Jeff Kennett: Protect this day for all Australians

AUSTRALIA Day is an occasion when all Australians can come together and celebrate the freedoms we enjoy and others envy, writes Jeff Kennett.

WE celebrate Australia Day because we are among the most fortunate people on earth. We celebrate Australia Day because of where we are today and because of our hopes for our future.

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Not everything in our lives is perfect, but can you think of a country in which you would rather live?

Yet so many Australians seem to have become knockers.

We complain about so many aspects of our lives, but so many people from overseas would give their all to settle here.

In Australia most new settlers over decades — Italians, English, Greeks, Germans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Somalis to name but a few — have chosen to live in Australia because of who we are and what our life represents: freedom, democracy, reward for effort, fun and almost unlimited opportunity.

We celebrate Australia Day because we are free. Thanks to those who have gone before, we can walk down our streets without fear. We can comment without being arrested. We vote in free elections without fear of violence or repercussions.

Melissa Harwood and Rodora Bennett celebrate Australia Day. Picture: Anna Rogers

Yes, there has been discrimination, but slowly we are addressing those issues through education and the ballot box.

The Same Sex Marriage plebiscite is the latest example where people expressed their views. Most thought country areas and Queenslanders would vote against change, but many of those people were the most supportive. And once the legislation was passed, we got on with our lives, as we do after every election regardless of who wins.

Now the Greens say they will campaign to change the date of Australia Day from January 26 and make it a priority. They see it as an invasion day.

Well, it is an uncomfortable fact that communities around the world have been usurped by other communities since Adam and Eve; sometimes by extinction, sometimes by agreement, sometimes by force.

Today, almost 250 years after James Cook claimed Australia for Great Britain, we are a complex mix of peoples, well educated and, while we have many shortcomings, our achievements are remarkable for such a young nation.

Have a look at our cities, our rural communities, the wonder and diversity of our landscapes and shores. In science we have changed the health of many in the world. We are world leaders in many aspects of agriculture, mining, smart manufacturing and increasingly in IT. And then there’s the arts and sport.

Zena and Isabel celebrate Australia Day. Picture: Mark Scott

On Australia Day we celebrate our achievements, our communities, our independence. We remember and give thanks for past sacrifices that have kept us free. Why do the Greens want to attack the fabric of the very best of what the world offers?

Our First People? Is that their reason?

What Arthur Phillip created when he founded the colony that became Sydney in 1788 is a fact of life. We can’t change it in 2018. We must learn from the past, live together and develop our opportunities as one people, regardless of history, colour, gender, or religion. Regardless of what has happened since 1788.

Governments of all persuasions have been trying, sadly often not very successfully, to make amends for the past treatment of our First People, those people who should be celebrated as one of Australia’s most important assets.

If the Greens were not so weak-kneed and useless, I would describe them as political hypocrites.

And if they think moving Australia Day is the best way to secure recognition for our First People, they are wrong.

Where are the Greens’ policies on Aboriginal health and education issues? Where do they stand on helping those outback communities that have specific problems with alcohol, family violence and youth suicide?

It makes me angry to see groups trying to play a short-term political game using disadvantaged citizens without having any real commitment to the issues that them disadvantaged.

Australians, all of us, live in the freest country on earth and that is worth celebrating.

So, the Greens want local councils to withdraw from Australia Day celebrations. That is fine if those councils want to make that decision. But councils are creatures of state governments and they independently receive federal government funding.

The celebration of Australia Day is for all Australians. Our future is a collective opportunity. As I have said in the past, teams of people win, individuals do not.

Australia is a team of people, of many parts and many people, from our First People to the most recent settlers.

If parts of the team, the councils, the Greens, do not want to be part of the Australian dream, if they do not want the opportunities that we have before us, then let councils try to exist without the funding they receive from governments and let’s vote to keep the Greens out of office.

Or better still, sack the councils that do not want to be part of our Australia.

Australia deserves better from those who represent us. We don’t need them exercising easy policies that divide us and which fail to build a future.

The Greens are the new fairies at the bottom of the garden and, like the Australian Democrats, they will, in time, fade away, for the simple reason that they simply do not care.

January 26 is and should remain Australia Day, because we celebrate who we are and our confidence in our future.

Australians, all of us, live in the freest country on earth and that is worth celebrating.

Have a good day and stand up proudly for your wonderful country.

Jeff Kennett is a former premier of Victoria
@jeff_kennett