The Australia Day debacle is emblematic of a Prime Minister who can’t take a trick.
Australia day
Crikey Says: Compare and contrast
If there’s one thing that the blanket blitz of Tent Embassy coverage lacks, it’s perspective.
View from the Tent Embassy: reality v news reports
The most striking factor of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy protests was the stark difference between reports of the events and the reality, writes Tracker editor Amy McQuire.
Crikey Says: Choose your own angle on this Oz Day story
Like a giant national inkblot test for the nation, the “meaning” of yesterday’s events at the Lobby restaurant in Canberra is really what the observer brings to them.
Australia Day kerfuffle all about judgement, or lack thereof
Nobody came away from the Australia Day protests looking good. An angry crowd banging on windows was never going to end well and Tony Abbott’s provocative comments also showed bad judgement, writes Michael Stuchbery.
Australia Day protest no match for media hysteria
Crikey media wrap: Australia Day turned ugly in Canberra yesterday after comments by Tony Abbott incited Aboriginal Tent Embassy activists, resulting in a dramatic exit of the leaders executed by the PM’s security detail.
What happened to Aboriginal Australia setting the agenda?
The fact we are still calling for sovereignty and self-determination, 40 years on from the first steps of the tent embassy, shows just how central it is to Aboriginal aspirations, writes Amy McQuire, editor of Tracker Magazine.
The strange beast that is Australia Day
Australia Day is an odd selection for a national day. Most nation-states celebrate independence: independence that they fought for, or won, or were given, but this is impossible in Australia, writes Peter Chambers.
Wankley Awards: A media flag-waving exercise
The Australian flag is often being shouted down for not representing modern Australia and its contemporary values. So do we need a new flag? Well, the media would have you believe so, if their slavish devotion to the topic every Australia Day is anything to go by.
What does Australia Day mean for the ‘iPod generation’?
Most of my peers don’t buy into the pageantry of Australia Day. They might enjoy their day off, get drunk on Aussie beer and wine and eat lamb, pavlova and lamingtons, but they’re uncomfortable with conspicuous nationalism.
How does Gillard the Oz day orator stack up with former PMs?
How did Julia Gillard’s Australia Day speech stack up with those of her predecessors? Crikey spoke with Joel Deane, a poet, novelist and former chief speechwriter for Premiers Steve Bracks and John Brumby.
Australia day with a twist: anyone for snow cricket?
There there snags, beers, a game of backyard cricket and an argument over the merits of the Triple J Hottest 100. It was an average Australia Day but with one slight difference: Jay Martin was in Warsaw, Poland, where the temperature was minus 25 and the ground was covered in a metre of snow.
Fabulous fashion falls by the wayside on OZ Day
Clothing ourselves in the Aussie flag is making us look like a nation of hobos, writes Ben Pobjie. But if we can’t stop people wearing it, perhaps we should change the flag itself.
VRudd speaks: Why I dressed as the KKK for “Invasion Day”
Tuesday’s Australian Open KKK stunt showed that many Australians reject the Australian Government’s stance on racism, writes Van Thanh Rudd (better known as Kevin Rudd’s nephew).
Rudd offers tough policy meat for the Australia Day BBQ
Kevin Rudd’s Australia Day speeches weren’t just a celebration of wonkery. He was laying the groundwork for the Government’s election campaign and its second term.
When did Woollies buy Australia Day?
Eva Cox nearly became an Australia Day ambassador this year — until she was asked to publicly thank Woolworths for its ‘generous support’ of the program. Does a national holiday really need a corporate sponsor?
How the media celebrated Australia Day
Every 26 January, Australia is girt by a sea of pundits weighing in on the significance (or insignificance) of the occasion. A round-up of all the Australia Day op-eds you were too busy scarfing burnt chops and luke-warm beer to read.
Australia Day in the back of a cab
From Indian students to drunk coke-heads, every passenger in Sydney cabbie Adrian Neylan’s back seat this morning had the same message: Happy Australia Day.
Why Australia Day is historically inaccurate
John Carmody explains why 7 February would make a far more historically accurate — not to mention morally acceptable — date on which to celebrate the nation.
The absurdity that is Australia Day
In the old days, Australia Day meant something: the end of the summer holiday period, celebrated with a long weekend. Would it really be contrary to our national character to try to return it to that?
Marieke Hardy: Giving patriotism a bad name and an unfunny slogan
When did the official costume of Australia Day become an Australia flag cape and a “We grew here, you flew here” singlet? asks Marieke Hardy.
In search of Australia’s great national dish
Ahead of Australia Day, the Daily Tele is searching for Australia’s favourite national dish. Most of their experts agree on some variation of “shrimp on the barbie”, while Wayne Swan reveals his inner bogan, suggesting XXXX beer.
Happy National Sickie Day!
Tomorrow might be the official public holiday, but on 25 January, hundreds of thousands of Australians practise the sacred ancient tradition known as “chucking a sickie”. Why not make it a weekly event? suggest Paul Colgan.
C’mon, Kev, show some guts: tell us where we’re weak
We need more than just idle talk from a Prime Minister and a Treasury that knows what’s needed and should have the guts to issue a report pointing out our weak areas and suggesting what needs to be done.
