SYDNEY, Australia — Australia’s prime minister took aim at the city of Yarra on Wednesday, accusing it of renouncing the country’s values after its council unanimously voted against recognizing Jan. 26 as Australia Day.

“An attack on Australia Day is a repudiation of the values the day celebrates: freedom, a fair go, mateship and diversity,” the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said in response to the decision.

The comments stoked a widespread discussion about the meaning of the day, which is chosen to honor the country’s first European settlement, in 1788. But many Aboriginal people say that date marks a legacy of dispossession and a destruction of their culture, and the designation of the national holiday continues to be contested. Indigenous communities sometimes refer to the date as “Survival Day” or “Invasion Day,” and in recent years, protests have occurred that day in major cities like Melbourne and Sydney.

As part of the resolution, passed on Tuesday, the City Council of Yarra also said that it would no longer have a citizenship ceremony on that day and instead hold an event to acknowledge “the loss of Indigenous culture.”