Australia Day

"No occasion in our history echoes the hopes, values and sentiments of Australians more than the day on which our nation rejected the foreign injustices of our past and asserted our own belief that, in this country, we are all born equal."

Above is a sentence from the profile for a Facebook group called 'Move Australia Day to May 27'.

The creator, along with 137 members and AFL legend Ron Barassi, feel that the date of the 1967 referendum should be the appropriate day to celebrate our national pride.

I have two issues with this proposal.

The first relates to the importance placed on the 1967 referendum. There is no argument that it was a significant moment in the lives of Aboriginal Australians. For the first time the Commonwealth government was allowed to make laws specifically regarding them and they were to be included in any future national census. A significant occasion without doubt but still only another step in a long struggle to be recognised as human beings in their own nation. They like all other Australians had been citizens of Australia since 1948 when Australian citizenship became differentiated from being a British subject and their right to vote was confirmed by the Commonwealth in 1949 although it took to the early 60s before they were allowed to vote in all State elections.

Since 1967 there has been Mabo and Wik and Keating's Redfern speech and finally the Apology. All significant moments in a journey that continues. A journey that one day may include proper compensation or a treaty. I don't think we can grab the 27th of May 1967 and say it was the singularly most important day in that journey.

My second issue is that it would seem to be replacing one exclusive day with another. How does white Australia's relationship with Aboriginal Australia affect how somebody of Vietnamese, Lebanese or Sudanese heritage sees themselves in their new country? Yes it is now a part of their common heritage as Australians but does it compare in significance with the abolition of the White Australia policy under the Whitlam and Fraser governments? Surely those reforms could be equally seen as when "our nation rejected the foreign injustices of our past and asserted our own belief that, in this country, we are all born equal."

I must admit that Australia Day in its present form holds little significance for me. I appreciate the chance to burn meat on an open flame and drink beer but I don't do that with any more nationalistic verve than I do on any other day.

If we do indeed need a day to celebrate what is, despite its many failings, quite a bloody good place to live then I have two suggestions.

Either we actually grow up as a nation and become a republic giving ourselves a fantastic opportunity to change the date amongst other things, or we change the date to the day we officially became a nation, January 1st.

But I suspect that would get howled down because that already is a public holiday. And there my friends is the rub.