Over the past year or so, there has been a push to change the date of Australia Day (currently January 26th) to another day, as the current day commemorates the landing of the First Fleet in 1788, which was the beginning of many wars, diseases, genocides and the detriment of Indigenous Aboriginal Australians and their culture. Obviously, this is not something to be celebrated, and this sad, regrettable past detracts from the the joyous occasion that is Australia Day. Changing the date would remove all connotations of this from our celebrations, and is a good idea, but that's not what this petition is about.

Australians love pubic holidays. Unfortunately, we don't get enough of them to satisfy our thirst for a day off work, or a long weekend. So why is it that we have only a single day in our calendar dedicated to this great country of ours? Nearly half of our population aren't Christian, yet we have 4 days of public holidays for Easter, plus Christmas. If we have 5 days of the year set aside for traditions that little more than half of us religiously acknowledge, how is it that we have only one day to celebrate something that 100% of Australians are? At the moment, Australia Day, a nation-wide event for everyone, is on the same level as the Melbourne Cup is in Victoria, a single day public holiday. Is this fair? No! Can we do better? Yes!!! What we need is much more than Australia Day - we need an Australia Week! A whole 7 days to celebrate our beloved country, 5 days of public holidays, plus a weekend to finish it! Rather than use the current, fixed-date system, Australia Week would be on the first/second/third/last week of a month (e.g Last week of January, or 2nd week of October), and always start on a Monday and finish on a Sunday. We would have a whole 7 days of official holiday to celebrate our fantastic country with mates, family, friends, music, barbeques, backyard cricket, swimming, camping - whatever and however you choose to have fun and celebrate!

So, if you'd like to dedicate a week to Australia, sign the petition, and share it around with your friends and family, and on all your social media. #AustraliaWeek