Key points

• Melbourne city councillors voted on Tuesday night to call on the federal government to change the date of Australia Day.
• The council commissioned a survey of 1600 City of Melbourne residents and businesses which found that 59.8 per cent of respondents supported changing the date of Australia Day, compared with 31.6 per cent who did not.

Melbourne city councillors are calling on the federal government to change the date of Australia Day, with the council passing up more than $1 million in funding for events celebrating the day in the city.

Councillors voted on Tuesday night to advocate to the federal government to change the date of Australia Day from January 26, although the City of Melbourne will continue to hold citizenship ceremonies and other events such as the Australia Day parade.

Protesters gather out the front of Flinders Street Station at an Invasion Day rally in 2021. Credit:Chris Hopkins

Australia Day celebrations have become increasingly contentious in recent years and protests have been held across the country. In 2017, the City of Yarra voted unanimously to cease referring to January 26 as Australia Day and stop holding citizenship ceremonies.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the debate was not about creating arguments and division, but about bringing everyone together to celebrate what it meant to be Australian.

“We’re not changing or proposing to change how we celebrate Australia Day,” she said. “But we are joining the ever-growing chorus of voices asking the federal government to change when we celebrate what it means to be Australian.”

Capp said advocating for change was about local government leadership and rejected the argument the City of Melbourne should be focusing on other responsibilities.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp told the council meeting “we can chew gum and walk at the same time.”Credit:Simon Schluter

“We can chew gum and walk at the same time,” she said. “We can deliver on roads, rates and rubbish, but we can also advocate in this case to the Commonwealth government on issues.”

The council said it had consulted the five traditional owner organisations that form the Eastern Kulin, and that they unanimously supported changing the date.

It would continue supporting activities that acknowledge First Nations perspectives on the day, including the Dawn Ceremony Day of Mourning and the Share the Spirit Festival.

The push to change the date came after Capp requested the City of Melbourne management review its approach to January 26, including events, communications and community engagement.

The council commissioned a survey by business consultancy group RedBridge of 1600 residents and businesses that found 59.8 per cent of respondents supported changing the date, compared with 31.6 per cent who did not.

Two councillors voted against the motion, including Roshena Campbell who said the City of Melbourne did not have a mandate to change the date of Australia Day.

“We paid for an external survey of our residents and businesses to see their support for changing the date, but we didn’t ask a single one of them whether they wanted to rate payer dollars to be used for a change the date campaign,” she said.

“We have absolutely no mandate to use our resources or ratepayer dollars in this advocacy. No resident or business has told me they want their rights used for that purpose. To the contrary, they told me that they’re appalled that we devote our resources to spend their rates on it.”

The Captain James Cook statue in St Kilda was covered in red paint on Australia Day.Credit:Scott McNaughton

Campbell asked the meeting why the City of Melbourne had failed to access up to $1 million in funding from the National Australia Day council for Australia Day events when it was known that events drove visitation to the city.

In a letter dated August 23, seen by The Age, Danielle Roche, the chair of the National Australia Day Council, raised the council’s failure to access the funding with Capp.

“Despite several invitations in recent years, the City of Melbourne has engaged with neither the NADC’s community events grants program nor its major events partnership funding program, which provides up to $1 million to capital or city councils or event hosts for state-significant Australia Day events,” the letter said.

City of Melbourne chief executive Justin Hanney said he was not sure why the City of Melbourne had not applied for these funds in the past.

“It’s an opportunity. We could apply for funds in the future,” he said. “We haven’t historically, but we could in the future.”

Some councillors said the City of Melbourne should have taken stronger action on Australia Day.

Councillor Rohan Leppert said the council’s push to advocate for change with the federal government was a “very, very modest motion”.

“I would have liked to have gone quite a bit further, but I think it is a significant step in the direction of reconciliation with our First Nations people,” he said.

“January 26, especially the landing in Sydney, is symbolic of invasion of dispossession and attempted genocide.”

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