Nine in 10 Australians believe Australia Day should be celebrated on January 26
The overwhelming majority of Australians are in support of keeping our national holiday as is.
Almost nine in 10 Australians believe Australia Day should continue to be celebrated on January 26, a new poll has found, revealing an overwhelming majority – and growing number – of our population is firmly against changing the date.
Thousands of people are expected to attend Invasion Day protests, rallies, marches and vigils this weekend, their call to move our national holiday away from the anniversary of white settlement – which they say marks the dispossession and enduring oppression of our First Nations people – is falling on increasingly deaf ears.
An online survey of more than 21,000 people, conducted by News Corp, showed at least 87 per cent think our national day should remain as it is, and at least three in four Australians declared any government that changes the date would lose their support.
Just 12 per cent of respondents backed calls to change the date, and one per cent advocated for no celebration at all.
Another recent poll, from the Institute of Public Affairs, similarly revealed that the majority of participants in each age group now believe that the national day should remain on January 26.
Should he win at this year’s election, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has said one of his first acts as prime minister will be to enshrine January 26 as Australia’s official day in federal law.
“Would we reinstate the requirement for councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day? You bet,” he told reporters earlier this month.
While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously said he has no intention of changing the date, the Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code, put in place by his government, allows local councils to hold Australia Day citizenship events from three days before and after January 26 – a move Mr Dutton says he would reverse.
“It’ll be done in the first 100 days and it will be a sign of pride and nationalism in our country,” he said. “I want us as a population to be united.”
Mr Albanese has not responded directly to the Opposition Leader’s plan, but called on him to respect the date by attending Canberra’s Australia Day, including Saturday night’s “inspirational” Australian of Year announcement.
Mr Dutton has long been vocal in his criticism of businesses and public figures who have called to change the day, or refuse to acknowledge it altogether. On Thursday, he urged Australians to contact Australian Venue Co and “express their view”, after the foreign-owned pub giant said last month it would ban January 26 celebrations because they “cause sadness” and “hurt” for some patrons and its team.
“Australia Day should be a great celebration of an amazing country,” the Opposition Leader said.
“We should be incredibly proud of our Indigenous history, proud of our European heritage and proud of the great migrant story.
“Why somebody would be ashamed of that is beyond me. And why somebody who … reaps a huge profit off the back of hard working Australians. Why they would shun the wishes of those Australians because the vast majority of Australians, particularly patrons going into some of these establishments, want us to celebrate Australia Day is something that that company will have to explain.”
The shift in sentiment is one that experts have tied to the defeat of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament at the October 2023 referendum and its aftermath.
“The failure of the Voice referendum demonstrated the reluctance of many Australians to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ aspirations for social and political change,” a group of academics wrote in a piece last year for The Conversation.
“Changing the date of Australia Day and the proposed Voice to Parliament have both been calls for Australia to acknowledge Australia’s history and the enduring legacy of colonisation.
“Many explanations have been offered for the resounding No vote from non-Indigenous people in the referendum. Our new research … suggests community ignorance and apathy toward Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues may lie at the core of the No vote.
“This could also drive reluctance to change the date of Australia Day.”
It’s also been put down to widespread fatigue of the now-annual blast of controversy over January 26. Moving our national holiday away from January 26, two historians said earlier this month, is the only solution to resolve the day’s tensions.
“There won’t ultimately be any resolution between people who have fundamentally different concepts of January 26,” CQUniversity historian, Dr Benjamin Jones, told NewsWire.
“There is a greater sense of awareness that there are at least conflicted views.”
The yearly furore, ANU historian, Professor Angela Woollacott, agreed, has developed in tandem with a “growing awareness” of Australia’s disputed history.
“I’m old enough to remember when Australia (Day) wasn’t controversial,” she told NewsWire.
“I think it has become controversial in the last couple of decades because of growing awareness around the suffering of Indigenous people and the symbolism of calling it Invasion Day, having that date stand for everything that British settlement or invasion of Australia represents.
A new date is the only way to “clear the deck … to feel good about the country”, Professor Woollacott said, lest the debate around January 26 “go on forever”.
‘Distraught’: Men’s gross F1 act exposed
A woman is calling out male behaviour after repeatedly being harassed at the Grand Prix, saying sporting venues are not safe for women.
Inmate flees after prison escape
Shocking footage has captured the moment an inmate was seen sprinting across fields after escaping from a prison van.
Teacher’s wild denial for texts on teen’s phone
Skin-crawling text messages allegedly sent by a married Illinois high school teacher to a 15-year-old student show her professing love and pining over him.