80 local councils from right across the country are set to stop holding citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day in 2024. This is a momentous change from the previous year in which a total of four local councils opted out.
One of the leaders behind the reform is City of Sydney’s mayor Clover Moore who has firmly asserted that “the date of a national celebration should not be on Invasion Day”, per news.com.au.
Sydney will now host its citizenship ceremonies on Jan 29 where around 160 new Aussies will be welcomed onto the team.
Previously, it had been estimated that approximately 16,000 people become citizens each year on January 26 Australia-wide.
The councils opting out aren’t just restricted to those in capital cities, with a smattering of regional and inner-city LGAs taking part in the shift.
In Victoria, for instance, Corangamite Shire, Greater Bendigo and the Alpine Shire are just some of the regional areas ditching Jan 26 in line with traditionally progressive strongholds like Merri-Bek City and Darebin City closer to Melbourne’s CBD.
As expected, the move hasn’t been without community blowback.
Greg Barnes, a councillor from Bundaberg 360km north of Brisbane told the Courier Mail he was “absolutely hammered” by constituents after citizenship ceremonies were moved one day earlier to Jan 25.
It should be noted that this ~hammering~ consisted of nine (yes, nine) residents getting stuck in at a public appearance he made.
Hardly an army by anyone’s definition…
Australia Day citizenship ceremonies are one of the last remaining formal traditions of a day that otherwise causes First Nation’s people a great deal of pain.
In 2017, the Triple J Hottest 100 announced it wouldn’t be holding the countdown on Australia Day with many would-be listeners instead opting to take part in Invasion Day protests.
It’s also worth noting Australia Day only became a nation-wide public holiday as recently as 1994, so there goes the historical argument for the pro-Australia Day camp.
PM Anthony Albanese has previously indicated his support of Australia Day’s continuation.
Header photo by Chris Hopkins/Getty Images
