Is the 'Change the Date' movement gathering momentum?
Is the 'Change the Date' movement gathering momentum?
Normally I tune out to this annual debate since it feels so polarised and stale, but the messaging from Woolworths, Cricket Australia, the Australian Open and others this year suggests big companies are concerned about an attitude shift within Australian society. It seems they've decided the inevitable backlash is now worth it because the silent majority has begun leaning in favour of change.
Is this just a natural result of this being the first post-referendum Australia Day or is there a longer-term change unfolding here?
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There is a longer term change happening here.
I think more and more Australians are starting to feel genuinely ashamed at the idea of celebrating a day/event that is a source of pain and grief for many.
Eh I feel it’s more most people just don’t care about Australia Day.
We’re more concerned about having a day off than celebrating someone landing in Sydney.
That's me. Couldn't give a toss about the reason behind it, so do whatever you like. Just make sure we get to keep the day off and I'm down for whatever.
That's part of it, but it's not the end of it. If that were all it was, then Woolworths, Cricket Australia etc, wouldn't be actively avoiding it
Well if less people care for it, those companies would also have less reason to do it, no?
Chief executive Brad Banducci told Today that a declining demand in sales of the merchandise was behind the move.
They don't want to get caught in the middle. If it were just declining sales, they'd gradually fade it out.
But they don't want turn off people who are upset by it, and they're not invested in selling it, especially given declining sales, so they silently remove it in one go. Then when they get caught up in the middle of it anyway, they claim it's just declining sales, because literally anything else will make them the centre of a news cycle about a topic they're trying to stay out of
In the case of Woolworths, yes, but I'm not sure rising ambivalence is the reason why sporting events are avoiding it. In this situation, outcry following change is generally louder than outcry for change so it would make more sense to just proceed as usual if ambivalence was actually the consideration here. Either way, diminishing support for Australia Day will only strengthen the cause of its detractors.
There's no point in having a day to unify the nation if the majority aren't on board or if it obviously excludes some groups.
There are a few dates around that should be of greater national significance (i.e. major legislation or a historic sitting of parliament). A good one would've been the day that Australians overwhelming voted yes in a referendum to recognise the first peoples of Australia, healing the wounds of the past. Unfortunately that didn't happen and won't happen probably for another 30 years
I would say do it on the day we became a nation, like every other country does. I can't remember the exact date but it's early January
@eatham @unionagainstdhmo Perhaps the date of proclamation could work as a national holiday?
"The Proclamation Declaring the Establishment of the Commonwealth was a royal proclamation made by Queen Victoria on 17 September 1900 federating the six separate British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia."
Another option would be 3 March, when the Australia Act passed, which effectively ended British rule over Australia:
"The Australia Act ended all power of the UK Parliament to legislate with effect in Australia – that is, "as part of the law of" the Commonwealth, a state or a territory (s 1). Conversely, no future law of a state would be void for inconsistency with (being "repugnant to") any UK law applying with "paramount force" in Australia; a state (like the Commonwealth) would have power to repeal or amend such an existing UK law so far as it applied to the state (s 3). State laws would no longer be subject to disallowance and reservation by the monarch (s 8) – a power that, anomalously, remains for Commonwealth legislation (Constitution ss 59 and 60).[n 6]
...
"The Acts came into effect simultaneously, on 3 March 1986."
@ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo I think 9 May, when federal parliament first met in 1901. It's the right year, and more convenient than 1 Jan.
@timrichards @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo isn't May problematic because of May/Labour Day in one of the states?
@timrichards @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo yeah, Queensland and NT.
@skribe @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo Could always be moved.
@timrichards @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo
Yeah, I can just imagine that meeting:
PM: Thanks for coming at short notice-
Q: Where are the other states?
NT: And territories!
PM: What do you mean?
Q: It’s just Queensland and Northern Territory.
NT: The largest territory!
PM: Yeah. I was getting to that. As you know, we’re changing the date for Australia Day.
Q: We are?
PM: Yeah. 26th January is no longer popular. Some people are even calling it Invasion Day.
Q: Why?
PM: Um, something about Captain Cook. I don’t really know, but we’re changing the date. However, there’s a problem. You know how you both have public holidays in early May? We need you to change them.
Q: Why?
PM: Because we’ve decided to make Australia Day coincide with when Parliament first met.
Q: And?
PM: You probably don’t want two consecutive long weekends.
Q: It works for Chrissie and New Year.
PM: Yeah, but everyone is on holiday then anyway.
NT: When did Parliament first meet?
PM: 9th May.
NT: What year?
PM: 1901.
NT: But it’s 2024.
Q: So where do you want us to move them to?
PM: Early march seems popular.
NT: You want us to have May Day in March?
Q: Ok.
PM: Ok?
Q: We’ll do it. But we’re going to need some sweeteners.
PM: Sweeteners?
Q: We’re moving Labour Day. We’re a Labor government. You’re a Labor government. We’ve got to appeal to working people.
PM: What did you have in mind?
Q: AFL Grand Final.
PM: I’m sure we can arrange some-
Q: Every year.
PM: Queenslanders don’t even like AFL much.
Q: I feel that could get a real taste for it.
PM: The Gabba only holds, what, forty thousand people?
Q: Forty-two thousand, Prime Minister. But, I’m sure with some federal funding we could expand it to at least...a hundred thousand.
PM: A hundred thousand? The one and only time the Gabba hosted the AFL grand final you didn’t even draw thirty thousand.
Q: It was 2020. Those are COVID numbers. Plus in Queensland, we’re nothing if we’re not aspirational.
PM: Alright. The AFL Grand Final-
Q: And all three of the State of Origin matches.
PM: Come on-!
Q: And you know that deal that WA is getting with the GST? We want that too. And Ricky Ponting, he’s now a Queenslander and always has been.
PM: What about Boonie?
Q: Who?
PM: Was there anything else you want to steal? From South Australia maybe?
Q: They no longer have the F1, do they?
PM: Nope.
Q: Then, they’ve got nothing worth stealing.
PM: Northern Territory, what about you?
NT: We want to become a state.
PM: Good to he-
NT: With twelve senators, like the other states.
PM: Queensland, would you settle for hosting the Grand Final every second year?
And of course ACT has Reconciliation Day on the 27th May. Good luck moving that too.
@timrichards @skribe @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo I kinda like March 3; only moves it by about a week and is significant as noted here: https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-celebrate-australia-day-on-march-3-the-day-we-became-a-fully-independent-country-221015
@whybird @timrichards @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo it's going to face the same issue as May 9th. It conflicts with state public holidays - Labour Day in both WA and Vic. I can't see either state agreeing to changing. Is there a federally significant date in July? That's mostly free and doesn't conflict with the footy finals.
@skribe @timrichards @ajsadauskas @eatham @unionagainstdhmo There’s this, but surely there might be something better: https://www.onthisday.com/date/1814/july/17
Edit: that would be less divisive that this one though: https://www.onthisday.com/date/1900/july/9
It could be argued that that leaves out Indigenous Australians. What about the 21st of May to mark Indigenous Australians being given the right to enrol to vote.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/indigenous-australians-right-to-vote
That is, if we want a day that all Australians and can be proud of. Giving everyone a fair go.
Technically it's 01/01/1901
Yeah 100%. You can see the change just in gen z's attitudes towards this. The rallies are also getting bigger each year.