Unley Council to vote on returning Australia Day celebrations to January 26 after community consultation

A council could become the first in the country to move its official Australia Day celebrations back to January 26. Have your say.

An inner city council could become the first to reverse a decision on changing the date of its Australia Day events under a motion to restore them to January 26.

The proposed move comes after a community consultation on the issue found a majority of surveyed residents were in favour of holding the events on Australia Day.

Unley Council will on Monday vote on whether the citizenship ceremony as well as the Australia Day Awards and community event should be held on January 26.

Put forward by councillor Rebekah Rogers, the motion also seeks up to $20,000 of budget funds to deliver next year’s event and recommends future Australia Day community events to be considered annually as part of the budget process.

Mayor Michael Hewitson conceded the issue had “divided” the Unley community.

“The people talking about supporting the motion don’t want a massive big event, just a family friendly event, a free BBQ, to celebrate Australia Day and possibly, if the motion gets up, celebrate citizenship ceremonies,” he said.

“You get people who think it’s an invasion, a rude insult, and we would have every colour in our council.”

Mr Hewitson said if council reverted its decision, it was likely Unley could be the first council in SA - possibly Australia - to go back to holding citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day.

Unley Mayor Michael Hewitson. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

He said he would stand by the council’s decision.

“It’s my role to keep the community together, my primary responsibility as mayor is to make sure we work together as we disagree with each other.”

After the federal government updated the citizenship code to allow its councils to schedule ceremonies three days either side of Australia Day, Unley held its citizenship ceremony earlier this year on January 25 and no community event the day after.

Elected members resolved to undertake community consultation with regards to next year’s Australia Day events.

“The motion last year was a decision for just this year. Because it was so close, and we now have had the chance to go to public consultation with decent enough numbers,” Mr Hewitson said.

A total of 842 people provided feedback during a three-week consultation process in July and August, with 60.6 percent saying that council should hold the citizenship and Australia Day awards ceremony on January 26 next year.

Council’s motion acknowledged January 26 was “a divisive date for many Australians” but Mr Hewitson said the public consultation hadn’t created anger within the community.

“A number of councils said (public consultation) would be divisive in the community, but we haven’t had the anger,” he said.

“We had the anger within the community when we didn’t have the event.

“This have-your-say has been pretty clean. I know of nobody stacking it.”

Adelaide Hills Council voted to abandon official Australia Day events in 2023 without public consultation, with a new social media push in the Hills to have the decision reversed.

Originally published as Unley Council to vote on returning Australia Day celebrations to January 26 after community consultation