‘Marking Australia Day is like celebrating Holocaust’

SYDNEY: Marking Australia Day is like celebrating the Holocaust, a Melbourne politician said, as her council scrapped a holiday it deemed offensive to Aboriginal people, in a move the government yesterday labelled “extreme and divisive”.

The council in the Melbourne suburb of Moreland became the third in Victoria state to decide not to recognise Australia Day.

The annual holiday, on Jan 26, commemorates the arrival of the country’s first British settlers in 1788 and is a time when citizenship ceremonies are held.

But it is termed “Invasion Day” by many indigenous Australians, who say it marks the beginning of the decline of Aboriginal culture.

In debating the issue on Wednesday, Moreland Socialist Alliance councillor Sue Bolton said commemorating Australia Day “would be like celebrating the Nazi Holocaust”, state broadcaster ABC reported.

Assistant Minister for Immigration Alex Hawke said the government rejected “the extreme and divisive nature of the discussion Greens and Socialist councillors are promoting”.

He said the government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull “strongly condemns comparisons of Australia Day with the Nazi Holocaust as deeply offensive to all Australians”.

“Australia Day is a recognition of our shared history and the Turnbull government, along with the vast majority of Australians, indigenous and non-indigenous, fully support Australia Day remaining on Jan 26..

Australia’s colonial history credited Captain James Cook with discovering the country, but Aboriginal people inhabited the land for more than 60,000 years before the first European explorers arrived.

Last month, a war of words erupted over colonial-era statues in Australia, with several in here defaced, including one of Cook with the words “change the date” in reference to Australia Day. AFP