CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
Federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s hopes for beginning 2025 with a bang have been neutralised by a cruel glitch in the Gregorian calendar this week.
With an election set to take place in the next four months, Dutton desperately needed to start the year with an Australia Day debate, which would have given him yet another opportunity to label Indigenous people ‘sooks’ – and avoid any conversations about any actual policies that may current cost-of-living crisis by jamming the annual culture war into the news cycle.
The debate surrounding the appropriateness of celebrating the British arrival on January 26th has been alive since well be the date was actually marked as a nation public holiday in 1994 – with Indigenous protests dating as far back as 1938.
However, through the hard work of Howard-era historical revisionism and media sensationalism, this debate as been presented as ‘a new thing that lefties have to complain about’
And while the general political narrative is that protestors are the only people bringing this up, January 26th has remained a reliable culture war for right-wing politicians who have nothing else to talk about.
After years of protest, the Indigenous community have made it clear that they view January 26th as a day of mourning – and that our national day should be changed.
After years of calm and patient dialogue from Indigenous people, those who oppose ‘changing the date’ can no longer argue that Indigenous Australians are exaggerating the horror that their people faced after the British arrived – and the generational suffering that followed.
There is no right or wrong to this debate anymore. You either sympathise with the Indigenous perspective or you don’t want to hear about it. Peter Dutton does not sympathise. In fact he wants to make it worse for them, as seen by his relentless attacks on local councils and businesses that have toned down their celebrations in recent years.
Unfortunately for the Federal Opposition, January 26 falls on a Sunday in 2025. Which means the public holiday will be on January 27th, a day that has no historical relevance, and is therefore nothing more than a public holiday where people can be as patriotic as they like without upsetting anyone.
Dutton’s plan to amplify this community division, to the point where average Australians feel under attack, has been avoided this year.
Australians can now look forward to him complaining about not seeing enough crucifixes in Woolworths over Easter. Because that’s the biggest issue that Australians have with the price-gouging corporate supermarket duopoly right now.
