Australia Day festival cancellations ‘treacherous’: fired up Sydney mayor

A fired up Sydney mayor says his council’s Australia Day celebrations will be “bigger and better” after a neighbouring council downsized theirs.

Woke councils looking to “trash” Australia Day and blame Covid are “treacherous bed-wetters” and “un-Australian”, according to a fired-up Sydney mayor, who has ­announced he’s planning an even bigger and better celebration next year.

A growing number of local councils have begun pulling out of the national day in ­recent years, including the Inner West Council which has claimed European settlement brought “despair and widespread disadvantage” to Indigenous people.

Now the Hills Shire Council has just announced it won’t be hosting a big celebration on January 26 due to Covid-19.

The Aussie flag projected on the Opera House during Australia Day celebrations last year. Picture: Damian Shaw

But neighbouring Cumberland Council, which includes suburbs such as Merrylands and Granville, has hit out at the push to “destabilise” and shut down the national day of celebration.

And the Institute of Public Affairs think tank also says woke councils are “out of touch” with the majority of Australians.

“The decision by the Hills Shire Council to scale back Australia Day celebrations is un-Australian, lazy, and a perfect example of bed-wetting at its finest,” Cumberland Mayor Steve Christou said.

“Australia Day is the biggest national holiday of the year and something we all should be proud of as a nation.

Cumberland Mayor Steve Christou. Picture: John Appleyard

Protestors at an “Invasion Day” event on January 26, 2020. Picture: AAP Image

“Instead, every November, December we seem to have the doomsayers like Inner West Council wanting to trash Australia Day altogether.

“I am fed up with this kind of treachery.”

He said Cumberland Council is now planning for a “bigger and better” festival.

IPA director of the foundations of Western civilisation program Dr Bella d’Abrera said there was no reason outdoor events cannot take place in a safe way and “this has nothing to do with Covid and everything to do with ideology”.

“Woke councils are completely out of touch with the majority of Australians who are proud to be Australian,” she said. “Councils like Hills Shire need to start listening to what its ratepayers really want.”