Two-thirds reject push for Australia Day switch: Newspoll

EXCLUSIVE | Australians have overwhelmingly rejected Labor’s call for a referendum on changing the date of Australia Day.

Participants during the Australia Day parade down Swanston Street in Melbourne. Picture: AAP.

Australians have overwhelmingly rejected Anthony Albanese’s call for referendums on the republic and indigenous constitutional recognition to end divisions over Australia Day and opposed a Greens-led campaign to erase the date of the First Fleet landing from Australia’s commemorative history.

A Newspoll conducted exclusively for The Australian in the wake of renewed debate about the date has revealed that 65 per cent of Australians want the national day to remain as it is.

Only 29 per cent supported Mr Albanese’s proposal to hold dual referendums on January 26 to help end divisions over Australia Day.

The Greens sparked national protests against January 26, the date marking the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet, when it announced a national campaign last month to change the date on the basis it offended indigenous Australians.

Labor leader Bill Shorten, who has supported keeping the date, has also been accused of equivocating on the issue by suggesting that there were legitimate views that were worthy of consideration.

However, the Newspoll revealed that even among Labor voters, there is little support for the change. Support for sticking with the date was strongest among Coalition voters, with 77 per cent behind the status quo and only 19 per cent in favour of a referendum.

A clear majority of Labor voters, 57 per cent, also want the date to stay the same, with 39 per cent backing a national poll.

 

Support was strongest among Greens supporters, with 92 per cent demanding a people’s vote. The poll of 1616 people nationally, across city and regional voters, was conducted from February 1-4.

Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed the Greens’ push, calling it an exercise in bullying by a “tiny” minority. “The overwhelming ­majority of Australians want to keep Australia Day on the 26th of January and agree with the patriotic sentiments we’re expressing,” the Prime Minister said last week.

“Asked if there would be ‘no change’ under his leadership, Turnbull replied: “I can give you that assurance.”

But the issue has divided the Labor Party, with a clear difference of position on the issue between Mr Shorten and his leadership rival Mr Albanese. “I understand there’s a range of views about when Australia Day should be,” Mr Shorten said on January 18.

“I’m on the record as supporting Australia Day staying on January 26 ... I can respect that different people have different views. You’re not going to see me sneering at indigenous Australians who want to have a discussion about a different date for Australia Day.”

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has proposed a compromise solution to a day that advocates of change regard as the day of European invasion, by observing both January 26 and 25, to include the day before British sovereignty and the day the takeover occurred.

The Newspoll appears to contradict a recent survey by the left-leaning Australia Institute, which suggested more than half of all Australians didn’t care when ­Australia Day was held.