Yahoo – AFP,
14 Sep 2017
Another town scraps Australia Day, drawing government ire |
Sydney
(AFP) - Marking Australia Day is like celebrating the Holocaust, a Melbourne
politician said as her council scrapped a holiday it deemed offensive to
Aboriginal people, in a move the government on Thursday labelled "extreme
and divisive".
The council
in the Melbourne suburb of Moreland became the third in Victoria state to
decide not to recognise Australia Day.
The annual
holiday, on January 26, commemorates the arrival of the country's first British
settlers in 1788 and is a time when citizenship ceremonies are held.
But it is
termed "Invasion Day" by many indigenous Australians who say it marks
the beginning of the decline of Aboriginal culture.
In debating
the issue Wednesday, Moreland Socialist Alliance councillor Sue Bolton said
commemorating Australia Day "would be like celebrating the Nazi
Holocaust", state broadcaster ABC reported.
Assistant
Minister for Immigration Alex Hawke said in a statement the government rejected
"the extreme and divisive nature of the discussion Greens and Socialist
councillors are promoting".
He said the
government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull "strongly condemns
comparisons of Australia Day with the Nazi Holocaust as deeply offensive to all
Australians".
"Australia
Day is a recognition of our shared history and the Turnbull government, along
with the vast majority of Australians, indigenous and non-indigenous, fully
support Australia Day remaining on January 26."
Australia's
colonial history credits Captain James Cook with discovering the country, but
Aboriginal people inhabited the land for more than 60,000 years before the
first European explorers arrived.
Last month
a war of words erupted over colonial-era statues in Australia, with several in
Sydney defaced, including one of Cook with the words "change the
date" in reference to Australia Day.
The
vandalism sparked a furious response from Turnbull, who brushed off calls for
the statues to be torn down, adding that the defacement was "what Stalin
did" in denying history.
Aborigines
remain the most disadvantaged Australians. They were believed to have numbered
around one million at the time of British settlement, but now make up only
about three percent of the total population of 24 million.
Town scraps Australia Day, calling it offensive to Aboriginal people. Government says move is "extreme and divisive" https://t.co/GicfnvGVrU pic.twitter.com/xrT7JsgrtR— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 14, 2017
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