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Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has rejected a proposal from Independent MP Zali Steggall to hold one minute s silence on Australia Day to recognise Indigenous Australians.
Ms Steggall had written to mayors in her Sydney electorate asking they consider observing the silence to acknowledge the “discrimination and hardship” Indigenous Australians have faced since British occupation.
Australia Day marks the anniversary of the arrival of the first fleet of British ships into Port Jackson in 1788. A growing movement has sought to label the occasion Invasion Day .
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Mr Hawke called Ms Steggall s proposal “ill-considered” saying it played “negative politics with our history .
Australia Day has become the most controversial date in the calendar, polarising those who want to celebrate the arrival of the First Fleet on these shores and those who say it sparked an era of untold suffering for First Nation people. Now Zali Steggall, Warringah MP, has called for councils across Australia and in her electorate to include a one minute s silence on January 26, in recognition of indigenous Australian lives that have been lost since the first Europeans arrived. There should be a formal recognition of the loss, hurt and sorrow felt by our indigenous community on January 26, Ms Steggall said.
Calls to Scrap China Sister-City Links Amid ‘Offensive’ Tweet and Recent Trade Tariffs
Recent trade tariffs and an “offensive” tweet by the Chinese regime have prompted calls for Australia-China sister-city arrangements to be scrapped.
The calls come amid the introduction of new federal powers The Foreign Relations Bill which will see arrangements with foreign nations at all levels of government vetoed if they that aren’t in Australia’s national interests.
Wagga Wagga councillor Paul Funnell, who sought to terminate his city’s 32-year-old sister-city relationship with Kunming, China in April following the outbreak of the CCP virus, welcomed the federal government’s bill.