Scott Morrison criticised for saying 26 January 'wasn't a flash day for those on first fleet vessels either'

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has come under fire after rebuking a Cricket Australia initiative to promote inclusivity on 26 January and claiming the date in 1788 “wasn’t a particularly flash day” for those on the first fleet.

The game’s governing body on Wednesday announced it would drop references to “Australia Day” in promotional material for Big Bash League games in the lead-up to the public holiday considered by some as a day of mourning.

The day, referred to as “Invasion Day” by many Indigenous people and others, will instead be referred to simply as 26 January.

Three BBL clubs will also wear Indigenous jerseys in a bid to normalise conversations over the date’s history and create a “safe and inclusive environment for everybody”.

But Morrison on Thursday said he disagreed with the push and said 26 January was “all about acknowledging how far we’ve come”.

“When those 12 ships turned up in Sydney, all those years ago, it wasn’t a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels either,” he said at a press conference in Queensland.

“What that day, to this, demonstrates is how far we’ve come as a country and I think that’s why it’s important to mark it in that way.”

Sarah Hanson-Young, the senator for South Australia, told Morrison to “read the room” while the prominent barrister, Julian Burnside QC, called the nation’s prime minister a “numbskull”.

“What bit doesn’t he understand?” Burnside tweeted.

The Greens senator, Lidia Thorpe, said Morrison’s “racism, ignorance and denial of this country’s history is on show”.

“The prime minister has an opportunity to unite this country, not to divide it. And that starts with telling the truth about this country’s history,” the Gunnai Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman said.

The Labour MP, Linda Burney, said that Morrison should be setting an example for the rest of the nation to follow and that he “should know better”.

“How can we expect to see real progress on issues such as Reconciliation and Closing the Gap when he makes such ignorant and unhelpful comments like this?” the Wiradjuri woman tweeted. “Suffering is not a competition. What the prime minister has said makes no sense.”

Another of Morrison’s critics – Labor MP Graham Perrett – also pointed out there were actually only 11 ships in the first fleet.

“Luckily our prime minister doesn’t have an electorate connected with this event,” Perrett said facetiously. Morrison’s electorate of Cook in south Sydney takes in Kurnell where James Cook landed in 1770.

Earlier, Morrison had told Cricket Australia there should be “a bit more focus on cricket, and a little less focus on politics”.

“I think that’s pretty ordinary – that’s what they’re putting on their press releases – that would be my view,” he told radio 4RO.

The Sydney Thunder, Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Renegades will all wear their special strips in matches on 23, 25 and 26 January. A barefoot circle, Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony will also take place before some games, with CA leading the initiative backed by the clubs.

The moves form part of several recommendations by the sport’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cricket Advisory Committee, which is co-chaired by CA board member and former international Mel Jones.

Three games are scheduled to be played on 26 January.

“They thought it was pretty important to not remove cultural elements we have celebrated all season on a day like that,” Cricket Australia’s diversity and inclusion manager Adam Cassidy told AAP. “Obviously it’s a bit of a challenge when you have matches being played on a day of mourning for a lot of people.”

CA are well aware the issue is a sensitive one and are desperate for it not to prove divisive, but want to encourage talk about the issue.

“When you are a business operating under a Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan, it does come with responsibility and accountability to lead on key reconciliation issues,” Cassidy said. “In an ideal world what we’re trying to do is create a safe and inclusive environment for everybody.”

Earlier this year, the NRL backflipped on a decision not to play the national anthem during the State of Origin series following an intervention from Morrison, who spoke with Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’landys.

Morrison’s government has since changed the words of the anthem, removing a reference to the country being “young and free”, amid concerns the existing wording overlooks the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that stretches back tens of thousands of years.

Indigenous jerseys have been worn across different sports for some time, but it is the first time they will be used over the Australia Day period.