Make Australia Day the 9Th of May

Make Australia Day the 9th of May

The fading possibility of having an Aussie BBQ on January 26 this year and in years to come add to the many reasons for changing the day we celebrate Australia Day.

As many have already pointed out, the fundamental reason why our national day cannot be based on January 26 1788 is that ‘Australia’ did not exist. The continent was not named until Matthew Flinders put it on a map published in 1804, and the nation did not exist until 1901. Now coming at the end of more frequent and more widespread bushfires, with total fire bans, no BBQs and cancelled fireworks, January 26 is past its use-by date as a relaxing end to summer holidays. Continuing debate reflects the increasing divisiveness that makes January 26 less inclusive each year that goes by, and none of the constitutional or democratic foundations of our nation date from January 26.

The exhibition ‘The Opening Day 9 May 1927’ at the Museum of Australian Democracy in early 2017 gave an answer to all those who want to change Australia Day from January 26 but can’t come up with an alternative. The answer is 9 May.

The decision on an alternative date for Australia Day can be guided by four principles: the day should have historical credentials, it should be inclusive, it should be practical, and most importantly, it should be meaningful in the context of the constitutional, parliamentary democracy that underpins our nationhood. As this article shows, May 9 meets all these criteria.

Historical credentials

May 9 has very sound historical credentials that link our constitution and parliament. It was the date the first federal parliament met in the Exhibition Building in Melbourne in 1901. The federation of the colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed on 1 January, 1901, but a provisional parliament was installed and only replaced after an election held on 29-30 March. The first sitting of the 75 representatives of this elected parliament put the Australian Constitution into effect.

With a commendable sense of history, May 9 1927 was the date of the opening of the provisional Parliament House in Canberra. Presided over by Prime Minister Bruce with the Duke and Duchess of York in attendance, those watching the proceedings included two Wiradjuri men who walked for days to witness the event and protest their 'sovereign rights to the Federal Territory'. After refusing to be moved on by police, Jimmy Clements, also known as King Billy, was presented to the royal couple; not being in the official party, it is likely that he and his companion John Noble very likely stood on the terrace now occupied by the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

Thanks to those with an eye to history, May 9 was the date on which the new Parliament House was opened in 1988. In her speech, the Queen observed that “This is a special occasion for the Parliament, but it is also a very important day for all the people of Australia. After 87 years of Federation, a permanent home has been provided for Parliament, which is both the living expression of that Federation and the embodiment of the democratic principles of freedom, equality and justice.” In his opening speech, Prime Minister Bob Hawke said “This building will become for our nation both the forum for our differences and the instrument of our unity - a building for all Australians, a Parliament reflecting the diversity of our entire society and responding to the needs of the whole community.” The sentiments now expressed about January 26 could hardly be more different.

An inclusive day

Making our day the 9th of May is much more than just a recognition of these historical precedents. In signifying the importance of our national parliament and constitution, it provides a day for addressing the two most contentious issues surrounding January 26: the position of Indigenous Australians and migrants in contemporary Australia.

Recognition of Indigenous Australians

May 9 is not only free of the invasion day connotations of 26 January, but demonstrates how parliament has taken steps to reconciliation in the past and can take further steps to recognise Indigenous Australians in the future. Notably, the Referendum held on May 27 1967 was the eventual parliamentary response to widespread community activism over many years. Its overwhelmingly positive results were put into effect though the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) 1967 amendments that gave the Commonwealth power to legislate in the interests of Aborigines and to have them counted in determining the number of electors in each electorate.

Less well known is the part played by a petition drawn up by the people of the Yolgnu region of the Northern Territory in 1963. Mounted on two bark panels with text in the Yolgnu language and English, the Yirrkala Bark Petition was presented to the House of Representatives and became the first traditional documents recognised by the Commonwealth Parliament and as the first documentary recognition of of Indigenous people in Australian law, the petition bridges the Indigenous laws of the land and Commonwealth law as it then stood. The petition is now exhibited in Parliament House alongside the Australian Constitution and a copy of the Magna Carta, as one of the three documents that are the keys to our democracy.

The Yirrkala Bark Petition protested the specific case of the excision of land from the Arnhem Land reserve for mining and sought recognition by the Parliament of the Yolngu peoples’ traditional rights and ownership of their lands. In 1988, these claims were widened to recognition of all Indigenous owners and occupiers of Australia in the Barunga Statement and called on the Australian Government to recognise Indigenous rights and pass laws to give effect to these rights. When it was presented to Prime Minister Hawke, he expressed his wish to conclude a treaty between Aboriginal and other Australians by 1990, a goal yet to be realised. The Barunga Statement is exhibited alongside the Bark Petition in Parliament House.

Further steps on the path to Indigenous recognition have been similarly long in coming and hard won. A number of significant events along the way are recognised on different days, and all have some association with action in the parliament. On 3 June 1992, the High Court made its decision on the Mabo case which had been fought through the courts for over a decade. The Native Title Act 1993 which followed provided for ‘a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land management system.’ The 20th anniversary of the court decision was celebrated as Mabo Day on 3 June, 2012.

Five years after the Mabo decision, on 26 May 1997, the report on the Stolen Generation, Bringing them Home, was tabled in the parliament. The report has had an impact not only among indigenous Australians, politicians and policy makers, but also raised awareness among the wider public about

the significance of the forcible removal policies and their continuing effects on the children that were taken, their families and communities. Since 1998, the day has been remembered as Sorry Day.

Another 11 years passed before the Apology to the Indigenous people of Australia was delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the House of Representatives on 13 February 2008. He spoke directly to members of the Stolen Generation and their families. As Stan Grant reported for The Guardian, Rudd’s first act as prime minister was to open parliament with the word Aboriginal and Islander people and a legion of non-Indigenous Australians had longed to hear: sorry.

The Apology lead to the development of the ‘Close the Gap’ strategy by the Council of Australian Governments, and is revisited each year when the annual ‘Close the Gap’ report is delivered in the House of Representatives. Close the Gap Day, held in mid-March each year since 2009, aims to engage all Australians in discussion and action to address the gaps that remain. In 2018, the 10 year review compiled by the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee, working under the auspices of the Australian Human Rights Commission, showed that here has been progress, albeit uneven across the six areas of the Report and from year to year.

In 2017, the government appointed the Referendum Council to develop advice on constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians. The work of the Council culminated in a constitutional convention that brought together over 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders who produced the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ that called for a First Nations Voice in the Australian Constitution, and a ‘Makarrata Commission’ to supervise a process of ‘agreement-making’ and ‘truth-telling’ between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. ‘Makarrata’ is a Yolngu word used instead of treaty and has been used many times over the 55 years since the Yirrkala Bark Petition was presented. While the Uluru Statement has been set aside, for now, parliament will be the place where Indigenous Australians are eventually recognised in the Constitution. It will be up to Indigenous leaders and communities to decide whether it is this future day or one of the significant days in the past that is declared a national day of reconciliation on which all Australians come together to give serious consideration to the past, present and future of Indigenous Australians. A day during NAIDOC Week in early July would be a fitting culmination of the decades of work of the National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

Citizenship

The Parliament has been equally important in recognising ‘new’ Australians and enabling immigrants to become citizens. Since the first parliament enacted the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, those restrictions have been progressively removed. The Immigration Act 1948, then the Migration Act 1958, recognised that the scope of immigration had widened significantly and opened the way for large scale entry of migrants to become the norm. The use of racially-based selection criteria in immigration and in all areas of Commonwealth legislation ended with the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

Continuing amendments and parliamentary reviews have seen the migrant intake grow in number and diversity of countries of origin, with fluctuations from year to year depending on the local political climate and international circumstances. Although immigration policy remains essentially bi-partisan, shifts in community views about the place of different categories of migrants - skilled workers on special visas, backpackers, international students, refugees - have made for almost constant and at time vigorous debate in the Parliament over the last two decades.

Almost all migrants become citizens and today, more of us have a mix of Indigenous, Anglo and other ethnic ancestries than one of these alone, and we celebrate our ethnic diversity in many local festivals and community events. Few of us know that September 17 was designated Australian Citizenship Day in 2001, but not proclaimed as a public holiday. The date marks the anniversary of the renaming of the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 as the Australian Citizenship Act 1948; the much amended 1948 Act was replaced by a new Act in 2007.

The Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code flags Australia Day and Citizenship Day as appropriate days for citizenship ceremonies, but also states that local government councils are expected to hold ceremonies every few months. Councils however expressed their concerns over January 26 as a day for such ceremonies when they passed a motion at the General Assembly of the Australian Local Government Association in June 2017 calling for councils to consider the efforts they could take to lobby the Commonwealth government for a date change.

Legislating for all

Beyond measures affecting Indigenous and immigrant Australians, legislation passed by the parliament affects each and every one of us. Parliament follows and shapes community views, unites us and bridges our differences, and defines new grounds for debate. The Marriage Amendments Act passed in December 2017 has very personal meaning for some and reflects changed views across the whole society with regard to marriage equality. Other legislation, perhaps more prosaic, applies to us all. Notably, the Commonwealth Electoral Act requires all citizens aged 18 and over to vote, and since 1973, the Medicare Australia Act has provided universal access to health care.

Casual visitors have to be impressed at the ease with which we can enter Parliament House, and the need to book a seat at Question Time shows how popular this live theatre is. It was the intention of Aldo Giurgola, the architect of the new Parliament House, that the ‘underground’ design of the building would allow visitors to walk over the heads of those who govern them. An annual May 9 Democracy Walk seems in order to remind our politicians that they are subordinate to the people.

The principle of subordination of rulers to the people began with the Magna Carta. This link to our British heritage can be traced back much further than January 26 1788. It was brought to the new colony by the First Fleet in the form of a copy of the 1759 ‘Commentaries of the Laws of England’, a critical analysis of the Magna Carta as the foundation of English law from 1297 when it was confirmed as part of England's statute law. This volume guided the development of local civil law to govern the colony instead of having military law imposed on it.

The Magna Carta’s principles embodied in our constitution - that everyone is subject to the law, the right to justice for all and a fair trial - long predate 1788. Acquired through fortuitous circumstance, one of only four copies of the 1297 issue of the Magna Carta is displayed in Parliament House, and its enduring relevance stems from the fundamental values it set down. These tenets remain at the core of parliamentary government in Britain and in most Commonwealth countries as well as Australia. Some of its principles are echoed in the United States Constitution (1789) and Bill of Rights (1791), and in more recent constitutional documents around the world, notably the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the European Convention on Human Rights (1950). What may seem lofty and distant universal ideals are in essence what we see as ‘a fair go’.

Change is possible

We may still want to celebrate Australia Day with BBQs and fireworks, but the concentration of national celebrations on Sydney Harbour demonstrates that 26 January is at best Sydney or New South Wales day. Surely we can do better than continuing to celebrate the day on which a middle ranking English naval officer arrived to govern a penal colony, populated largely by convicts transported for minor misdemeanours by the harsh courts of Britain, especially from its other ‘colony’, Ireland.

Freedoms from Britain as well as ties to the mother country were variously celebrated on 26 January for many decades. It was not however until 1935 that all Australian states and territories named the day ‘Australia Day’ and not until 1994 that then Prime Minister Paul Keating proclaimed the day a public holiday to be marked across the nation. A shorter and less illustrious official history than 9 May. The closest public holiday is the Queen’s Birthday in early June. Just as the Australian Honours replaced the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 1975 and Advance Australia Fair replaced God Save the Queen in 1984, that holiday must eventually fade from our calendar. May 9 is a much more practical date on the holiday calendar than January 1, even more so as it is nowhere too hot or too cold.

Changing one holiday for another has good precedence in the transformation of Empire Day to the Queen’s Birthday, an easy change as the former was originally celebrated on Queen Victoria’s birthday. Just as Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT have days to mark their founding, January 26 could become Sydney Day or NSW Day.

The US provides a model for celebrating different occasions on separate days and initiating new holidays to mark changing times. The European discovery of North America is celebrated on Columbus Day and the survival of the first settlers on Thanksgiving Day. Independence Day on 4 July celebrates victory over the British, and the formation of the United States under its first president is celebrated on Washington’s Birthday, or now more generally Presidents’ Day recognising Lincoln as well as Washington. The separate US Memorial Day, remembering all those who died while serving their country, and Veterans’ Day, acknowledging all those who have served, are combined in ANZAC Day; while the date has not changed, the way in which it is commemorated has changed markedly over the years. Since 1986, Martin Luther King Day has marked King’s role in the fight against racial discrimination and the continuing struggle for racial equality.

The changes that have been wrought through the Australian Parliament in the past should give us confidence that change can come about in the future if we press for it. The annual debate about Australia Day shows that changing the date and the meaning of Australia Day would be more than symbolic change. A survey conducted by The Australia Institute found that Australians are attached to the idea of a national day as an expression of our identity, but are little concerned about which day it is. Proposing 9 May for Australia Day provides a focus to bring together the debate about the wide range of issues that many commentators have raised.

Associating our national day with the parliament and the constitution would make us look forward as well as back. In particular, the events of May 9 in 1901, 1927 and 1988 each mark a step towards our standing as an independent nation. The Queen gave up her power over State legislation when she signed the Australia Acts in March 1986, putting an end to the UK’s ability to legislate for the Australian States and the ability of Australian courts to appeal to the UK. She may well be glad to see us take our affairs into our own hands before the end of her reign rather than pass this troublesome child on to her successor.

Declaring the 9th of May as Australia Day in 2021 would be a fitting celebration 120 years on from the day our national parliament first met. It would prompt us to celebrate our achievements, including those recognised by announcing the Australian Honours. The Australia Day Address by our head of state could advance our future as the free, equal and just nation envisaged by the Queen.

We would then be ready to take the final step of becoming a republic on 9 May a few years hence. Instead of fireworks on the Sydney harbour bridge, an annual May 9 Democracy Walk over the lawns of Parliament House could remind our politicians that they are subordinate to the people, notwithstanding the fence that now prevents us from walking directly over their heads. As May 9 is nowhere too hot or too cold, instead of being a BBQ stopper, cool-headed debate over climate change and other issues of national importance would prevail as we all enjoyed our democracy sausages.

Anna Howe

17 February, 2020