Waiting patiently for change
AUSTRALIA DAY
FOR nearly 20 years I have been writing to the Mercury letters to the editor promoting a change of date for Australia Day. In 1994 a nameless/faceless public servant hit on the bright idea of moving Australia Day to January 26. It was a very bad idea and all the invasion day conversations stem from that decision.
Let’s all now admit the decision was wrong and revert to the day that had been celebrated as Australia Day for over 90 years previously without incident or problems. Return Australia Day to the last Monday in January, regardless of the date. That way we all get a long weekend in the middle of summer to celebrate, no more sickies to turn midweek holidays into longer breaks, no celebration of arrival, religion, race, colour, sexual orientation or whatever. Just a holiday to celebrate Australia’s lifestyle and culture.
It is a solution that would be acceptable to everyone. How much longer will it take for our spineless leaders to make the decision? Do they think they will lose votes?
While this may not be an area in which Hobart City Council or the State Government have jurisdiction, I applaud Sue Hickey and Rebecca White on their progressive stance. I also commend to you all the value of having such an outlet as the Mercury letters to the editor to air your point of view. You never know it just might make a difference even though it may take a long time. I live on hope. date/event on which it based is largely seen as disrespectful to the original Australians is preventing it from being a truly unifying day. However, for so many other reasons the time of year that we celebrate Australia Day seems so perfect. My suggestion is we don’t tie it to a specific date, but more to the time of year and day of week. Specifically, the last Thursday of January. What would be more Australian than following Australia Day with “chuck a sickie Friday” and making an extra long weekend to recover from our hottest 100 parties. It worked a charm this year.
Social engineering
WHAT’S next on the agenda for Hobart City Council’s Department of Self Righteous Social Engineering? Changing the date of Christmas and Easter to appease the 1.5 per cent of nonbelievers and other religions perhaps? What exciting times we live in. Getting the streets in Hobart up to scratch would be exciting too.
Humour razor sharp
KUDELKA’S cartoon ( Mercury, June 17) cuts through the Australia Day debate. everyone born and residing in the country, including naturalised Australian citizens. The solution to this controversy is to cancel Australia Day celebrations and the public holiday indefinitely, otherwise leave it as it is.
Offensive
WHAT is wrong with January 26 is that it is the day this country was taken by the English and the Aboriginal people dispossessed. Why would indigenous not find this date offensive?
Nonsense
DEBATE about changing the date of Australia Day is nonsense and disrespectful to Aboriginal Australians.
Pretending to sanitise Australia Day, so young Australians can get drunk and leave rubbish on beaches and parks without feeling guilt about crimes committed to the Aboriginal people by the English colonists, ancestors of many of us, cannot change history.
A more mature approach would be for all Australians, no matter their ancestry, to recognise that the arrival of the British was not just the birth of a nation but the beginning of the end of thousands of years of Aboriginal culture and history. To pretend otherwise is contrary to historical fact and dismissive of the feelings First Australians may justifiably hold in regard to the invasion.
Protest blow-ins
IT would be interesting to see how many boats at FLOMO in Salamanca were registered at Triabunna or the East Coast. I suppose a lot there wouldn’t know where Okehampton was, let alone how to get there.
People have spoken
TASMANIANS from all walks of life have said no to fish farms on the East Coast. If the Liberal Government does not act, people will, come the ballot box. Will Hodgman, the ball is in your court.
Gore
TO all those who bought a ticket to witness the barbaric mutilation of a dead bull in the name of art, it is you, and people like you, that is wrong with the world today. If this type of gore floats your boat, I’m sure you could arrange a visit to the local slaughterhouse and it won’t cost a penny.
Dark days
WITH Dark Mofo yet again being a tremendous drawcard for tourism and enterprise for Tasmania, with the tremendous economic benefits that flow from it, there now needs to be an honest evaluation of the entire festival and a pruning of the dark aspects that are undermining goodness and decency.