Danger! The left have taken over your minds and your TV sets. Well, er, no, that would be the right.
Former Labor leader turned right-wing commentator, Mark Latham a counter campaign to #ChangeTheDate. Set in a dystopian future, he and his cohort of outsiders are protesting to "save" the 26 January tradition that is at risk of being censored. The campaign has been launched on television, radio and social media.
The sentiment behind Latham's sounds attractive to many, probably because patriotic pleasantries like "" are easy to swallow. However, a major flaw of this campaign is that it fails to address the key message of its competitor— 'the date'.
While the threat to national pride may be a hot take on the debate, it derails the significance of the Australia Day anniversary and what is more, it obscures the history that is ironically being advocated for.
And this is the problem. While a are committed to keeping the current date of Australia Day, an absurd number are unaware of why we even commemorate the day.
What even happened on 26 January?
Like that "Hey Dad, who was the first Prime Minister of Australia?" which demonstrated many of us couldn't tell you who Edmund Barton was, it seems we're also unable to tell you much about our national day either.
Last year revealed that most Australians can't tell our penal colonies from our Captain Cook legacies, and only 43 per cent of the 1,043 participants were able to identify the historic event on 26 January: the landing of the First Fleet led by Captain Arthur Phillip.
Even with the assistance of multiple choice, with only seven possible answers, less than half of those who took the survey ticked the right box.
NITV too what they thought the date commemorated and found similar results. But in terms of correct answers, "the landing" could be argued as a fairly roundabout recount of 26 January 1788.
The landing - but wait, there's more!
Many who claim that we are at risk of '' are often the ones doing the rewriting. The arguments to "save" 26 January because "that's when they came here", doesn't quite ring true.
In 1770— 18 years before the First Fleet's arrival —Lieutenant James Cook claimed Australia for the Commonwealth (kind of like bagsing a seat for your friend before they've arrived to the venue).
Come 1788, 11 British ships were then sent by Britain to set up a penal colony. And despite what's commonly thought, the First Fleet actually arrived to (what is now known as) Australia roughly 26 January.
It's recorded that British convicts, marines, officers and their families and even some children of convicts arrived ashore at 'Botany Bay' on the 18 January. They didn't set up camp however, as Commander Arthur Phillip thought the tough soil and lack of fresh water made for an unsuitable settlement.
Following this disappointment, he and some other officers went poking north of Botany Bay and came upon, what Phillip regarded as, "one of the finest harbours in the world".
Phillip (a real Australian hero btw, who lived here a total of four years) unofficially claimed it for Britain and named the mass inlet "Sydney Cove" after the English politician who appointed him as Commander of the Fleet (bizarrely, — ever). Impressed by the cove, Phillip soon brought the rest of his convoy to the site.
Cut to 26 January. Yes, it is that on this day, the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove. But when you consider just how many green and gold helium balloons the Hawke Government released during the Bicentennial celebrations in 1988— and the fact came all the way from the Northern Hemisphere to watch —it seems rather over the top to commemorate anchorage, don't you think? It must signify something else... Hmm... Perhaps it's the proclamation of British sovereignty?
Because that's what happened on 26 January 1788. Not Captain Cook's "discovery", not the arrival of the First Fleet, but the marking of territory — like some very dignified dog claiming itself on a tree — whereby Phillip and other marine officials planted the British flag into the ground and formally took possession of the land on behalf of the British Empire.
So, just like buying the Australian souvenirs labelled with a Made in China sticker, Australia Day appears all Australiana at first glance but is effectively a product from another country. But unlike buying souvenirs, in this case it was stolen.
How thick is the dust on our history books?
Let's face it, marketing imperialism is a tough sell by today's standards and to many, Australia Day is best enjoyed avoiding the terra nullius in the room.
In turn, Australia has become really great at looking at what we've got, rather than looking at how we got there.
We have routinely remained tight-lipped on colonial issues where possible, so it comes as no surprise that we become ignorant to our brutalities and immoralities that were in the name of Western civilisation.
Our systems and educators neglect them: Our omits and in Australian history classes. We fail to teach students that the continued . Our War Memorial won't officially recognise the , where tens of thousands lost their lives in battle on home soil. Historical monuments perpetuate the myth that Cook '' an uninhabited land. Our political leaders claim that "" before the British arrived. It's not common knowledge that Edmund Barton was our first Prime Minister, and it's even less known that was the White Australia Policy.
Australia either has historical amnesia or serious trouble reconciling its past.
As such, our patriotism rarely pays homage to our policies, and instead promotes conceptual and abstract ideals like 'lucky', 'mateship', 'hard-working', 'ancestors fought for' and 'look how far we've come'. Rather than knowing what actually occurred on 26 January, we end up with people fighting to “Save Australia Day” on the basis of it being "great".
And yeah, okay, there are many great aspects of living in Australia, but let's call Australia Day out for what it really is— a birthday for Anglo-Australia.
The cost of "saving" Australia Day
And the annual celebrations have become a very expensive birthday party. And the party bags? Guests carrying the legacy of invasion.
For a country so driven by progress, holding onto, and fighting for, 26 January as a symbol of our country being 'so great' only stagnates us. It limits our historical knowledge, our truths and our education. It coerces us into accepting the myth that there was "nothing here but bush", and what's more, it encourages us to believe that colonisation defines our nation.
The focus on this specific date erases the abundance of fascinating history that occurred years before Phillip ticked off a task list handed down by his employers. Histories that include the Makassan trade, ancient , unique ; histories that debunk the notion that the foundations of modern-day Australia were laid by the West only.
If Latham's argument is that Australia Day importantly marks "the beginning of Western civilisation in our vast, great continent", by that logic, it needn't fall on 26 January.
The start of Anglo-Australia is significant, but also easily disputed: Captain Cook and his Endeavour; the First Fleet pulling into the East Coast; Arthur Phillip hoisting the Union Jack; and then there's the formal establishment of the colony on 7 February. No one moment can place a finger on colonialism in a country still under the monarchy.
The date change is not motivated by the left's dytopian agenda, but rather that rejoicing over literal stolen land is fast falling out of fashion. As we learn more about our country's history, we advance Australia.
Australia Day doesn't need saving. Like all outdated material, it needs a rebranding. Let's just hope Latham's creative team won't be doing the advertising for it...
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