Australia Day matters to most

In front of international audiences, the respective decisions of Cricket Australia and Australian Open tennis organisers not to commemorate our national day on Friday are shameful. Like most Australians, visitors and onlookers recognise why this nation is one of the best in the world. Cultural cringe that has gone so far that organisers of major events are too full of confected outrage to mention Australia Day, let alone celebrate it, takes irrational self-loathing to absurd extremes. So do the faux guilt trips imposed on toddlers and preschoolers in some childcare centres. Children are being taught that Australia was stolen from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Nobody should pretend our nation is perfect, including in the failed treatment of Indigenous people. But in terms of human rights, freedom, democracy, a fair go for the downtrodden, and allowing people of all backgrounds to fulfil their aspirations, it does better than most and has much to celebrate. As Warren Mundine told Sky News on Sunday: “We are one of the incredible nations that brought 26 million people from around the world, multi-coloured, multicultural, multi-faith … we’ve got all these amazing people in this country who have come here and I’m proud they chose Australia, to really build this country into an amazing place.”

NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns spoke for most Australians when he called for Cricket Australia and Tennis Australia to reconsider their decision to snub Australia Day. The idea “that you would take a national day away from any country, particularly Australia, is a strange one”, as Mr Minns said. “We should, right now, (be) trying to pull each other together, and this is the day that we’ve set aside to celebrate what it means to live in the greatest country on Earth.” Anthony Albanese, unfortunately, did not back Mr Minns’ call for the sporting bodies to revisit their decision. But as he rightly said on Sky News: “I think we need to stop looking for areas in which we can be outraged.’’

Free speech is one of our nation’s strengths, which is why Australian women’s all-rounder Ash Gardner and men’s fast bowler Scott Boland are entitled to express their opposition to celebrating Australia Day on January 26, the anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 after an eight-month journey from Portsmouth, England. Opponents of the date, however, should not spoil what most Australians regard as an important day. Events such as citizenship and flag-raising ceremonies, and the Australian of the Year awards, matter.

Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who will be on the road in the Outback on Friday, is right when she says many people are “sick of being shamed to be proud Australians”. They do not want to have to deal with being told “how to suck eggs, how to behave or think or feel about the country that they love. I mean, this is home’’.