So, Australia Day. Here’s how I think the whole debate can be settled. We swap King’s Birthday and Australia Day.

King’s Birthday, which is universally acknowledged as no more than an excuse for a day off, falls very close to the anniversary of the date the Mabo decision was handed down. That would be a great date to celebrate the fact that our nation isn’t just a smidge over two centuries old, but many tens of thousands of years old. We still have major issues of reconciliation and treaty to deal with, but this could be a good step in that direction.

Now, we still need a holiday towards the end of January. How else will we know it’s time to go back to school, or which songs are considered hot? If we move the King’s Birthday to the last Friday in January (and remember, the King’s Birthday isn’t held on his birthday and the timing is essentially arbitrary) we still get a chance to celebrate whatever it is we celebrate then. We can still pop a side of lamb on the barbie, we can still watch the cricket… heck, we can still celebrate our love for our great nation by putting on a pair of flag budgie smugglers and running up Glenelg Jetty otherwise naked.

Thoughts?

  • JackFrostNColaEnglish
    3•10 months ago

    The queen/kings ‘birthday’ used to be the same week as the AFL grand final in WA until they added more teams, i think we should do the following:

    1. Aussie day is the last friday in Jan, done. because everybody knows its fine it its friday or monday, but as soon as its mid week people are going to chuck sickies (hangover day/extended weekend) on the work day in between when its tues or thurs, or have an awkward wednesday off between two work days.
    2. The king/queens birthday is the friday or monday of the last weekend of september in EVERY state, and the AFL grandfinal (and NRL or whatever else wraps up at this point) is on that weekend, season fixtures calculated backwards from this date so it stays the same.