Acting Lord Mayor Arron Wood says Melbourne City Council should mark ‘atrocities” against Aborigines on Australia Day

ACTING Melbourne Lord Mayor Arron Wood wants Australia Day kept on January 26, but he believes indigenous dispossession must form part of the commemoration.

Invasion Day rally in Melbourne CBD. Picture: David Caird

MELBOURNE City Council would commemorate “atrocities” against Aborigines under a revamp of Australia Day celebrations.

Acting Lord Mayor Arron Wood has proposed changing the way the national day is marked in the inner city to make it more “unifying”.

Cr Wood said he would resist any attempts within Town Hall to follow Greens-dominated councils like Yarra and Darebin and dump Australia Day events.

“My concern is if you change the date ... what you’re doing is actually potentially playing to the divisive nature of the debate,” he told the Herald Sun.

Acting Lord Mayor Arron Wood wants changes to Australia Day celebrations.

But Cr Wood, who is acting in the top job while Robert Doyle faces sexual harassment claims, said new elements should be added to the council’s Australia Day program.

“In the morning you have a chance to reflect on the atrocities (against Aborigines) and the loss of life, and you be very upfront and open about that because it’s happened,” he said.

“Then you allow a chance to reflect on contemporary indigenous cultural achievements, but you also talk about some of the modern impacts that are still to be worked on, like the gap in health, the gap in education, the gap in employment.”

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Aboriginal activist Tarneen Onus-Williams sparked outrage last week after she told an “invasion day” march that Australia should be burnt to the ground.

Ms Onus-Williams is a member of the state government-funded Koorie Youth Council while also linked to radical group Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance.

Tarneen Onus-Williams in Lincoln is an organiser with Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance.

Independent city councillor Jackie Watts said she had deep sympathy with the plight of indigenous Australians and would welcome a debate about changing the date of Australia Day and the way it was celebrated.

“My view is that everything is open to debate on council,” she said.

Greens councillor Rohan Leppert said his personal view was that January 26 was not appropriate for the national day, but there were no real prospects for changing the City of Melbourne’s view given the current composition of the council.

An indigenous performance during NAIDOC Week. Picture: Steve Tanner

Team Doyle member Cr Nick Reece said he loved Australia Day and it wasn’t an issue for councils to change, but he supported a “national conversation about when we go about celebrating the national day”.

“And you know I have a lot of sympathy for those people who are saying we need to review the way and date on which Australia Day is currently celebrated,” he told Sky News.

Cr Doyle, whose future is under a cloud, has been a staunch supporter of the national day, saying last year it “is one of the days ... that brings us together”, including indigenous groups.

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