Byron Bay Shire Council backflips on changing date for Australia Day
IN a move hailed a win for “common sense” by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Byron Shire Council has backflipped on plans to move Australia Day ceremonies to a day earlier as part of a boycott against the official January 26 date.
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- Byron Bay wants to move its Australia Day date
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants a new ‘indigenous day’
BYRON Shire Council has backflipped on its boycott of Australia Day after the federal government threatened to strip the council of its power to hold citizenship ceremonies if it went ahead with the move.
Byron Mayor Simon Richardson infuriated Prime Minister Scott Morrison last month after declaring “no one wants Australia Day on the 26th”.
The council passed a motion, put by Mr Richardson, to change the date of celebrations to January 25, arguing the 26th was “the day the cultural decimation and denigration of the First Australians began”.
Mr Morrison said the move was “indulgent self-loathing” and wrote to every council across the nation warning that citizenship powers would be revoked from any council that boycotted the national day.
Byron Shire Council general manager Mark Arnold told The Daily Telegraph that Mayor Richardson had since written to Multicultural Affairs Minister David Coleman promising not to move formal celebrations from January 26.
“The one ceremony we were talking about moving was the more formal where there are awards handed out, but the mayor wrote to the minister and advised that Byron Bay would still be having the citizenship ceremony on the 26th,” Mr Arnold said.
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When asked why the council changed its mind he said the matter was simply a “misunderstanding”.
Mr Morrison said last night that “common sense has won out” and called for Australians to unite behind the national day.
“Australia Day must unite us. It’s a day to share all our stories and journeys — whether over thousands of years or more recently. It’s a day where we must work together to come together,” he said.
Byron Shire councillor Paul Spooner, who voted against the motion to change the date, said the move was “insulting”.
“I suspect they have changed their mind because they had egg on their face,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“I voted against doing it because I thought it was confusing and they had not consulted at all with the community.”
Melbourne’s Darebin and Yarra were stripped of their powers to hold citizenship ceremonies after voting to stop holding citizenship ceremonies on January 26.
Mr Coleman said Australia Day celebrations had to be “apolitical”. “I welcome Mayor Simon Richardson’s and his council’s decision,” he said. “The government has been very clear on its position that citizenship ceremonies should not be used as tools to support or promote a political agenda.”