jayb can you understand my view the very right are every bit as provocative as the Redfern radicals you highlight?
Or for that matter the very left
We are after all human, continuing the school yard fight both promote is leading only to more strife
Once, seems like a thousand years ago, humanity claimed to want inclusiveness, sadly not now
You and I apparently from different sides of politics, agree in this matter
The majority, on both sides do, see polling
So take on the Redfern radicals but do not feed them by making them look in any way, big in number
Re the India thing, ask Gandhi

Belly,

"Re the India thing, ask Gandhi"

Good idea, he was an admirer of the British Empire and the good that it did.

" Shortly after returning to India, he proposed a toast to the British Empire at a dinner of the Madras Bar Association in March 1915, saying: “I discovered the British Empire had certain ideas with which I have fallen in love and one of those ideals is that every subject of the British Empire has the freest scope for his energies and efforts.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10954147/Nine-facts-you-may-not-know-about-Mahatma-Gandhi.html

Suggest that you read a bit about the Mahatma before putting finger to keys.

is mise good morning, we will never see eye to eye, you have every right to your view
By today's standard the British Empire that gave us this country was no saint
Yet my convict stock past from Wales Ireland and Britain, is not some thing I am ashamed of

Belly,

You said that the British were as bad as all the other colonial powers, and when I queried that assertion, you said to ask Gandhi.

Gandhi obviously disagreed with you and you did offer him as a source for your argument.

Why won't you acknowledge that you are wrong about the British and agree with Gandhi?

Of course we should be big enough to change the date. It matters very little to most Australians what date it is on as long as it is in summer, involves a long weekend, and there is booze available.

We would all like us to be able to enjoy the blessings this country has bestowed on so many. However the current date is divisive in that a decent number of our indigenous brothers and sisters quite understandably have an issue with it.

We really should be as laid back as we like to think we are and just say 'no worries let's just shift the thing and be done' while acknowledging any supposed allegiance to the 26th is pretty shallow compared to the significance it holds to many indigenous folk.

I do have an issue with how this debate is being framed, especially by both the Greens and the conservatives. We should have had it sorted well before now in a move that would have brought us together rather than drawing battle lines.

"However the current date is divisive in that a decent number of our indigenous brothers and sisters quite understandably have an issue with iT"

Indeed they do, it's a commemoration of the day that forebears of the people who provide the 'sit-down-money' arrived.

More 'sit-down-money' might help, but any other day that commemorates the yanking of the indigenous locals into the modern world would be resented, change the date and the protest would shift to the new date.