Consider new flag and new date

WITH an election scheduled for early next year it would be good if the Australian public could get a commitment from political parties to review Australia Day. My wish is we make a day to celebrate. At the moment we are acknowledging the raising of the flag of our colonial settlement. Let us raise a modern Australian flag on a modern Australia Day. Our flag has become outdated. The Union Jack is now too dominant. The flag has been modified a number of times. Sometimes the background was red. Prime Minister Robert Menzies changed it to blue in 1954 and our armed forces and peacekeepers have served under this design since that date. Australia is a nation of diversity, not only culturally but in religion, sexual orientation, skin colour, food, wine, care and hairstyle. There are important issues that need solutions: Recognising the Aboriginal community in a treaty or in the Constitution; Four or four-and-a-half year fixed terms; dual citizenship MPs in federal parliament. A modern flag raised on the first Friday of February 2020, modern Australia Day, with a range of legislation affecting its citizens becoming law on the same day would advance Australia fair. Oi! Peter Jago Deloraine

Conflicts and protests

PRIME Minister Morrison boasts about the things he is doing to unite this nation. He must be joking. It amazes me the clowns in Canberra cannot see that for Australia Day January 26 is not the right day. Every year there are conflicts and protests against the day that they claim is to bring the country together. The Prime Minister has virtually said that the original inhabitants are not considered Australian so we will give them their own special day. Why not a Greece, Italian or Polish day. It doesn’t unite the country it drives it apart. My ancestors were from England and Scotland but I am Australian and I do not consider I owe allegiance to those countries but owe total allegiance to this wonderful country. January 26 represents the establishment by the now expired British Empire of a penal colony in a foreign country they invaded, claiming it was uninhabited. We are no longer part of the British Empire and ceased to be British subjects in 1987. Surely with 364 other days to choose from a day can be proclaimed which would be acceptable to all. We may even become an example to the rest of the world as people joined together despite religion and ethnic differences. F.A. Westcott Lutana

Overdue respect

FREE speech and bipartisanship in Tasmania is questionable. The power of the media is not. The Aboriginal community of Tasmania courageously and tenaciously presses on with its determination for justice and recognition as per Michael Mansell’s comments (Letters, October 10), while the powers in politics do their utmost to hinder Tasmanian Aboriginal progress. Our politicians seem hellbent on accommodating foreign investment and anything that encourages the tourist dollars while ignoring the requests and pleas of our indigenous people. The Aboriginal history must be acknowledged and their needs met. The invasion of their lands on January 26, 1788, needs to be recognised. Without the issues of the past being dealt with in a mature and compassionate manner, the greater majority of Tasmanians will continue to live in ignorant bliss as to the brutal truth of colonisation and the single-minded determination to eliminate the original custodians of Tasmania. Australia Day must be changed. And Tasmania’s Aboriginal people need to be given the respect and honour they deserve, which is long overdue! Sue Carlyon Kingston

Unites us all

ELECTORS need to know exactly what would-be councillors stand for and we need to know before the elections are held. Many councillors wait until elected to spout their ideas. Latest is the Byron Council who thought it would change Australia Day. Did they tell electors before they went to office? I doubt it. Full marks to our PM for leaving no doubt that January 26 is Australia Day. The PM is right that a national day of celebration is unifying. However, some commentators promote fragmentation and division. As far as I can discover, Australia has 22 days a year that exclusively celebrate Aboriginal culture yet the Australian nation has only one day, January 26. Marilyn Quirk Heybridge

Stop the hurt

THE Liberal Party is correct in saying that changing the date of Australia Day would not change the lives of Aboriginal people. But it would stop hurting them. Robyn Maggs South Hobart