ABC Seeks to Change Australia Day by Stealth
If the left can’t change Australia Day officially, then they will settle for the second best option. That is to change Australia Day by stealth. If enough cultural institutions, corporations and media no longer recognize January 26th as Australia Day, it is as if the day no longer exists.
They of course have done their best to agitate for changing Australia Day through political means. Fremantle Council last year decided to take it upon themselves to move Australia Day two days later because they believed the day was not culturally inclusive, they only backed down after the federal government threatened to withdraw their authority to hold citizenship ceremonies as is tradition on Australia Day.
The Greens have had a longstanding policy of changing the date of Australia Day. Now elements of the Labor Party are agitating for change of date. Its Queensland Branch recently debated a motion to move Australia Day at its State Conference. Indigenous Federal Labor MP Linda Burney has also suggested we need a more inclusive national day that all Australians can celebrate.
The left-wing activists have ramped up their efforts to disrupt Australia Day in recent years with ‘Invasion Day’ protests in our major cities that block traffic and in some cases, have turned violent. Who could forget the riot they caused on Australia Day in 2012 when members of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra tried to storm an event where Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard were present because they were triggered by comments Tony Abbott made about the tent embassy.
Now the ABC has joined in on the campaign to change the date, albeit very subtly. Its youth national radio station, Triple J, traditionally holds its Hottest 100 countdown of the year’s most popular music tracks as voted by its listeners on Australia Day. It was first broadcast in 1989.
Triple J, like other departments of the ABC, leans to the far left despite the fact that it is a music station. Employees of the station have been left wing personalities such as Jay and Doctor from Frenzal Rhomb who organised the anti-John Howard Album Rock Against Howard in 2003, and Marieke Hardy, a TV writer whose twitter feed is full of left-wing vitriol. Let’s not forget it was Triple J that just published a guide to oral sex and encouraged people to embrace it.
Now Triple J is holding a review of the date of the Hottest 100 Countdown and is asking for listeners to send it feedback. It claims this review is after “consulting with a range of people, musicians, community leaders and representative groups on their opinions of Australia Day”. This review is a clear attack on Australia Day and its national significance, but one wonders why Triple J given its left-wing nature chose Australia Day as the date for its Hottest 100 to begin with.
Following the opening of Triple J’s Australia Day survey #ChangeTheDate has been trending on Twitter and fellow left-wing media outlets such as Junkee and The Guardian have been encouraging their readers and Triple J to move the date. Ex-Triple J presenters Matt Okine and Kyran Wheatley have joined in on the public campaign.
This campaign, given the type of people that listen to Triple J, is most likely to succeed. If various citizens, community groups or corporations want to ignore the significance of January 26 as the founding date of modern Australia and join the left in being triggered by the date they have the freedom to do that. But a government funded media organisation like Triple J should not have the right to ignore what is an official recognised national day of significance.
The federal government intervened to make sure that Fremantle Council couldn’t move Australia Day, one asks would Communications Minister Mitch Fifield intervene here and threaten Triple J’s funding? Given that apparently the ABC is considered uncriticizable by the Turnbull Government it is wishful thinking. But it is not too much to ask that if you receive taxpayer funds you should be under an obligation to recognise events such as Australia Day, which contrary to what the media reports, is a date that most taxpayers embrace.
Trying to change our cultural institutions by stealth is something the left has form on, let’s not forget that Google took it upon themselves to rename Margaret Court Arena two months ago to Evonne Goolagong Arena because of Margaret Court’s opposition to same sex marriage. Google later changed the name back and blamed user data causing the name change. Nevertheless, leftists still maintain they will now refer to the venue Evonne Goolagong Arena even though for now it is named after Margaret Court.
Since Triple J’s survey is open to the public, we encourage others to let them know how you feel about Australia Day and also become part of the campaign to save Australia Day. We need to make our voices heard that Australia Day is day for celebration about what is great about our nation and should not be a cause for shame.