Kingborough Council considers Australia Day awards shift

A TASMANIAN council is considering renaming its annual Australia Day Awards ceremony and moving the date from January 26.

Kingborough Council’s Australia Day Awards may be changed to another date but its A Day on the Beach event – and its sand sculpture competition – will remain on January 26.

KINGBOROUGH Council will consider renaming its annual Australia Day Awards ceremony and moving the date from January 26.

A report prepared by council officers said January 26 may no longer be an appropriate date for the ceremony for a number of reasons “including the growing debate regarding the association of January 26 with not only the colonisation of Australia by Europeans, but with the dispossession of land and rights of Aboriginal people”.

The council will consider a recommendation to move the awards to May, to coincide with Volunteer Week.

Other potential dates included in the report were January 6, when Kingborough was formed, Australian Citizenship Day on September 17, or World Gratitude Day in late September. A citizenship ceremony and the council’s A Day on the Beach celebrations would still be held on January 26.

Kingborough Mayor Steve Wass said he would listen to Monday night’s debate before deciding how he would vote, but said it was important for the council to be inclusive.

“We want to be there for all, rather than making a date or time that is not suitable,” he said.

“We’ve got to be sensitive to our Aboriginal ancestors, but at the same time Australia was established on January 26.

“We need to be inclusive and take into consideration all aspects.

“At the end of the day we are one and it’s one Australian people regardless of our origins.”

Cr Dean Winter said moving the awards would be an opportunity for Kingborough to show leadership and be more inclusive.

“I don’t think many Australians are sitting around on Australia Day emotionally remembering the first fleet raising a Union Jack at Sydney Cove,” Cr Winter said.

“But we know there are a lot of Australians who are offended by and left out of the national day — and for good reason.”

Cr Richard Atkinson said that 3 per cent of Kingborough residents identified as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent and they should feel included.

According to the council’s report, moving the day could be seen as a negative step by some in the community but keeping the awards on Australia Day would be insensitive to those excluded by the ceremony’s current association with January 26.

Cr Flora Fox, Cr David Grace, Cr Graham Bury and Cr Paul Chatterton all said the current combination of the citizenship ceremony and the Australia Day Awards at Twin Ovals was a logistic problem, with the venue unable to cater to the number of people at the event over recent years.

Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre’s Trudy Maluga said she would welcome the change.

Originally published as Kingborough Council considers Australia Day awards shift