The deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley has used an Australia Day speech to compare the arrival of the First Fleet to Elon Musk's SpaceX Mars mission, calling British settlement a "daring experiment", while criticising Invasion Day rallies across the country.
Ley began her speech at an Albury church on Sunday saying the ships did not arrive to "destroy or pillage", but to embark on a "new experiment".
"All those years ago those ships did not arrive, as some would have you believe, as invaders," Ley said, referring to the First Fleet's arrival at Sydney Cove in 1788.
"In what could be compared to Elon Musk's Space X's efforts to build a new colony on Mars, men in boats arrived on the edge of the known world to embark on that new experiment.
"And just like astronauts arriving on Mars those first settlers would be confronted with a different and strange world, full of danger, adventure and potential."
Australia Day became a public holiday in 1994 and marks the day the First Fleet landed in Sydney Cove in 1788. But, many Australians, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous,
Colonisation a 'daring experiment'
Ley said Australia Day was "an important part of recognising who we are and where we have come from".
"Today, as we stand here in a peaceful, prosperous, and free Australia, how can we do anything but celebrate the success of that daring experiment?" Ley said.
Ley said the 26th of January 1788, anchored Australia's national story.
She also described "how improbable and how incredible the Australian experiment has been".
"Like so many other colonial stories it could have ended in disaster and collapse.
"The imperial impulse to extract wealth and rule through naked violence could have been the norm. But that would not be our fate as a nation," Ley said.
Activists "project themselves as survivors"
She also criticised activists participating in Invasion Day rallies, describing them as "mobs" and accusing them of undermining unity.
"Because despite the black arm brigade, who will be marching in the streets of our cities today, the fact is the story of Australia is one that is objectively good," she said.
"We need to reject what those mobs are saying today through their loudspeakers and their iPhones.
"The problem with those activists is they are so fixated with projecting themselves as survivors, that they leave no room for us to come together as citizens.
"And history shows us strong and successful societies are not made up of survivors, they are built and maintained by citizens."
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said one of his first actions if elected prime minister will be to l
Many Indigenous Australians consider January 26 a day of mourning and protest and .
