'Never satisfied': The Aboriginal councillor campaigning to 'save' Australia Day
An indigenous Northern Territory councillor has warned of the future dangers that would result from changing the date of Australia Day.
Alice Springs councillor Jacinta Price told Yahoo7 News that moving away from the 26th of January would instill a "victim mentality" for those in the indigenous population continually making demands.
"They are never actually satisifed with what Australia does to try and appease them," Ms Price said.
"None of white Australia who are around now are responsible for what happened then."
Alice Springs councillor Jacinta Price says changing Australia Day would do more harm than good. Source: AAP
Describing herself as a product of aboriginal reconciliation, Ms Price labelled Triple J's decision to move the Hottest 100 to the 27th as "idiotic" and said she hoped it would not create a domino effect.
"It's stupid, it was done inconsiderately. Knee-jerk reactions don't work," she said.
"They've now moved it to International Holocaust Remembrance Day."
"We've got to stop painting each other with the same brush ... not all white people are racists and not all Aboriginal people are feeling like they are victims of our country's history."
Her contentious view on the longstanding debate comes as former federal Labor leader Mark Latham launched a bizarre "Save Australia Day" ad campaign in Sydney on Wednesday.
In a scene from the Save Australia Day campaign a mum shreds her daughter's drawing celebrating Australia Day. Source: Facebook/Mark Latham's Outsiders
The campaign shows two old men reminiscing about "the good ol' days" while sneaking a lamington behind the back of an angry worker. Source: Facebook/Mark Latham's Outsiders
The campaign includes television, radio and social media advertisements depicting an Orwellian future where families, shoppers and the elderly are all too paranoid to celebrate Australia Day openly.
"In an environment where you have so much political correctness, where certain words, themes and values are banned in public institutions, I think the Big Brother approach, that dystopian theme, is very appropriate," Mr Latham said.
The politician-turned-pundit says the campaign is being rolled out ahead of January 26 to combat a push to move Australia Day, given that many Aboriginal people consider the date to be "invasion day".
"A lot of terrible things happened in the 19th and 20th centuries, no one's wiping that history away, but we can't rewrite that history," Mr Latham said.
A number of local council across the country in 2017 said they'd move Australia Day celebrations from January 26 out of respect for indigenous people.
With AAP
