Malcolm Turnbull condemns Yarra City’s decision to axe Australia Day

A Melbourne council which scrapped Australia Day celebrations has been stripped of its power to hold citizenship ceremonies.

Yarra City council has dropped Australia Day celebrations.

A Melbourne council which has chosen to scrap Australia Day celebrations has been stripped of its power to hold citizenship ceremonies.

The Turnbull government this afternoon removed City of Yarra councillors’ ability to conduct citizenship ceremonies, following the council’s controversial decision to cancel Australia Day celebrations and citizenship ceremonies on January 26.

City of Yarra councillors on Tuesday night voted unanimously to scrap all council-run celebrations acknowledging January 26 as Australia Day, after a consultation process in which community and indigenous groups called the date a day of mourning.

From 2018 onwards, the council near the centre of Melbourne will instead mark Australia Day with a “culturally-sensitive event acknowledging the loss of culture, language and identity felt by the community on January 26.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull condemned the council’s decision as an attack on the national holiday which celebrates Australia values, while Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Alex Hawke slammed the council for its attempt to use citizenship ceremonies as a political device in a broader push to change the date of Australia Day.

This afternoon, Mr Hawke announced he had signed off on a new instrument under the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 which meant City of Yarra councillors no longer had the ability to receive a pledge of commitment at a citizenship ceremony.

From now on, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection will hold citizenship ceremonies in the City of Yarra, including on Australia Day next year.

“We are committed to ensuring that citizenship is treated in the ‘non-commercial, apolitical, bipartisan and secular manner’ which the Code mandates,” Mr Hawke said.

“The instrument I have signed today means there will be no more citizenship ceremonies conducted by the City of Yarra on behalf of the Government.”

The Government had already warned the City of Yarra that it could be penalised if it attempted to restrict citizenship ceremonies, and that moves to suspend them from being held on Australia Day could be interpreted as a “significant breach” of the Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code.

Mr Hawke has also written to the Minister for Local Government and Territories Senator Fiona Nash to suggest that she reconsider any Commonwealth funding that might go to City of Yarra for the purpose of its citizenship ceremonies.

The City of Yarra is yet to respond to the announcement.

Earlier today, Mayor Amanda Stone defended the council’s decision to scrap celebrations on the day following a community consultation process which revealed residents and members of the local indigenous community found January 26 to be associated with feelings of “sadness, trauma and distress.”

Ms Stone said the council had surveyed nearly 300 non-indigenous people in Yarra of which more than three-quarters supported the idea of Council holding an event to acknowledge Aboriginal experiences of January 26.

The mayor said she hoped the decision would give the broader community reason to pause and think more deeply about the national holiday.

“People can still have their barbecues and parties on the January 26 public holiday, but I hope our stance encourages people to stop and think about what this date really means in the history of our nation,” City of Yarra mayor Amanda Stone said.

“A celebration of national identity should be inclusive of all Australians. 26 January is not an appropriate date because it marks the beginning of British colonisation and the loss of culture, language and land for Australia’s First Peoples.”