Flo,

Absolutely correct.

But, we cannot move to a republic until we celeberate things that have real meaning in a proper fashion. If you land on a desert island and you have no other points in of significance in your history, then the only reference point you have is the day when you first landed.

Imagine a proper re-enactment of the first fleet's arrival on January 26th in Sydney harbour. In a single boat, coming to shore would be Kevin Rudd and say 30 other people of purely anglo-irish descent all smiling broadly, this is our day!

On the shore to greet them would be a mixture of aborigines and Australians of every other race on earth. January 26th is a day of exclusion.

Whereas, celebrating Australia Day on January 1st, would be about the setting up of a system of national government. Happy New Year - Happy Australia Day!

Sense, I agree with you re 26 January. The day does represent our origins’ but should not be Australia Day. The nearest we have is 1 January.

For decades - albeit quietly, have been celebrating Australia Day on January 1st, as it is the day Australia became an independent nation.

From January 1st, 1901 our legal decisions and political decisions have been decisions made by persons selected by Australians.

Those selected including HM's like QE2 as our nominal head of state.

Polpak, good on you! You're much smarter than the rest of us. I just woke up to the fact.

If Australia was born as a nation on January 1st, why on earth do we celebrate our nationhood 25 days later?

The only time I know of when a British PM tried to interfere in our affairs, was when Churchill attempted to turn one of our troop ships around in WWII. But PM Curtin put a stop to that quick smart. Roosevelt and Churchill then continued to beg him for more Australian troops - he said no!

So, you're right we made all of the decisions from the January 1st, 1901.

Why don't we move it to February the 29th, that way we only have to worry about every leap year.

Sense wrote, "If Australia was born as a nation on Jan 1st".

But the thing is - - - - it wasn't, according to some.

It was only "born as a nation" if one accepts certain criteria. You've accepted that criteria. And good on you.

But, many people don't accept that criteria. Some people see history quite differently, many of our indigenous people being among them.