Wests Campbelltown will bring the community together on January 26
While some pubs floated the idea of banning Australia Day festivities next year, local clubs are wholeheartedly embracing it in a bid to bring the community together.
NSW
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Clubs have thrown their weight behind celebrating Australia Day after a hospitality giant ordered its iconic pubs to call time on the holiday saying it has caused people “sadness and hurt”.
Wests League Club, the home of sport in the Macarthur region, will open its doors wide on January 26 next year, when the bar will be decked in the Australian national flag and inflatable kangaroos as part of festivities to bring the community together.
The family-friendly club promises to throw a party to remember, with the CEO of the 50-year-old Wests Campbelltown club Daniel Perkiss saying: “Wests has been inviting our members to join us for Australia Day activities for more than 20 years.
“The Australia Day long weekend provides a great opportunity to reflect on what it means to be Australian, to acknowledge our history and celebrate our diversity as a nation.
“Australia Day also provides hardworking friends and families the chance to get together, relax and enjoy the beautiful summer weather at that time of year.
“This Australia Day, Wests Group Macarthur will offer special themed reef and beef raffles, live music, Aussie food specials and a range of other themed member promotions for our community to enjoy.”
Some pubs have closed the door on the holiday after hospitality giant Australian Venue Co ordered its 200 venues not to mark the event in a move that has widely divided the public and politicians.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton urged patrons to boycott the country’s second-largest pub group, which banned celebrations at 15 of its 200 NSW venues for fear of causing some people “sadness and hurt”, saying Australians “don’t want to be told what to think by pubs”.
His comments triggered federal Labor MP Daniel Mulino to claim Australia Day is undergoing a “transition”, and becoming “controversial” in sections of his electorate.
“I’ve been elected at all three levels of government. I was a councillor about 15 years ago in outer suburban Melbourne. Even back then, Australia Day was evolving,” Mr Mulino said.
“Even back then Australia Day took much more of a theme of celebrating volunteerism as a way of bringing the community together.
‘Since that time, Australia Day has evolved further. It’s fair to say that it has become somewhat controversial in parts of our community.
‘I think we’re in an interesting transition at the moment with Australia Day.”
Nationals MP Keith Pitt took umbrage at the word transition, retaliating: “If Labor government wants to transition Australia Day, let’s go to the election tomorrow.
“Australian people will transition this ... government to opposition if they transition Australia Day away from January 26.
“The overwhelming majority of Australians … they are not up for transitioning. They want Australia Day where it is.
“They are proud of our country, they are proud of our flag, they just want to be left alone to celebrate what is the greatest country in the world,” Mr Pitt said.
Earlier this week Labor Minister Murray Watt refused to condemn venues who had decided not to celebrate Australia’s national day, telling Channel 7 “it’s a decision for each business to decide what they want to do”.
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