Greens attack PM’s genocide ‘celebration’ over indigenous day plan
Richard Di Natale condemns Scott Morrison’s plan to recognise indigenous heritage, rather than moving Australia Day.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale has accused Scott Morrison of wanting to celebrate genocide and stolen land, slamming the Prime Minister for proposing a new day to recognise indigenous heritage, rather than moving Australia day from January 26.
Senator Di Natale said Mr Morrison’s proposal would “continue on the division” that Australia Day represents for many.
“Australia Day, according the Prime Minister, marks the beginning of modern Australia,” Senator Di Natale told Sky news.
“The Prime Minister’s version of modern Australia is one where Aboriginal people had their land stolen, where there was the slaughter, the genocide of men, women and children.
“According to Scott Morrison modern Australia involves the forcible removal of children from their families.
“This is again a Prime Minister who rather than acknowledging our past, rather than recognising we are not going to as a nation heal, if we continue to ignore our past, has chosen to engage in another culture war.
“What we should see from the leaders of this country is a recognition that for so many people the date that we celebrate Australia Day is a day of hurt, of suffering, of pain, and we will never have a day that brings this nation together if we continue to celebrate it on the date that represents the loss of land for our Aboriginal brothers and sisters.”
Senator Di Natale said many Australians wanted to see the date of Australia Day changed.
“There are many Australians who for them, Aboriginal Australians, that is a day that represents the beginning of many, many decades of hurt, pain and suffering, and there are many non-indigenous Australians who out of respect want to see the date changed, and if we change the date we lose nothing,” he said.
“We continue to celebrate our national day, we can continue to celebrate the many great things about this modern, multicultural country, but what we don’t do is celebrate the day on a day that represents pain, hurt and suffering for Aboriginal people.”
Senator Di Natale said the question of what day Australia Day should be celebrated should be answered collectively by Australians.
“You don’t want politicians to arbitrarily pick a date like that. It’s got to be the outcome of bringing our community together, acknowledging the past, and having a day we can come together and celebrate the many great things that it is to be Australian,” he said.
“For the Prime Minister to talk about ‘indulgent self-loathing’, well spare me.
“I mean you say to an Aboriginal person who can remember -- there are aboriginal men and women who can talk to you about the massacres that occurred on their country.
“There are men, women and children who are experiencing the effects of the stolen generation, kids being ripped out of the arms of their parents.
“This is what modern Australian means to many of them and so for us we need to engage in that journey of healing, we have to acknowledge the past, and what we need to do then is recognise that by acknowledging the past we can move on together more united as a country.
“That means bringing in an Aboriginal voice into our parliament. It means constitutional change that recognises the right of self-determination and Aboriginal people to speak for themselves and chart their own future.
“That’s what we need to be doing as a nation, and instead we’ve seen a prime minister revert to the tired old tactics of Liberal Party prime ministers before him, and seek to use the day to again drive another culture war and to completely disrespect and ignore the views of the vast majority of the Aboriginal community here in Australia.”
Libs split on Indigenous Day plan
The Prime Minister’s plan for a day to honour indigenous Australians has won support from Indigenous MP Ken Wyatt, who said he supported the idea of having a separate day to celebrate indigenous culture, and had discussed the issue with Malcolm Turnbull.
Scott Morrison raised the prospect after NSW north coast council Byron Shire sparked controversy by announcing it would move Australia Day forward a day.
Opinion within the party is divided, with special envoy on indigenous affairs Tony Abbott refusing to endorse the proposal.
Mr Abbott said indigenous Australians were part of January 26 celebrations.
Mr Wyatt told ABC radio: “I had a discussion with the former prime minister some time ago about whether we set aside a day that acknowledges the oldest living cultures, celebrate that.”
“So many tourists and people I meet overseas want to come here and look at what the oldest living culture is all about and go to events, and NAIDOC Week has been a great week in Australian society and we celebrate a lot of things, but a national public day acknowledging I think is a great step forward.
“Australia Day I would argue to leave where it is, because it’s not about the settlement of this country any more, it is about us a nation, us as a people, and the melting pot of a society that is working closely to build this nation to be a better nation in a global context.”
Asked whether forms of celebration such as re-enactments of the arrival of the First Fleet were inappropriate given that many indigenous Australians regarded January 26 as “Invasion Day”, Mr Wyatt said he would rather see us celebrate “what Australia today is” on January 26.
“When I lived in Sydney for five years I used to start the day by going down to watch the smoking ceremony and watch the local elders do the smoking, and then that began the day in Sydney, and then you’d have contemporary celebrations ... the tall ships, the whole lot,” Mr Wyatt said.
Asked whether he was “offended” by tall ship commemorations, Mr Wyatt said he had “moved on a long way”.
“There are other things that are equally important that we have to deal with, and closing the gap, education, other opportunities, because in one sense, that’s Sydney-centric,” he said.
“Across the federation there were different interventions of settlement that came at later periods, so at different points we do have other things that we want to consider, and if we come together as a nation to celebrate what we’ve become, then I’d rather see us retain that than to shift it and create division.”
Offering indigenous Australians another token gesture in the form of a public holiday won't help or change anything.
— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) September 25, 2018
Australia Day must remain on the 26th of January. We need to accept our past and learn to celebrate our shared country's bright future together as one nation. -PH pic.twitter.com/gKTJYyvEU1
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said offering indigenous Australians “another token gesture” in the form of a public holiday would not “help or change” anything.
“Australia Day must remain on the 26th of January,” Senator Hanson tweeted.
“We need to accept our past and learn to celebrate our shared country’s bright future together as one nation.”
Plibersek open to discussion
Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said Labor was up for a conversation about a day to acknowledge indigenous Australians, but slammed Mr Morrison for his scant detail.
“I think it’s very clear that most Australians back Australia Day remaining on the 26th of January and certainly it’s Labor’s position that Australia Day should remain on the 26th of January,” Ms Plibersek said.
“At the same time we have to recognise that many indigenous Australians find this is a day of sorrow, and to respect those feelings too.
“I notice the comments of Prime Minister Scott Morrison today about having a separate day that would acknowledge indigenous culture and heritage in Australia.
“That’s certainly a conversation that we are up for. The details at the moment are quite scant.
“I’d like the Prime Minister to tell us whether he envisages that would be another public holiday.
“Would it be a separate public holiday, an additional day on the Australia Day long weekend? He really needs to give us a little bit more detail before we can properly answer whether we support the comments that he’s made today.”
Mr Morrison this morning emphasised that states and territories and not the federal government have the power to determine when public holidays take place.
“They gazette those and there are implications for businesses and so on and I’m sure they’d have views,” Mr Morrison told the Seven Network”.
Ms Plibersek said last time the government had asked indigenous Australians for their opinion, they had disregarded it, citing the Uluru Statement from the Heart on an indigenous voice to parliament.
“Most importantly we also support the continuing efforts to close the gap: close the gap on employment, in health and education and life expectancy and child mortality and all of the areas that are so critical to reducing the disadvantage faced by First Nations Australians,” she said.
“We really do need to redouble our efforts to close the gap, and that’s why it’s so very disappointing that when Tony Abbott was prime minister he cut half a billion dollars from programs that support closing the gap.
“They’ve made the guy who cut half a billion dollars from those programs the envoy on indigenous matters. I’m not sure that indigenous Australians would really get the logic of that.”
Abbott won’t back Indigenous Day
Mr Abbott spoke out about the proposal today.
“Look I think it’s very important to appropriately acknowledge indigenous people … and there are acknowledgment to countries in all sorts of very important contexts these days … “ he told 2GB. “Indigenous people are at the opening of parliament everyday along with the Lord’s Prayer … Australia Day is a day for everyone, including Aboriginals.”
The former PM said he believed the nation was proud of its indigenous heritage and he didn’t believe there was any push to exclude indigenous Australians from celebrating Australia Day.
“The point that I started making as Prime Minister is that Australia is the country with indigenous heritage, British foundations, and an immigrant character … and that indigenous heritage is one of the three great pillars on which modern Australia is built.” he said.
“I think these days we are all very proud of the fact that we do have an indigenous heritage, we want it to be honoured and celebrated so I don’t think there is any desire on the part of anyway to exclude Aboriginal people from the celebration of Australia Day.”
Byron Shire mayor praises Morrison
Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson says he’d support the PM’s proposal for a separate day to celebrate indigenous Australians.
Scott Morrison announced this morning that he would strip he will strip the east coast’s council of their right to hold citizenship ceremonies after the council said it would move Australia Day forward a day.
While Mr Richardson said he couldn’t decide on how indigenous Australians chose to honour their history, he congratulated the PM on his leadership.
“It’s certainly not up to me to decide, I think the first thing to do is speak to indigenous people and ask them.” he told Sky News. “If the Prime Minister wants to be a leader to embrace Aboriginal culture and find a day where we can celebrate even more, I think that’s fantastic and he has my support.”
On the furore surrounding council moving Australia Day celebrations to January 25, the Greens council said moving the day was the mature decision.
“I think bottom line is we know a substantial amount of our indigenous community find it very difficult that we celebrate Australia on a day that they call it invasion or survival day.” he said. “We know that we now have a choice: we can ignore it, we can hope they get over it, or we can be a just a little bit mature about it.”
Mr Richardson stressed that the council was not trying to tell Australians they could no longer celebrate on January 26, just that the council would be hosting its annual event on the 25.
‘Australia Day should not change’
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg initially evaded questions about whether he agreed with Mr Morrison that Australia should have a day recognising our indigenous heritage.
“I strongly believe that Australia Day should not change, and we should be very proud of our heritage, and we should be able to celebrate the contribution of our First Australians, Indigenous people, together with more of our recent past,” Mr Frydenberg said, when asked whether he agreed with the need for a new day.
“So they’re not mutually exclusive, but I certainly don’t support changing the date of Australia Day.”
Asked whether he was saying he did not agree with an indigenous recognition day, Mr Frydenberg said: “No, what I’m saying is we shouldn’t be changing the date of Australia Day.”
“As we’ve seen from some local councils, who have indicated they no longer want to have citizenship ceremonies on that day because that day is not appropriate,” he said.
“I do not share that view, and I know I’m at one with the Prime Minister who has made some very strong comments today about that and rightly so.”
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann interjected, saying Mr Morrison’s key point had been that celebrating Australia Day and marking the achievements of indigenous Australians shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.
“I 100 per cent agree with the comments the Treasurer just made and of course the comments made by the Prime Minister earlier today,” Senator Cormann said.
“We should continue to celebrate Australia Day on 26 January, marking that very important day in our national history, but we of course should explore what better ways we could mark on a dedicated day the significant achievements of indigenous Australians.”
Asked whether he would support an additional day to recognised indigenous heritage, Senator Cormann said those issues “are to be worked out”.
“The Prime Minister has indicated very clearly that we’re not for changing Australia Day, but we also need to mark out a day to properly record the contribution made by our First Australians, and to celebrate their achievements,” Senator Cormann said.
‘It’s when the ships turned up’
Scott Morrison says Australians should not be engaging in “indulgent self loathing” as he pushes for an Australia Day-style day for indigenous Australians.
The PM has announced he will strip Byron Shire of their right to hold citizenship ceremonies after the council said it would move Australia Day forward a day.
“Citizenship ceremonies shouldn’t be used as a political football.” he told Seven’s Sunrise this morning. “They’re about new Australians becoming part of our national family …
“If the council want to act like that well the Commonwealth can always go somewhere else.” he said. “Citizenship’s about the citizens, not about the ego of councillors.”
Mr Morrison has not put forward an alternative date or a firm concept of what the day for indigenous Australians would look like, instead saying he intended his comments to spark a national conversation.
“I just said today it would be good to have a chat about it, we should think about, I mean, we don’t have to pull Australia Day down to recognise the achievements of indigenous Australians, the oldest living culture in the world, the two can coexist.” he said.
The date of Australia Day has long been a hot spot of national debate. Some indigenous communities argue that January 26 represents a day of dispossession and genocide. Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has suggested Australia Day fall over two days, starting on January 25.
Mr Morrison told Nine’s Today he wanted to unify Australia instead of engaging in “indulgent self loathing.”
“I don’t think engaging in this sort of indulgent self loathing actually makes our country stronger.” he said. “I want to bring Australians together on this day.”
The PM flatly rejected changing the date from January 26, the date the First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson in 1788.
“That’s the date that the ships turned up, that’s the date that 60,000 years of history in this country moved into the most recent modern form of our history.” he said. “We can’t pretend it was some other day that this happened.”
The PM said the nation had to accept its failures along with its successes.
“That is when it happened, and that’s the day where we’ve got to deal with anything, and we’ve got to embrace it all, warts and all, accept our successes and acknowledge where we haven’t done so well.”
Mr Morrison has not clarify whether he had consulted with indigenous communities or groups.
Indigenous leader Warren Mundine welcomed Mr Morrison’s initiative.
“I think he sounds genuine in actually taking this seriously, and now we will walk through this process,” he told The Australian.
“Now is the time to sit down with Aboriginals across the country, not just leadership groups but also people on the ground.”
Mr Mundine also supported removing the rights of councils who moved the Australia Day date to hold citizenship ceremonies.
“It really makes me angry,” he said. “It’s a national day, it’s not about a council out in Woop Woop …”
“It’s mainly all left and greenie groups trying to push their own agenda and its an important day to bring all Australians together, they deserved to be stripped.”
Alice Springs councillor Jacinta Price told The Australian that she’s not “over the moon” about the proposal, but said she would support the day if it ensured the desires of the community were met.
“I think if we do have a day I think it really needs to be momentous to those who want to mourn the past,” she said. “And hopefully we can look forward to the future because we can keeping looking at the past.”
Ms Price said she would prefer if Australia Day began with recognition of the past before moved on to the traditional celebrations.
“The act of forgiveness needs to take place because that’s where the act of healing occurs,” she said. “I would hope we would become a mature enough country to do that and we might be able to focus on the more serious and important issues.”
Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek took aim at Mr Morrison over what she said was his “disrespectful” lack of consultation.
“Labor supports Australia Day staying on 26th Jan, although we understand it’s a difficult day for many Australians.” she wrote on Twitter. “We are disappointed the Prime Minister has chosen to float such a significant idea like this through the media with zero consultation. It’s disrespectful.”
Ms Plibersek said while Labor was open to the new day, the party would first open a dialogue on the topic with indigenous Australians.
“Unlike Scott Morrison, we’ll consult indigenous people and our indigenous caucus about whether a proper day of recognition with an additional public holiday is a positive way forward — we’re open to it.”
Labor supports Australia Day staying on 26th Jan, although we understand it’s a difficult day for many Australians. We are disappointed the Prime Minister has chosen to float such a significant idea like this through the media with zero consultation. It’s disrespectful.
— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) September 24, 2018
Meanwhile, Nationals’ deputy leader Bridget McKenzie has been left red faced after confusing the historical event behind Australia Day.
Ms McKenzie was speaking to Sky News on a new day to celebrate the achievements of indigenous Australians when she said January 26 marked the arrival of Captain James Cook to Australia.
“The reality is that is when the course of our nation changed forever when Captain Cook stepped ashore, and from then on we’ve built an incredibly successful society, the best multicultural society in the world, and in order to continue that trajectory, we need to actually work together.”
.@senbmckenzie on a national day for Indigenous Australians: We have built the best multicultural society in the world, to continue that we need to work together.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 24, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/BCWXU1f0kw #amagenda pic.twitter.com/okuulp21OT
Labor MP Tim Watts tweeted screenshots of the mistake with the caption: “They don’t know what they’re fighting for, but they really want a fight over it.”
They don't know what they're fighting for, but they really want a fight over it. pic.twitter.com/pS5LiDeDH3
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) September 24, 2018
Byron council hits back at PM
Mr Morrison vowed that councils would no longer be allowed to use our national day as a “political football”.
“Our councils are there to focus on the services needs of local ratepayers, not become a rate-and taxpayer-funded version of GetUp.”
Byron Shire Council will hold some council events on the national holiday but has announced its official ceremony will move to January 25.
Byron Mayor Simon Richardson said the celebrations on January 26 caused pain in a section of the community and questioned whether the values of a fair go and mateship were being reflected.
“Is it true mateship to willingly, wilfully and continually to celebrate what rightfully is great to be an Australian on a day that some Australians are pained by?” the Greens representative told 3AW.
“All we’re trying to do is trying to reflect history and acknowledge that Australia began, not with the second wave of settlers, but the first.”
Mr Richardson’s motion was passed at a council meeting last week.
Additional reporting: AAP
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