Australia Day

We are all enjoying a short break from work to celebrate Australia Day. It is a time of immense national pride as we honour those citizens who have lived out what we believe it means to be an Aussie - Australian of the Year, Simon McKeon, Young Australian of the Year, Jessica Watson, Senior Australian of the Year,Professor Ron MacCallum and Local Hero Donald Ritchie all offer inspirational examples to us of what any of us can do to make this country great.

But we all know that around the edges of this celebration there are grumblings. Many in our indigenous community see this day much less positively - as the day that marked the beginning of their dispossession of land they had owned and cared for for over 50,000 years. Then there are those living outside New South Wales who feel that celebrating the foundation of that state's initial settlement has nothing to offer them.

So long as we celebrate our National Day on 26th January the focus will be on the issue of settlement, and with it the dispossession of our first-nations people from their lands. Any attempt to ignore the dispossession would result in simply writing our indigenous brothers and sisters out of the story - and what is there to celebrate in that for them?

I have long maintained that the date upon which we became a nation as January 1, 1901 - the beginning of the federation of our states into the Commonwealth of Australia. If we were to celebrate Australia Day on that date (and there are other countries that celebrate their national day on New Year's Day) the symbolic focus would be on all of us, first nations people and immigrant settlers, coming together as one people, under one flag.

Now that I could celebrate. What do you reckon?