that new citizens should have the opportunity to become Australians on our national day.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he supported citizenship ceremonies, no matter what day they were held.

“I wish we could have citizenship ceremonies every single day of the year,” he said.

“When I hear people stand up and pledge they want to make a lifelong commitment to Australia I couldn’t be happier.”

Dr Jones suggested a new date might be the only way to resolve the clash.

“As a historian in Central Queensland who thinks about these things, and especially living in Rockhampton, which had for the Voice (to parliament referendum) for instance, (the federal electorate of Capricornia) had the highest No vote in Australia, so it’s something our region has strong feelings on. So my approach has just been to think, ‘well, what do we agree on?’

“I think most people agree there should be a day to celebrate the good things about life in Australia, that’s something most Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians can get behind.

“And also it should be a day that largely brings people together … I think some supporters of January 26 would concede, that it is not a day that unites us, at least not as much as it did. So the question is, is there a possible alternative?”

CQUniversity historian Dr Benjamin Jones said a date change could be the only way to resolve the tensions around Australia Day.

Dr Jones suggested March 3 could serve as a new Australia Day, marking the passage of the Australia Acts in 1986.

“They were the last legal link between the British parliament and the British courts and Australia,” he said.

“So we do actually have an Independence Day.”

Professor Woollacott said the debate around January 26 would “go on forever” and a new date was the only way to “clear the deck”.

“As a historian, we tend to have long-term views … I believe it is only a matter of time until Australia becomes a Republic,” she said.

“And I think that is when we will have a very clear day to be proud of.

“When Australia becomes a Republic, the date that takes affect will be a very obvious Australia Day, when everybody could feel united around that moment of national maturation.

“The debate around January 26 will go on forever and the only way to just clear the deck is to have a new date, to feel good about the country.”

“As a historian, we tend to have long-term views … I believe it is only a matter of time until Australia becomes a Republic,” she said.   

whiteknight wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2025 at 1:02pm:


Too right 

😆🤣😂

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If you look at the question rationally and historically, 26 January is really only significant to NSW.  It is their day of establishment.  Until 1988 Australia Day was celebrated on different days in the various states/colonies.  A far more rational day is 1 January when Australia as a nation was proclaimed on Federation. Australia Day was celebrated on 26 January  nationwide for the first time in 1988, so why should we continue to celebrate it today?  It was a political decision to celebrate it on 26 January so why not change it? Tsk, tsk, tsk... 

Brian Ross wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2025 at 2:06pm:



not read

yawn