Alex Hawke says campaign just Greens ‘pushing that agenda’ and moving celebration from 26 January would be a denial of history

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The assistant immigration minister, Alex Hawke, says he has not heard a “reasonable argument” to support changing the date of Australia Day, saying the national day should not be moved “just because we have some elements of our history that we’re not proud of”.

He rejected a suggestion that 26 January was just the anniversary of the arrival of white people, because “I don’t think in that way and I don’t think of identifying people by their race.”

In the past year Hawke has written warning letters to several local councils who voted to move their celebrations and citizenship ceremony from the contentious date.

Australia Day back in political spotlight as Greens vow to push for date change Read more

Speaking on Radio National on Tuesday, he said the “change the date” campaign was “a very top-down push” by the Greens, “not a bottom-up revolution of people saying they want to change the date”.

“I think if we did not have the Greens pushing that agenda, we would literally be hearing very little about this,” he said.

Hawke said moving Australia Day from 26 January, the day the first fleet of convict transports, escorted by the British navy, sailed into what was later called Sydney Cove, would be a denial of history.

He rejected RN Breakfast host Hamish Macdonald’s suggestion that commemorating the arrival of the first fleet was just commemorating the arrival of white people.

“It wasn’t an invasion, a planned invasion, it was colonisation by Britain,” Hawke said. “It had implications for Aboriginal Australians, there’s no doubt about it.”

The first recorded massacre of Aboriginal people occurred in 1794, according to a massacre mapping project by the University of Newcastle. There is no firm figure on the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who died in the frontier wars, but a conservative estimate by historian Henry Reynolds and others is 20,000.

Hawke said that Arthur Phillip, who commanded the first fleet and became the first governor of New South Wales, was “an enlightened person”.

“He was given orders to make peace with the natives,” he said. “Now, that may not have gone perfectly well, but it is our history. It is the start of modern Australia.”

Map of massacres of Indigenous people reveals untold history of Australia, painted in blood Read more

Hawke’s comments follow comments by the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, encouraging Greens members in local councils to push for changing the date, and a video by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who said he was “disappointed by those who want to change the date of Australia Day.”

“A free country debates its history, it does not deny it,” Turnbull said.

Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) A free country debates its history, it does not deny it.

Australia Day is Australia's day - a day when we come together and celebrate our nation and all of its history. pic.twitter.com/8EUepygqE8

University of NSW law professor Megan Davis, a member of the Referendum Council whose Uluru statement for constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians was rejected by Turnbull in October, said the prime minister was “too cowardly to cop an open and transparent debate on the country’s history”.

Third Melbourne council's vote to ditch Australia Day criticised as 'divisive' Read more

Prof M Davis [-0-] (@mdavisqlder) 🤣 A PM who denied the nation a debate! too cowardly to cop an open and transparent debate on the country's history via the Uluru outcome & Ref Council recommendations. Spare Me! https://t.co/YcJoTnv8Us

Author Claire Coleman said Australia Day “pulls us apart”.

Claire G. Coleman (@clairegcoleman) Oi! We can't come together when some people are celebrating and others are protesting. We can only come together and celebrate on an uncontroversial date. We can only come together if we agree. Australia Day pulls us apart. #ChangeTheDate #InvasionDay https://t.co/WnCmDQ8sQk

Teela Reid (@teelareid) Malcom: A free country debates its history and does not deny it.



First Nations: Ok, lets talk about the Invasion on 26 January 1788.



Malcom: No, it’s called settlement.



FN: But we were massacred. Genocide even.



Malcom: Im disappointed you disagree with me. Get over it. https://t.co/470LymCZtQ

Opposition to celebrating on 26 January originated in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in the late 19th century. The first formal protest was the national day of mourning in Sydney in 1938, 54 years before the Australian Greens were founded.



Thousands of people marched across the country in Invasion Day rallies in 2017. In November, Triple J announced it would no longer hold its annual Hottest 100 countdown on 26 January after a nationwide survey of 65,000 people found that 60% supported changing the date.

A Guardian Essential Poll in September found that 26% of people supported changing the date of Australia Day, while 54% were opposed.

The former head of the prime minister’s Indigenous advisory council to Tony Abbott and Turnbull, Warren Mundine, said he supported changing the date but he did not believe it was a priority for all or most Aboriginal people.