Following a recent poll in which a sizable majority of residents supported moving the date of Australia Day, the City of Melbourne is prepared to pressure the Federal Government to do the same.
A total of 1,609 people and companies in Melbourne answered they were in favor of commemorating Australia Day on a date other than January 26.
That was twice as many as those opposed to change.
31.6 percent of those surveyed opposed moving Australia Day, while 59.8 percent were in favor.
Melbourne will lobby the Federal Government to modify Australia Day’s date following a resounding victory among residents (Pictured, Protestors at Invasion day protest Melbourne on Tuesday 26 January 2021)
Independent Sally Capp, a former Liberal, is the mayor of Melbourne. In July, she publicly requested that the council reevaluate how it handles Australia Day.
More people, 59%, indicated they thought Australia Day will be relocated from January 26 to some other day within the next ten years.
The Eastern Kulin nation’s five traditional owner organizations all agreed that the date should be changed.
If the motion is approved, the council would be obligated to continue giving licenses for state government and other organizations to hold Australia Day events.
Additionally, it would continue to hold citizenship ceremonies and promote initiatives that recognized the January 26 viewpoints from the First Nations perspective.
However, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected requests to move Australia Day to be observed on Sunrise, stating that his priority was to have the constitution recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Anthony Albanese rejected calls to change Australia Day on Sunrise, saying his focus was on recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution
The City of Melbourne has just under 170,000 residents and politically is strongly left-leaning (Pictured, protestors at an Invasion Day rally in Melbourne in 2021)
‘Let’s focus on recognising the fact that our nation’s birth certificate should proudly recognise that we did not begin in 1788, which is what the 26th of January commemorates, it began at least 60,000 years ago with the oldest continuous civilisation on earth.
‘That should be a source of pride.’
Other polls, especially national ones, have been far less enthusiastic about changing the date. A poll by IPSOS in 2021 found only 28 per cent supported the change.
About 90 per cent of the respondents to the Melbourne council’s phone survey, done by Redbridge from August 4 to 7, were residents aged over the age of 18.
The poll had an even gender split.
The City of Melbourne has just under 170,000 residents and politically is strongly left-leaning.
In the 2022 Federal Election Greens leader won Melbourne in a cakewalk, with 49.6 per cent of the vote.
Melbourne isn’t a Greens-dominated council, with only two if its 11 councillors Greens – Rohan Leppert (fourth from right) and Olivia Ball (far left)
Changing the date has been a Greens policy for many years but dropped off the party’s election policy platform with its First Nations focus instead on the creation of a Treaty.
In 2017 the City of Yarra voted to stop referring to January 26 as Australia Day. It was stripped of the right to hold citizenship ceremonies by the then-Federal government.
Melbourne isn’t a Greens-dominated council, with only two if its 11 councillors Greens – Rohan Leppert and Olivia Ball.
Its mayor is independent Sally Capp, a former Liberal, who formally asked the council to review its approach to Australia Day in July.
She acknowledged January 26 was a ‘divisive’ date.
Melbourne councillors will discuss their options at a Future Melbourne Committee meeting on September 6.