Australia Day Debate Australia Day Debate

Regardless of what Government tells us, the majority of Australians want change.

Change the name and change the date!

Preferred date: 1st January (overwhelmingly)

Yes, change the name but not to Invasion Day

'Invasion day'
Changing the name of Australia Day to Invasion Day conjures up connotations of war and violence. ("Are Australia Day celebrations headed in only one direction?", The Age, 24/1) Why not change the name to National Reflection Day so that all Australians can reflect on the past and create new pathways for the future. The now outmoded King's Birthday Holiday could become Australian Thanksgiving Day, with opportunities to celebrate our current multicultural and inclusive Australian identity.
Sheila Mansfield, Highton

Recognise the hurt
Surely we're confident enough in our nationality not to need a whole lot of flag waving and fireworks to know who we are. And just as surely, we should be mature enough to recognise the hurt we cause to the people who have suffered from 235 years of dispossession and suppression by this superficial celebration. A healthy feature of Australian culture is that we don't take ourselves too seriously. Maybe it's time we found another date to stock up the fridge and stoke up the barbie. A day other than the day Arthur Phillip landed at Sydney Cove with his cargo of convicts and, without the slightest blush, claimed the continent for the antecedents of Charles III of England.
John Mosig, Kew

Big day off
The annual fuss about Australia Day always assumes two things - that a country needs a day to celebrate its being better than other countries and a holiday needs a name. Approaching another chance to fuss about the country, I cannot recall a single year in which I have done so on Australia Day. It is a day on which we each can do whatever we want, whether we go to work or not. It is a late summer day off before the serious stuff kicks in again. It needs a name as much as the Queen's Birthday Monday does - not at all. Let's be honest and make the last Monday in January the Big Day Off and leave it at that.
Conor King, Pascoe Vale South

Ditch colonisation day
I've never read a more persuasive and succinct case than "It's not the right date to celebrate" (Comment, 24/1). David Berthold reminds us that "Australia is the only nation on the planet that takes the beginning of colonisation as its national day". He highlights that the First Fleet didn't arrive on January 26, it only became a public holiday in 1994 and has long been scarred by controversy, dissent and protest. His knockout blow is his declaration that "Any national day that divides more than it unites is a clear failure".
Kevin Burke, Sandringham

The real Australia day
We should celebrate Australia Day on the day we became the nation of "Australia" on January 1, 1901. This was the day Australia became a self-governing Federation of the previous six colonies. Truly something to celebrate rather than Captain Phillip's rather sad landing at Sydney Cove.
Jennifer Raper, Brighton East

Steps towards reconciliation
January 26 marks the proclamation of British sovereignty over part of the east coast of Australia. Australians should, I believe, celebrate when it became an independent nation on January 1, 1901, even though it's an existing public holiday. As a further step towards reconciliation with First Nations people, a new public holiday could recognise when white Australia voted to change its Constitution to include "People of Aboriginal race", on May 27, 1967, or let us celebrate when the High Court overturned "the doctrine of terra nullius" by celebrating Mabo Day on June 3.
Michael Cawte, Kew

Truly inclusive
The date for Australia Day can only be May 27, the date that 90.77 per cent of the population voted to, effectively, recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as citizens of Australia. On that day we became a nation inclusive of all people.
Kim Smith, Hughesdale

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