PM Scott Morrison calls for new holiday, defends Australia Day

Australian PM Scott Morrison. Photo / Getty Images

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rejected calls to move Australia Day and instead wants a new public holiday to recognise the history of indigenous Australians.

The proposal comes amid renewed debate over national celebrations being held on January 26, the date the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove.

Australia Day has been labelled Invasion Day by indigenous Australians and many others.

New South Wales' Byron Shire Council this week said it was following a number of Victorian councils and moving its Australia Day events forward a day.

Morrison said on Twitter that the move was "indulgent self-loathing".

Melbourne's Darebin and Yarra councils last year voted to stop holding citizenship ceremonies on January 26, prompting the Government of Malcolm Turnbull, Morrison's predecessor, to strip them of their rights to hold citizenship ceremonies.

Morrison suggested it would be a better idea to "chat with the Australian people" about the concept of a new public holiday to acknowledge the 60,000 years of indigenous history.

Defending his decision to keep Australia Day on January 26, Morrison said on the Today Show yesterday: "That is the day the ships turned up. That is the day 60,000 years of history in this country moved into the most recent, modern form of our history. We can't pretend it was some other day that that happened." He added that "we have to embrace it all, warts and all".

Rod Little from the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples welcomed discussion of the new national day, but said it needed to be accompanied by "truth telling" about historical injustices.

"There are lots of bad things that have happened in these 200 years [since colonisation] and we're still feeling the effects of that," he said.

Government frontbencher Ken Wyatt, an Aboriginal man from Western Australia, said the idea of an indigenous day was "a great step forward" and suggested holding the event during Naidoc Week in July.

"Naidoc Week has been a great week in Australian society," he said.

Naidoc (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Morrison's hand-picked indigenous envoy, said he would want to learn more before endorsing any proposal for a stand-alone day to celebrate indigenous Australians.

"I probably would want to hold judgment on any alternative day for indigenous people until I saw the proposal," Abbott told Sydney's 2GB radio station. "We've already got Naidoc Week and National Sorry Day."

National Sorry Day has been held on May 26 since 1998 to remember and commemorate the mistreatment of the country's Aboriginal People.