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The Forum > Article Comments > Australia Day needn’t be an ideological battleground > Comments

Australia Day needn’t be an ideological battleground : Comments

By Graham Young, published 27/1/2017

We celebrated two Australia Days this year. The bad news is that they were on the same date as each other and not only will there be no extra holiday but half the population wasn't able to see what the other half celebrated.

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I'm not sure that sure that "our long history of settling disputes peacefully" with carry into the future given the increasingly bellicose attitude of the militant Left.

I agree with Graham's final paragraph wholeheartedly.
Posted by ttbn, Friday, 27 January 2017 2:55:32 PM
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On one hand , we have the inner City 'Elites' with their 'progressive' politics, happily living in their dream world bubble.

In the rest of the Continent , we have the 'unwashed' majority,so despise by those 'Elites'..

Brexit , Trump , etc.... the days of the 'Elites' are soon to get more Interesting.

On top of that , when we have the recession , their pretend jobs will be the first to go !

Having never experienced a down turn , they will have bugger all idea what to do.

Australia Day will be the least of their problems...
Posted by Aspley, Friday, 27 January 2017 4:09:19 PM
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Dear Graham,

I don't see what all the fuss is about.
Australia is a great country to live in
and that's what most people celebrate
on Australia Day. It brings communities
together, it brings people together and
it celebrates the good this country has
provided for most of us. All we can do is
accept the present and try to improve
the future. Changing the date of
Australia Day - won't change our past. If we
want to change the date - why not wait
when and if we become a Republic.
Posted by Foxy, Friday, 27 January 2017 5:31:20 PM
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//Graham makes the point well that there are those who endorse the celebration of Australia Day, as well as those who reject it.//

But he fails to make any mention of the just-plain-over-it camp. I like this country, and I'm grateful for the public holiday. But on one side we have the people who show supreme disrespect to our flag by wearing it as a cape (not appropriate flag protocol - it's not an item of clothing and shouldn't be used to cover anything except coffins) telling us we should be all jingoistic and nationalist on the 26th Jan. And that annoys me - these people who claim that they love our flag so much, yet cannot be bothered to educate themselves on how to show it proper respect. It's like a bloke claiming that he loves his dog while he chains it up with no shade or water.

And on the other side we have a lot of people telling us that we should be all sad and mournful because bad stuff happened to innocent people who'd done naught to deserve it after one particular 26th Jan. And it did, but bad stuff has happened to innocent people forever and will continue happening. I already have one day of the year set aside for self-imposed compulsory mourning, on 11th Nov. But aside from Remembrance Day, I prefer to spread my sorrow over bad things happening to innocent people out over all the other days in the other year. All things in moderation. Too much at once will give you depression.

So I avoided barbecues, flags, protests, flag-burnings... the whole damn lot. I stayed inside and finished a book (by an Englishman) then started another book (by a Seppo). Two books in one day? Obviously I'm very unAustralian. I should probably be stoned by the morality police for my seditious reading of books when I should be out getting drunk.
Posted by Toni Lavis, Friday, 27 January 2017 5:35:48 PM
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//Adding insult to injury the advertisement doesn’t even mention Australia Day, except in a passing question from Cathy Freeman “Hey guys, what’s the occasion?”, to which the answer is “Hey, do we need one?”.//

Yeah, and that's why it's a good ad. We're sick of being told that we need to be extra-patriotic on one arbitrary day of the year, and that if we aren't we're not proper Aussies. Proper Aussies are laid back and don't go in for the hand-on-heart, flag-waving patriotism of the Septics. I'm highly suspicious of any Australian that is overly patriotic, because patriotism isn't very Australian.

We'd rather love our country equally all 365 days of the year, and hold impromptu barbecues whenever, and for no real reason, because we have such nice weather that we can do that. The notion that you don't need a special occasion to enjoy life is more Australian than the notion that you must get out and celebrate on the 26th.

//And then there is Po’s throwaway line “Hey, aren’t we all boat people?” Offensive to both sides//

I guess that's why it's not offensive to me. Because I'm on the third, 'Really? Who gives a crap?' side. My ancestors were boat people - the aeroplane not having been invented back then. They were hardly going to swim all the way from Ireland, were they? I don't see what's offensive about the statement of fact: they were definitely boat people. As was everybody else who settled in Australia prior to the last 50 years or so. History. Whoopdee-frigging-doo.
Posted by Toni Lavis, Friday, 27 January 2017 5:36:44 PM
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.

Dear Graham,

.

The historical significance of the 26th January as Australia Day is not evident.

The First Fleet landed in Botany Bay between the 18th and 20th January 1788 but found that it was unsuitable for the establishment of a permanent settlement. Bad weather caused delays in moving to the more suitable site that Governor Phillip and his officers discovered on the 21st January, 12 kilometres to the north at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson, where they encountered the local Aboriginal people.

Though Phillip and a few officers returned to Sydney Cove when weather permitted, on the 26th January, and took possession of the land in the name of King George III, it was not until the 7th February 1788 that the formal proclamation of the British colony and the official vesting of the whole of the eastern seaboard of Australia in the name of the British monarch, actually took place.

The annexation by Phillip and his officers on the 26th January 1788 was, in fact, only a repetition of the annexation that had already been effected by Lieutenant James Cook when he planted the British flag on Possession Island, eighteen years earlier, on the 22nd August 1770. Both performed exactly the same annexation of Aboriginal sovereign territory in exactly the same terms for exactly the same British monarch, King George III, who reigned from 1760 to 1820.

On the 7th February1788 a more formal ceremony was held to enact that same annexation and to officially invest Arthur Phillip as Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the British penal colony of New South Wales.

All three annexation ceremonies hardly qualify as events that anybody could be proud of. That, however, should not prevent any of us from taking pride in our country - including our indigenous compatriots.

What better date to symbolise Australia Day than the day we declare an independent republic ?

In the meantime, I suggest we leave it at that !

Except to add that I'm pleased that Foxy shares this point of view and I hope there are many more who do as well.

.
Posted by Banjo Paterson, Friday, 27 January 2017 11:08:01 PM
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