Colin Barnett's latest comments on Fremantle's Australia Day saga sound more like those of an "uneducated redneck" than a state premier, an Aboriginal community leader says.
Premier Barnett on Tuesday compared the City's actions in moving Australia Day celebrations out of respect for the Aboriginal community to "banning Christmas because Muslims don't celebrate Christmas".
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Freo Australia Day fireworks no more
The Fremantle council voted to scrap the Australia Day fireworks declaring they are insensitive towards indigenous people. Vision: Nine News Perth.
The Premier said the move was "unAustralian" and an "exaggerated" attempt to prevent people taking part in citizenship ceremonies on a day that meant something to them.
"I think it's a selfish act by the Fremantle council to deny new people to this country the right to become Australians on Australia Day," he told Radio 6PR.
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"They may have a view about Australia Day and run all those old arguments but they do not have the right to deny Australian citizens [this] right.
"Maybe they are going to ban Christmas because Muslims don't celebrate Christmas; what's next?"
His comments followed those of Bayswater Councillor Brent Fleeton, who posted on his public Facebook page last week that he was "sick of being made to feel guilty for wanting to celebrate Australia on the anniversary of the first British settlement."
"Not everyone likes this day for various reasons, I understand that, but that doesn't mean the rest of us should be shamed into wearing black armbands and apologising for being here," he said.
He said at Bayswater's first council meeting next year he would propose it investigate holding its own Australia Day riverfront fireworks in 2018.
Aboriginal elder Robert Eggington, from Nyoongar advocacy group Dumbartung, said the 'what's next' comment was 'dangerous' and incited more ill feeling.
"Comparing the decision to banning Christmas and then attaching the Muslim face is absurd. You would expect it to come from the mouth of an uneducated redneck, not the Premier of Western Australia," he said.
He thought people who were candidates for citizenship might be more sympathetic than the Premier assumed.
"Deep in the minds of a lot of people who are accessing their citizenship rights through these ceremonies would be a consciousness that this country has been founded on the dispossession of Aboriginal people," he said.
"I wouldn't take for granted that every citizen of Australia would be applauding that, especially since many come from countries that are war-torn and may know what it's like to be impoverished, or face genocide."
He also dismissed Mr Fleeton's comments as typical of those born into relative "privilege, wealth and power" as a result of power their forefathers enjoyed.
"Aboriginal people today face ingrained trauma from the dispossession of 200 years ago. So no, you cannot step aside in 2016 and say, 'well it wasn't my actions that resulted in suicides and incarceration and poverty,'" he said.
"While Aboriginal people still face atrocities and human rights inequality now, comments like this are basically like looking at your own reflection in a mud puddle.
"It's really as absurd as Colin Barnett's comment about Muslims and Christmas."
He hoped it would be the people who decided the ultimate fate of the Fremantle council and not the businesspeople or politicians.
"It would have been easy for [Mayor Brad Pettitt] to have pulled out weeks ago and saved himself all this stress," he said.
"I hope the voters have the courage and goodwill to know this decision has been made with the value of building a better future for all.
"This is a historical moment; the first time the status quo of celebrating Australia's identity, its nationhood, has been challenged by any government instrument.
"One day, if not today, Australia will become a republic, represented not by the Union Jack but with a whole different identity. This is the beginning of that, and at least having had the courage to defy the status quo will make Brad Pettitt an important historical figure.
"We are upon the oldest ceremonial grounds on the planet. For people to savagely attack him like this just shows that they don't understand the nature of this land, its beauty and its indigenous practice."
Councillors have been under fire since voting in August to scrap the fireworks from 2017, saying that many Australians were uncomfortable celebrating a day representing "sadness and dispossession" for Aboriginal people.
In consultation with the Aboriginal community, it has decided to instead host an event two days later and stood firm in the face of threats from far-right groups, criticism from public figures, opposition from the business community that profits from the celebrations, and a threat from the federal government to ban it from hosting citizenship ceremonies at all.
The council has written to the Federal Assistant Minister for Immigration, Alex Hawke, with assurances that its decision was not to denigrate Australia Day or those who celebrated it, but to hold an event on January 28 that was "more respectful and inclusive for the entire community".
"We take our responsibility to conduct Citizenship Ceremonies most seriously, and consequently, we have ensured our media statements on this matter, and the manner in which we conduct this event will fulfil the requirements of the Citizenship Ceremonies Code," Dr Pettitt wrote.
"I can assure you that the Citizenship Ceremony will be held will all due formality and dignity. We have no wish to be in breach of the requirements of the Citizenship code, and would be happy to work with officers of your Department to ensure that the event can proceed as planned on January 28th in an manner that meets your requirements."