Most don’t want new Australia Day date, says Ken Wyatt

Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt says he senses no appetite for a change of Australia Day.

Minster for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt believes most Australians are happy with January 26 as Australia Day. Picture: Supplied

Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt says he senses no appetite for a change of Australia Day among the hundreds of people he met attending events, suggesting the majority of Australians still see it as a way to unify the nation.

Speaking between his attendance at three citizenship ceremonies in his West Australian electorate of Hasluck, where he handed more than 200 new citizens their certificates, Mr Wyatt said native-born Australians and newcomers alike welcomed the day’s celebration.

“All I’m seeing is Australians with beaming smiles just wanting to celebrate becoming citizens and our way of life.”

Hundreds of people attended an Invasion Day rally in Perth amid growing calls to change the date of Australia Day. The demonstration march ended at the Supreme Court Gardens, where Mr Wyatt addressed an Australia Day concert dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.

He said the majority of Australians would need to favour a change of date.

“Australians are celebrating not because of (the First Fleet landing in) 1788 but because of what we have become, and we are gradually acknowledging our dark past,” he said.

He did not support the stand of Fremantle City Council, which has deferred its Australia Day festivities and a concert to Monday. The decision was made in 2017, after mayor Brad Pettitt said the council had heeded the views of Aboriginal residents who referred to January 26 as Invasion Day.

But Fremantle was forced to conduct its citizenship ceremonies as normal, under strict direction from the federal government.

The city of Wanneroo in Perth’s north has reversed Fremantle’s approach by moving a cultural celebration from a November date to hold it on Australia Day.