Changing Australia Day

Republicans might argue that Australia is still not fully independent until we no longer have the British monarch automatically serving as our head of state. But in a legal sense, Australia is now a fully independent nation.

The date when Australia came into existence as a country was January 1, 1901, when the various colonies became states as part of the federation of Australia. Some Australians would probably not support January 1st as Australia Day, because we already have a public holiday on that day, and they would lose a public holiday.

There is something to be said for celebrating a new nation at the start of a new year, but the process of federation also contained aspects which were far from inclusive of all who lived here at the time. Not only did Indigenous Australians still have far lesser rights under the law. A key driver of federation was a White Australia mentality, and many non-white Australian residents - especially Chinese, other Asians and south sea Islanders - were subject to widespread deportation at various stages because they were not British (and not white).

At the time of Federation, all “Australians” were still British subjects. There was no such thing as an Australian citizen until 1949. Even after that date, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, who served from 1949-1966, was comfortably able to say he was “British to his bootstraps”.

According to this information sheet from the National Archives:

Throughout the 1960s, Australian citizens were still required to declare their nationality as British. The term “Australian nationality” had no official recognition or meaning until the Act was amended in 1969 and renamed the Citizenship Act. This followed a growing sense of Australian nationalism and the declining importance for Australians of the British Empire. In 1973 the Act was renamed the Australian Citizenship Act. It was not until 1984 that Australian citizens ceased to be British subjects.

The right to appeal decisions in Australian Courts to the British Privy Council was not finally abolished until the 1980s. The power of the British Parliament to legislate for Australia was not legally removed until the adoption of the Australia Act in 1986. This Act came into force on March 3rd, but I think that’s a bit too obscure for most people to want to claim that as Australia Day.

Some people have suggested we shouldn’t change the date of Australia Day, given how much angst and controversy it would probably cause, but instead change what the day celebrates.

As the first Citizenship Act came into operation on January 26, 1949, this date could be reshaped as a celebration of what being a citizen of Australia is all about. More people currently become Australian citizens on this day than any other day of the year, so acknowledging it as Citizenship Day has some merit.

We could then have another day as Australia Day. Apart from January 1 as the anniversary of Federation, some have suggested May 27, as the anniversary of the 1967 referendum which enabled Aboriginal people to be counted in the national census. Australian football legend Ron Barassi has expressed support for this date.

Barassi said recognising the May 27 date would be the next step on the path to reconciliation. He said it would be a natural progression after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said “sorry” to the Indigenous population last year.

“Australia Day is the day put aside to focus attention on just what a great country this is. But I reckon we’re celebrating the wrong day,” he said.