Video 6:56 City divided over Australia Day cancellation

Transcript

STAN GRANT, PRESENTER: Yes, it is getting close to Australia Day and yes again, there is debate about whether the date should be changed.

Well, in Western Australia one council has made that call and predictably it's wearing the backlash.

The City of Fremantle will skip Australia Day and hold what it calls a more culturally inclusive event two days later.

It is a decision that has already angered the Federal Government and now it's facing a protest this week by the far right group, Reclaim Australia.

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BEN MORTON, FEDERAL MP FOR TANGNEY: I think we have a national day of celebration. That's Australia Day.

AUSTRALIAN WOMAN: Well, I think they shouldn't change things. If they make things as it's always been they should keep it that way.

ROBERT EGGINTON, DUMBARTUNG ABORIGINAL CORPORATION: Australia Day being celebrated on January 26 means the celebration of history. And in that history Aboriginal people have suffered so greatly.

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CLAIRE MOODIE, REPORTER: As Australia counts down the national day of celebration. the city of Fremantle is challenging the status quo.

BRAD PETTITT, FREMANTLE MAYOR: The idea we have a unity day on a day of white settlement doesn't make a lot of sense when you think about it.

CLAIRE MOODIE: The council has canned its traditional fireworks, opting for an alternative event two days later.

BRAD PETTITT: One day in Freo it's going to be a big family, community concert, really.

ROBERT EGGINTON: So this is the Fremantle Roundhouse. This is where the smoking ceremony will be held.

CLAIRE MOODIE: Meanwhile leader, Robert Egginton is on board.

ROBERT EGGINTON: The 28th is a day of inclusion. So the Aboriginal community have decided to hold a massive smoking ceremony at the Roundhouse.

It was the jailhouse and it's where the Aboriginal men were held before transportation to Wadjemup or what is now commonly known as, Rottnest Island.

CLAIRE MOODIE: He was involved in the consultation bros the council and believes shifting the event offers the chance to make Australia Day more meaningful and unifying than how he sees it now.

ROBERT EGGINTON: White Australia really, and the only way they know how to celebrate, is put the barbeque on, fill it up with lamb, and get a gutful of grog and you know, gaze at a fireworks show made in China.

CLAIRE MOODIE: But Robert Eggington's view isn't shared by another elder Robert Isaacs. An ambassador of the WA Australia Day Council, he's appealing to fellow Indigenous West Australians to support Australia Day.

DR ROBERT ISAACS, AUSTRALIA DAY WA AMBASSADOR: We're one nation of people and just have to try and not forget that we need to go forward And don't look back.

CLAIRE MOODIE: And Dr Isaccs is scathing of the Fremantle Council's decision.

DR ROBERT ISAACS: I'm hoping that people stand up very strongly and serve a strong message to the council that when it comes to their next election they vote them out and bring Australia back to where, Australia Day back to where it always belongs, January 26.

CLAIRE MOODIE: There's no question that the Fremantle Council's decision has been divisive. Local businesses in particular feel aggrieved, faced with losing one of the biggest trading days of the year, they've clubbed together to fund their own fireworks this Thursday, part of what they're calling a four-day fiesta.

Can you see that for some people the 26th is not an appropriate day to celebrate?

KARL BULLERS, THE NATIONAL HOTEL: Well, I can see both sides of the argument that, that's really, to us it's not about the politics, it's about the community and the business side of it.

And that's a conversation that may well need to be had but this is a national public holiday and we feel that we need to support it.

CLAIRE MOODIE: One Federal Liberal MP feels so strongly about it he's taken out a full page ad in the local paper. Calling for residents to celebrate on the 26th.

BEN MORTON: Fremantle Council in my view should be sticking to its core business of making the parks nice and clean and picking up the rubbish.

But they're wanting to create national debate and that's using their own words. I think the council here has got a little bit too far ahead of itself.

CLAIRE MOODIE: But Brad Pettitt says as the 26th marks the First Fleet's arrival in New South Wales, it's of little relevance to all but one state.

BRAD PETTITT: I always found January 26 to be odd in that regard in Western Australia. It is New South Wales Day. In terms of the relevance to Western Australia it's a pretty long bow to draw.

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CLAIRE MOODIE: The company that led the original push in the 1880s to celebrate Australia Day agrees it could be time for a change.

SPOKESPERSON FOR AUSTRALIAN UNITY: So 2017 may well mark the beginning of a whole new way of talking about Australia Day. We want to be part of that.

CLAIRE MOODIE: Australian Unity says it's had big support for its call for a warm-hearted conversation.

ROHAN MEAD, AUSTRALIAN UNITY: Over the last couple of hundred years we've come to learn much, much more about the hugely valuable human cultures that were displaced on European settlement.

And I think now, given that so much ignorance has been removed, is it not time for us to rethink what is the appropriate day for our national celebration?

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CLAIRE MOODIE: As calls to change the date persist, Fremantle's experience is telling. It's had to reinstate its citizenship ceremonies on the 26th of January after being ordered to do so by the Federal Government and now it's facing a protest this week by far right group, Reclaim Australia.

BRAD PETTITT: I say to those from Reclaim Australia, be part of the conversation. Don't actually try and shut people down.

CLAIRE MOODIE: So as Fremantle winds up to the public holiday, residents and visitors have a choice, the traditional fireworks or the council's weekend alternative.

Out on the street in this multicultural free-thinking port city, the views are polarised.

AUSTRALIAN WOMAN: Families look forward to it and it's a special day. Not only that for the culture.

AUSTRALIAN MAN: I definitely think it should be moved. I mean, the whole point of it, basically celebrating the beginning of the genocide within Australia.

AUSTRALIAN MAN 2: Doesn't bother me at all.

CLAIRE MOODIE: Why not?

AUSTRALIAN MAN 2: Well, what happens on Australia Day? Everyone goes out, gets pissed and falls over.