Australians all let us rewrite

A NEW national anthem that strips out words offensive to indigenous Australians has been granted permission by the Turnbull Government to be sung as a “patriotic song”.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has offered the compromise after a prominent group of Australians failed to convince him to accept their new version of Advance Australia Fair, which includes a third verse to recognise indigenous history.

Victorian Supreme Court Judge Peter Vickery, via the Recognition in Anthem Project, changed the second line of verse one from, For we are young and free to In peace and harmony. The revision acknowledges indigenous culture. He has also written 10 new lyrics for a third verse, which makes mention of Dreamtime, Uluru and respecting country. Because the Commonwealth owns the copyright, Justice Vickery, who is also a poet, wrote to Mr Turnbull asking if he could make the changes in his campaign to overhaul the anthem