Scott Morrison Just Made Up Some Bizarre New Rules For Australia Day
He's also trying to ban board shorts.
Well, Scott Morrison has made a big change to the way we celebrate Australia Day, but it’s not the one we were all hoping for. Rather than change the date, he’s decided to double down on January 26 by making it compulsory for local councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on that day.
He’s also proposed a new dress code banning board shorts and thongs from citizenship ceremonies because he doesn’t think they show enough respect for what it means to be Australian. In the mind of our Prime Minister, ignoring the requests of Indigenous people is a-okay, but board shorts are a step too far.
The government’s plan to force local councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on January 26 comes after a number of councils around the country moved their citizenship ceremonies to different dates out of respect for their local Indigenous communities.
Some of these councils subsequently had their power to hold citizenship ceremonies stripped from them, which is what Morrison is proposing to do to all councils that do not hold a ceremony on January 26 going forward.
Ain’t no party like a ScoMo party because a ScoMo party is mandatory https://t.co/WPFt6I7Zfn
— Bec Shaw (@Brocklesnitch) January 13, 2019
When asked if we really needed a Prime Ministerial decree on this, Morrison said he reckons we do, “because I don’t want to see Australia Day undermined into the future and just see it sort of fade away”.
“What better day than that day for new Australians to become Australians?” he asked, ignoring all the really good reasons that other days would be better.
AUSTRALIA: We are a country of loveable larrikins who just want to have a laugh!!
ALSO AUSTRALIA: Mandatory patriotism ceremonies to be held every year on the anniversary of our brutal blood-soaked past which it is forbidden to discuss
— No Thanks, Tim (@burgerdrome) January 13, 2019
In fact, the only time ScoMo acknowledged Indigenous people at all in this whole bizarre kerfuffle was when he suggested that we can just celebrate Indigenous Australia on January 25, before getting back to our regularly scheduled Australia Day on January 26.
He pointed out that Indigenous-led ceremonies are already held around the country on January 25, and described them as “an opportunity to pause and reflect”. He then added that there aren’t that many of these ceremonies, but that he reckons we should have more. He didn’t bother to take any further action on making that happen, though.
The new rules for citizenship ceremonies will kick in in 2020, which is actually just one year from now.