Please be the end of Australia Day as we know it

I HOPE Triple J changing the Hottest 100 date means the end of Australia Day — a day marking the genocide of our nation’s first people — as we know it, writes Jill Poulsen.

TRIPLE J has announced it will be moving the day of its Hottest 100 Countdown from Australia Day to a more inclusive date.

I think this helps mark the beginning of the end for Australia Day as we know it and I, for one, am thrilled.

After canvassing listeners and other stakeholders the station said more than 60 per cent of people were in favour of changing the date.

“The Hottest 100 wasn’t created as an Australia Day celebration,” the station said in a statement.

“It was created to celebrate your favourite songs of the past year.

“It should be an event that everyone can enjoy together — for both the musicians whose songs make it in and for everyone listening in Australia and around the world.”

Hear, hear!

But not everyone is as happy as me.

Australia Day celebrations, including those in Parramatta Park, will have to play to different tunes. (Pic: News Corp)

Communications minister Mitch Fifield has joined others who have their knickers in a knot over the date change.

Mr Fifield told News Breakfast there were a “relatively small number of people who have an issue with the fact that Australia Day is celebrated on January 26”.

“The ABC shouldn’t be buying into this debate,” he said in a statement.

“Australia Day is our national day. The ABC should honour it and not mess with the Hottest 100.”

I’d lay money that Mr Fifield has never once tuned in for the annual countdown.

Also he’s wrong — #changethedate supporters are not a small number of people.

We’re a growing chorus of voices who won’t be silenced until Australia Day becomes a celebration everyone can enjoy.

Right now, for me, January 26 is just another day to go to work and watch Netflix when I get home punctuated only by the more than usual amount of racist vitriol on my Facebook feed.

I refuse to celebrate a day that marks the genocide of our nation’s first people and continuing discrimination and disadvantage.

I remember similar LNP outrage when we @triplej decided to change the #Hottest100 from best song of all time to songs released that year. Great to see them so passionately moved by issues concerning youth music

— Adam Spencer (@adambspencer) November 27, 2017

I usually try not to read through comments on stories like this one but couldn’t help it today.

This one had me in stitches.

“Terrible idea! Thank you for ruining Australia Day!” one young man wrote.

If the best thing about your national day is a radio station’s top 100 songs then why would you care what day Australia Day is celebrated on?

There was the usual plethora of go back to where you came from hypocrisy but what surprised me most was the flood of comments in support of Triple J’s move.

“Well done triple j! You’ll cop a lot of flak but doing the right thing often attracts criticism. Hold your head high,” one woman wrote.

“As much as I love having a drink with mates and listening to the hottest 100 on “Aust day”, not everyone celebrates this day. They aren’t cancelling it. They are making a positive change to be more inclusive. As long as it’s on a Saturday, we can all still have a drink and I’m sure we can all be stoked that more people can come party with us,” another said.

Local councils withdrawing their support for Australia Day celebrations and Triple J moving the date of its Hottest 100 mean the end of January 26 as we know it is well and truly nigh.

Now that’s something worth celebrating.

Jill Poulsen is the Head of News at the NT News.