Lexi,

I think we need to fix Australia Day first before we can move on to become a Republic. I think we have always been a Republic, we have no palaces nor grenadier guards never have.

The simplest change would be to replace the Queen with a President whilst retaining the Governor General. This way there can be no conflict of interest and it would require minimal changes to the Constitution.

SPQRD,

I've got some videos for you to watch:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/303603-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSTuMqVK7P4

>>But this government funding isn't quite enough, they now apparently want to start indoctrinating children at school age level.<<

They're already 'indoctrinated' in NSW schools: Australian history lessons for primary school kids teach that Australia was settled on January 26 1788 by Captain Arthur Phillip - and that that's the reason we celebrate our national day on 26/1. I was anyway.

I think it's great that the kids are getting history lessons which focus on facts and dates and names because when they get to high school they'll find that the history syllabus is rubbish.

Cheers,

Tony

Sense “The 112 years of hard work and dedication, should be celebrated at the State level as the various anniversary or foundation days.”

Do we even have annual anniversaries for that? I've never heard of it.
Which just goes to show how irrelevant the states/colonies are in the Australian community.
We identify, and celebrate, as "Australians".

Are you forgetting only NSW existed for quite some time?
26th January is not a “random” date.
It was NSW's founding date (the only colony at the time, from which all others, except WA, were later subdivisions).

Trying to change an accepted custom that most people have no problem with is futile.
It would be like changing Christmas because Jesus wasn't really born on that day. Good luck!

Jay Of Melbourne “I had no idea people were interested in claiming it as a White rite.”

Maybe it's more prominent now, because we need a ”White rite” now.
We didn't need to state the bleeding obvious in 1971.

Shockadelic,

South Australian Foundation Day is actually December 29th, so you cannot include South Australia, Western Australia or for that matter the Northern Territory. So, virtually half the country is not included in the original colony of NSW - makes no sense.

Also remember it wasn't until as late as 1994 that all States and Territories began celebrating on the same day.

If Australia Day were correctly held to commemorate the Foundation of this Nation, there would be no ambiguity about what it really means anymore, it would have a specific focus. There would be fewer protests or none at all, people would learn some facts about modern institutions like when was the Australian Navy and the Australian Army formed - March 1901, or that the precursor to Australia Post and Telstra were formed in 1901.

John Howard has suggested moving it to January 1st, I disagree December 31st would make more sense.

Sense, what is now South Australia and the NT *was* part of NSW.
Even New Zealand was part of NSW!

The only state/colony that wasn't was Swan colony/Western Australia.
This is only because Cook made no claim on the western part of the continent, due to previous Dutch navigations.

But before Swan River was declared, there was a settlement at King George Sound administered by, you guessed it, NSW!

So at one point, all British *settlements*/land claims, even what is now in WA and New Zealand, were administered by NSW.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Australia_history.gif

Since people at first only settled in Sydney, there was no need for other political administrations until other population centres were established.
And people were referring to the continent and its colonies as "Australia", and its people as "Australians", long before federation.
Why else would they choose that name?

What you're ignoring is that it's not just a celebration of the political technicality of becoming a nation.
It's about what and who we are.

I doubt anyone would support Dec 31/Jan 1, since we already have another distinct celebration at that time, with very different symbolic associations.

If you have to change, why not the proclamation date 17 September (1900) or 19 April (Cook's first encounter with the east coast, 1770; bit too close to Anzac Day)?
But any change is swimming upstream.
Why not wait until the Republic is declared, and choose a specific date for that, after much tedious debate?
More likely than not, that date will also be Jan 26.

BTW, just went to what I thought was Australia Day celebration in local park.
Turned out to be an Aboriginal festival (publicly funded, of course).
Lucky I didn't wear my flag t-shirt!

The usual (green/left) suspects had stalls: The Greens, Socialist Alliance, Amnesty, anti-discrimination, women's health centre (i.e. baby butchers).
And oddly, state agencies like NSW Rail, all given an Aboriginal twist.
Got out alive (and quick).