The Campaign To Move Australia Day To May 8 Made It Onto ‘Q&A’ Last Night
Hughesy is on board.
Over the past few years we’ve seen a growing push to change the date of Australia Day out of respect for Indigenous Australians. But it’s only this year that an alternative spot on the calendar really captured the public’s imagination. You know the date I’m talking about.
I say it every year but can we just have Australia day on May 8? May8? M8! maaaaaate
— Jordan Raskopoulos (@JordanRasko) January 10, 2017
Inspired by a suggestion from Axis of Awesome’s Jordan Raskopoulos, the push make May 8 Australia’s official national holiday has spread across the internet like wildfire. A video created by Raskopoulos and Junkee has earned more than seven million views, and has been shared close to 82,000 times.
Of course nothing can be said to have truly gone viral in this country until people have argued about it on Q&A. And as it happens, that’s exactly what happened last night.
The question about whether May 8 could be a viable alternative to Australia Day was put to a panel featuring Tasmanian Labor Senator Lisa Singh, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Dan Tehan, tax lawyer Mark Leibler, the Urban Development Institute’s Danni Addison and comedian Dave Hughes. I have no idea why Hughesy was there, but the important thing is that he’s very much on board.
“I think it’s a good idea,” he said, suggesting the change could happen if and when Australia becomes a Republic. The sentiment was echoed by Leibler, Singh and Addison, with Singh suggesting that the new date should relate to “our national identity.”
Tehan was the sole dissenting voice on the panel, chiming in with a one word “no”. Love seeing our politicians really engaging in public discourse, A+ job there champ.