Councils warned over Australia Day ceremony snubs

Alan Tudge has told councils banning Australia Day ceremonies to ‘do the right thing’.

Acting Citizenship and Immigration Minister Alan Tudge. Picture: Alison Wynd

Councils banning citizenship ceremonies and Australia Day events have been warned by Alan Tudge to “do the right thing” as left-wing local governments prepare to support change-the-date activists pushing to shift the ­national holiday from January 26.

The Acting Citizenship and Immigration Minister said more than 27,000 people — a record cohort — would become citizens on Sunday as the government implemented a crackdown on councils that snub Australia Day.

The showdown comes as Anthony Albanese failed to clarify his support for keeping Australia Day on January 26, with his local Inner West Council in Sydney voting to move events and its Citizen of the Year awards to another date.

The Opposition Leader will be targeted by right-wing activist group Advance Australia on Thursday, as it launches a campaign to expose splits inside Labor over shifting the national holiday.

Advance Australia national director Liz Storer said the Labor leader needed to publicly support Australia Day remaining on January 26.

Polling last week by Advance Australia in Labor MP Anne Aly’s marginal West Australian seat of Cowan and opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers’s outer suburban electorate of Rankin revealed 86 per cent of voters were “proud to celebrate Australia Day on January 26”.

In 2018, Mr Albanese delivered a speech proposing a twin referendum be held on Australia Day on indigenous constitutional recognition and the republic.

Contacted by The Australian on Wednesday, Mr Albanese — who will deliver an Australia Day speech in the Blue Mountains — would not clarify his support for the national holiday remaining on January 26 if the referendum did not take place or was voted down.

His spokeswoman said he supported Australia Day but also “supports constitutional recognition of indigenous people, including a voice, and has suggested a constructive way forward that would be a unifying moment for our nation”.

Mr Albanese, who faces pressure from his Left faction to change the date, previously said a referendum was a way to create a national “platform of unity” and end divisions over Australia Day.

 

He also did not comment on a move by his local council, led by former staffer Darcy Byrne, to move all Australia Day events to another date.

Yarra City and Darebin councils in Melbourne have already been stripped of their rights to hold citizenship ceremonies., while Moreland, Inner West, Fremantle, Flinders Island, Launceston and Byron Shire councils have previously threatened to not hold citizenship ceremonies, shift Australia Day celebrations to January 25 and rename events.

Mr Tudge told The Australian it was the “first time we are requiring councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day”.

“We want them to do the right thing as it is the most popular day for new migrants to become an Aussie. This is the day all of us can celebrate, whether born here or just becoming a citizen,” he said.

In September 2019, the government amended the Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code requiring the country’s 500 local councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day or be stripped of the right. If councils refused, the federal government would organise ceremonies.

Mr Tudge said more than 27,000 people would become citizens on January 26 at 454 ceremonies across Australia. “Australia Day is an opportunity to celebrate our success as a multicultural nation and reflect on what it means to be an Australian,” he said. “A citizenship ceremony is an important event in every new citizens’ life and being able to attend one on Australia Day adds extra significance.”

Britain (5053), India (4031), China (2175), The Philippines (1531), and South Africa (1000) top the list of nationalities for new Australian citizens. Queensland (6881) leads NSW (6436), and Victoria (6264) with the highest number of new citizens attending ceremonies.

Ms Storer said Mr Albanese’s Labor MPs had attended rallies and made it “abundantly clear” they wanted the date changed. She said their polling in the two Labor seats, showed ALP voters did not want to move Australia Day.

Advance Australia said their polling also showed voters were not supportive of a referendum on Australia Day: “Mainstream Australians don’t want to change the date, you can’t move the birthday of modern Australia. Even a majority of Labor voters are not supportive of changing the date.”