Editor TLN
Lydia Thorpea senator from the Green party and the federal parliament, says that the government had preferred to push through legislation on the proposal to have an indigenous voice in the parliamentary chamber instead of a treaty that claims the rights of the first inhabitants of Australia: ” What have we achieved since then? What has changed and what kind of progressive measures have we reached with fanatics in the middle, denying our humanity?” .
For his part, Meriki Onussister of Lydia and Founder of Aboriginal Resistance Fighters lobby group, He maintains that we must go back half a century, when the last referendum was approved. In this context, Noel Pearson, a graduate history professor at the University of Sydney and one of the main leaders of the indigenous community, warned the government that “if it fails in the referendum on having a voice in parliament, reconciliation between whites and aborigines will be smashed to smithereens”.
On the other hand, in the celebrations, which took place this Thursday in city councils and regional areas of the state of Victoria, Angelica Panopoulos, main leader of the Merri-beck mayor’s office, and member of the Greens group, stressed that in the course of Australia Day ceremonies neo-Nazi groups broke in with slogans, chants and salutes characteristic of fascism. He then pointed out that the police had to intervene to evict the members of the group from the party hall. In this sense, the mayoress praised the intervention of law enforcement officers.
Australian PM welcomes ‘new Australians’
At a ceremony in Yarralumla, located three kilometers from the capital of Canberra, Anthony Albanese congratulated the emigrants who today achieved Australian citizenship in different countries. In total, add the sources, 19,000 emigrants who came from 140 countries different ones managed to acquire the rights of citizenship. In another order of things, the head of the Executive said that the protests by supporters of the Greens they were not reasonable to raise arguments on such an important day.
Already in a private session, the Chief Executive praised the visit of a group of elderly aborigines of the tribe nuguawal, which was also attended by the Governor General of Australia, David Hurley. At the end of the session, Albanese highlighted that the meeting had been fruitful and very enjoyable. Also, Linda Dessau, governor in the State of Victoria, said referring to the protest demonstrations against Australia Day that “in an intelligent nation like ours, different points of view can also be discussed.”
Criticism of Australia Day
David Berthold, director of Australian artistic theatre, said it was strange that Australia would mark a day like today to celebrate its national holiday. In addition, he revealed that the indigenous peoples of other countries had negotiated with other governments under very different conditions.
In this regard, he referred to the legacy of the North American authorities with the natives of the country. Berthold, who in addition to being an artistic director is the executive head of prominent cultural organizations, highlighted in an article in the newspaper The Age that America, after gaining independence from Great Britain in the 18th century, negotiated a treaty with the natives over the lands they owned. In this context, it was very different when English ships arrived in New South Wales in 1788 and immediately claimed ownership of the entire Australian continent, claiming it was “terra nullius” or “no man’s land”, which the settlers distributed as they pleased. Even in 1802, emphasizes the artistic director, the famous British philosopher Jeremy Bentham wrote that the fact that the New South Wales authorities they will not negotiate a treaty with the natives was an incurable mistake.
