Mitcham Council fails to move date of Australia Day

A renewed council push to shift Australia Day from January 26 has been overruled by South Australia’s peak local government body.

A renewed council push to shift Australia Day from January 26 has been overruled by South Australia’s peak local government body.

Mitcham Council in Adelaide’s southern suburbs moved a motion this month urging the federal government to move Australia Day to a different date and attempted to have that position adopted as policy by every South Australian council.

One of the key reasons for the move was that Mitcham — like other councils — is finding it ­increasingly difficult to find members of the Adelaide Plains Indigenous Kaurna nation who are happy to take part in events on January 26 amid growing disquiet over the date.

While the SA Local Government Association knocked the push on the head, it is instead ­demanding action from both sides of politics federally to ­address what it calls growing public concerns around the current scheduling of Australia Day.

Prospect Mayor and former state Labor candidate David O’Loughlin chaired the meeting of all SA metropolitan councils which overruled the Mitcham motion. He said councils were growing tired of being “the meat in the sandwich” on the January 26 question.

“The actual date is clearly a federal issue, but it is local government that does all of the heavy lifting in terms of staging Australia Day events,” Mr O’Loughlin told The Australian. “We know that we can’t change the date, ­legally we don’t have the power to do so, but we are the ones at the coalface of organising and holding all the citizenship events and community events around a date that a lot of people take issue with.

“The problem for us is that the debate is not going to disappear, but I don’t see any reaction to that debate at the federal level or the state level.”

In quashing the motion the SA LGA said it acknowledged the “hurt and trauma” caused for some by the date, but also stated it was a federal matter over which councils had no power.

Instead, the LGA suggested both Australia Day and the Uluru Statement from the Heart be ­reviewed by the federal government and that councils should take part in any such review.