I see Tim Cahill has received the Order of Australia and justifiably so compared to others receiving the award.

I’m celebrating today for living in the best country in the world. Have fun.

Here is aloisi for a spot in the World Cup!!

I just love this memory! Funny thing is, I only heard this on replay because I was at the game, but once I watched the shootout back, over and over, this memory was etched in my mind! 

I agree with you Paul C Aus is the best country in the world  even before the USA .I came to Australia as a 7year old back in 1948 that's 73 years ago and the secret is that if you migrate to this country you have to ASSIMILATE .......Happy Australia day to all................charliecat

What a hotbed that subject is..

It is.

I've just attended an 8 000 - 10 000 plus rally to Change The Date, which is huge per capita head in this neck of the woods. The Aboriginal people have suffered a lot and the date of January 26th epitomises oppression for them.

The Change The Date rally was organised by the Aboriginal movement. It  was attended by many activists from the union movement, Climate Action, environmentalists and civil liberties.  State Labor and Green leaders, a spokesperson for the union movement,  an Anglican Church Minister,  plus the Lord Mayor addressed the rally in support of the Indigenous speakers. I had a lot of friends attending, not involved in these groups either. 

I've lived in three countries and travelled to 25, and would agree that in my part of Aus it is a fantastic place to live, even if we don't have football as one of the most popular sports.

So the usual rent-a-crowd...

So that’s only about 25,990,000 who didn’t attend your little parade.

The make of the attendees are purely political.

If they were that concerned they would be focusing more on the real major problems aboriginals face these days.

Changing a date will do nothing to stop them whining or protesting because the date doesn't help their political end game..

To assume everybody who  did not  attend Australia wide demos for Change The Date,  agrees the date should not be changed, is flawed. I think we are not far from 50% of  the population. Attitudes are also changing quickly. 

Having a few beers with a former state premier today, he is adamant the Change The Date movement has reached a critical mass where the date change is inevitable. 

Well said chairliecat.

I'm off celebrating with all my friends today. Most came to this country when very young. We'll play Aussie music, drink Australian beer and wine whilst wearing Australian symbols in celebration of the great achievements as a country. 

I'm also happy someone that represents our football was given an Award.

USA? LOL

Sorry my friend, your assumption regarding assimilation are, outdated, illegal and both morally and ethically repugnant...
Happy Australia Day to one of the most multicultural societies on earth, long may we stay that way.

There needs to be a complete level of compliance with regards to the law of the land. Some cultures practice activities that are morally and ethically abhorrent that do not resonate with Australian values. I'm sure that charliecat (as I am) would be more than in total agreement about the value of multiculturalism to our great nation.

I dont disagree at all, compliance with the laws of the land is key to this statement.  Cultural practices that are morally or ethically NOT in line with Anglo Australian values, as long as they are NOT against the law, cannot be discriminated against.  As much as you would like to, you cannot for example, prevent someone speaking in their mother tongue or congregating in "ethnic" groups to participate in cultural activities they deem important to them.  Multiculturalism, as a credo, means exactly that, lots of different cultures coexisting in one nation. This overwhelming concept of "true blue Dinky di Ozzieness" may resonate with you but it doesn't for hundreds of thousands of other citizens of this great land.  I didn't have any relatives die at Gallipoli, none of my ancestors ever came here in chains and I have never had a meat pie in my life but still consider myself Australian.. Who are you to tell me I have to assimilate to a particular way of thinking or acting to comply with this failed notion of "white Australia"?

Sending 12 year olds overseas to pre-arranged marriages is an example of unacceptable cultural values. I don't have to be a white Anglo to know that.

Again, not if it happens within the confines of Australian law. Sending your child to another country, provided they are exempt to travel internationally or are accompanied by an adult is legal - what happens overseas is absolutely vile to me too, I agree with you on that. You, of course, are bringing up the most extreme of examples however, where do you sit on the issue of Muslim women wearing the full face covering for example? Is this "Non Australian" for you? What about the African Cup of Nations Soccer tournament held in Melbourne and Sydney recently, is that "Non Australian"?

Playing in a competition that does not infringe in the law and decent humane values is never an issue.  Female genital mutilation is another example that is an issue however, often done in secrecy and hidden from the law. Whether these immoral acts happen overseas or not they are perpetrated from Australia by those living in Australia with cultural indifferences. These are not the values we support in Australia.

Off topic, but the African Cup of Nations is an annual event in Perth as well.

Sorry mate, no offence meant...  I think its a great event and wish other "ethnicities" like my own still did things like this.

So great to see so many Aussie flags flying around SE Queensland!!

So did the mascot for some NRL team. Huuuuuuge honour it seems

Just watching the 2005 shootout now and JA celebration, was there ever a single moment in Aus sports that has meant so much? 

The protests are very disappointing. Changing the date will only lead to further demands. I see another aboriginal activist is demanding every aboriginal person receives $1M as reparations from disposition. Every olive branch extended is thrown back, it’s an endless cycle. Leave the date, if you don’t like it then go to work.

Fuck this forum is full of hateful, sociopathic rednecks 

Why? The vast majority of Australian's actually celebrate Australia Day and don't have a problem with the date? It's a day to spend with family & friends & acknowledge that we are truly lucky to live in the best country in the world 

And lots of people who immediately resort  to childish name calling if they disagree with an opinion.  But I’m sure you consider yourself ‘inclusive’, eh?

Is it not funny for people like you who for 365 days a year  who spout diversity, cultural enrichment and refugees being welcome on these shores, can on one day of the year be against a day that celebrates the day that brought much needed diversity and cultural enrichment to these shores as well as refugees fleeing famine and political/religious oppression in their homelands (namely the Irish and the Scottish).

That's a creative way of framing a date that is associated with invasion and attempted genocide.

There was no attempted genocide.  (Even 'invasion' is a stretch.)  Stop saying that.  Were aboriginals dispossessed?  Yes.  Were some murdered or massacred?  Yes.

But to use emotive language like 'genocide' which brings up images of Rwanda, Cambodia and the Nazi holocaust is ridiculous in the extreme.  There was never a government policy to exterminate aboriginals.  NEVER.

Change the date by all means but lets cut out rampant bullshit while we're at it. 

The Stolen Generations were absolutely genocide but not in the same way as those other ones.

Mixed raced children were taken from their parents, were basically forced to denounce all of their culture, being taught that being black is bad and were basicially made to marry white people and basically breed out their Abroiginality while other Indigenous people were pretty much left to their own devices and excluded from society so they'd eventually die out. All of this stuff is taught in schools now.

The stolen generations were nothing to do with genocide.  It was a misplaced and misguided (some will disagree) attempt to 'rescue' half caste children on the assumption that full blooded aboriginals were going to become extinct given the rapid decline of their population since white settlement.  As wrong as it may have been it wasn't genocide by any stretch.

Calling it such doesn't help.   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generations

im surprised people are still defending this point.  i guess it's ignorant generational bullshit that will die out.

https://australian.museum/learn/first-nations/genocide-in-australia/

That article is essentially “person A picks up rock, throws said rock at person B...that’s a genocide!”

If the British settlers intended a genocide, we wouldn’t see any aboriginal people today. Enough with the lies.

'Genocide' as in the common usage of the word is not what's happened here no matter what spin you put on it or what that article says.  Bosnian muslims marched off en masse and shot in fields yes.  Gypsies and Roma people sent to concentration camps to be liquidated en masse in WW2 yes.  Jews executed in their millions yes.  Hutus killing Tutsi yes.  Pol pot murdering millions yes.

Aboriginal Australians.  No. Not in a pink fit.  The fact that pastoralists and others ran amok (hundreds of times) is a disgrace but that doesn't make it 'genocide'. 

'State-sanctioned massacres'.  Get your hand off it.  

there is no denying state sanctioned massacres by the british of the First Nations in australia

This reads as though the author is trying to convince himself/herself of a genocide more than anything.  

Absolutely things happened that you would call genocide in any other context (especially from a cultural perspective) but, in regards to a genocide from the "state" (there were multiple colonies if people forgot) from what I've seen and read I have yet to come across anything conclusive.  I feel this would be the setting for a robust academic debate however most involved in academia would be very wary to express their true feelings on the subject. 

Seems a lot of people on this forum clearly wish that this nation was never founded and they had never been born. They may have a point.

Weird strawman.

I can wish that Australia was founded without the attempted genocide and crimes committed against Indigenous people.

If you are who I think you are, and we know each other off forum, you can advance much, much more persuasive arguments about this issue, and others, than you have to date!

There are definitely some progressives who participate on FTBL Forum.

Craig Foster, who today received an OAM, has written an excellent article in the Guardian. I suggest everyone reads it. 

The Guardian is as Lefty a newspaper can get.

What the fuck has that got to do with what he's written?  It's his words not the Guardian's.  What a ridiculous statement.

It doesn't make what I said inaccurate or wrong.

I was criticizing the Guardian as you'll never hope see a balanced view, like those that support 26th Jan to balance Foster's opinion. 

The polls show only 28% support change and is a minority. 

Respectfully, I beg to differ.

I attend many  political actions, where protesters  often number in the thousands, which is very large  per capita head of population  here.

The Murdoch media, namely manifesting in the local  The Mercury tabloid, often chooses not to report significant political event that I  attend over a range of issues - Climate Action, union issues and civil liberties. Moreover, the new  manifestation of the emasculated ABC, also doesn't report events, or divides by five as to the number in attendance, and/or omits significant detail. 

 Other  TV stations, SBS, 10, and 7, are relied on to report significant events,  which again can remain unreported. It means significant political actions and issues are occurring that remain unreported. Even when events I've attended are reported, the  salient message of key speakers is frequently  omitted!

We don't have a locally based Guardian, but to  its credit, they report many events that occur. The Guardian also reports in sufficient detail.  It also covers a  broad range of issues. I'm much better informed, in an educative sense, since I've subscribed to it. 

You can also add much smaller media outlets like The New Daily, Saturday Paper and Michael West. Often at  big political  events we are asked to  disseminate   messages, information and facts elucidated by speakers via Facebook and other  social media  to keep people informed.

So much of  the media  in Australia is controlled by  Rupert Murdoch. News Limited have done little  to promote Australian football -  it  mainly has  British/European football content.

Moreover, NL media outlets sometimes blatantly ignore many political protests - and - stories that have a progressive content. Because it does not suit Murdoch's extreme conservative agenda agenda, a great deal of items deemed  newsworthy in the past, remain  unreported.

Thank goodness for The Guardian!

If the movement is so massive, where were the protests in the other 365 days of the year. Tasmania of all states is embarrassed as to how it dealt with ridding of aboriginals from their state. Maybe this one off turnout is a reflection of that guilt? My opinion.

Change the date.

There is nothing wrong with Australia Day in itself but celebrating it on a date which is insensitive to Indigenous people shows that we have some way to go before being a fully inclusive society.

#alwayswasalwayswillbe

Every day is considered insensitive to aboriginal people, that’s the problem. One racial group that forms a section of the Australian population holds the rest accountable for any perceived crimes of centuries past. It’s very tiresome, and as current society shows fostering this victim mentality isn’t helping anyone. My great grandparents were murdered by the nazi SS, I don’t go cap in hand to Germany every year asking for reparations and placing blame.

There’s zero substance behind that statement.

The campaign is literally “change the date” not cancel Australia Day together. There’s so many other more appropriate dates which we can pick.

The crimes you mentioned aren’t centuries past, they were still happening just over 50 years ago. 

What date would you prefer? The grievances would still be there if the date is 25th or 27th Jan or any other day. Would make no difference.

He's something else good about the 26 Jan Australia Day. On this day in 1949 law was introduced via an Act that whites and aboriginals shall for the first time all be legally called Australians and shall all hold an Australian passport equally.

There's been great steps made to improve the plight of the indigenous people and this is one date we should all celebrate.

Australia became a Federation on January the 1st so there's one option. Another would be March the 3rd given that was the day the 1986 Australia act commenced. The Act formally separated all legal ties to the UK.

My preference would be to become a republic and make the day we become a republic Australia Day.

Yeah I'm not 100% sure of that.  Reckon there'd be plenty of hand wringers and bedwetters that would be happy to never celebrate Australia Day ever again.

It's funny because I'm not a big 'Australia is the best' cape wearing flag patriot but the eternal carry on makes me just go 'fuck it I'm going all in'.

And 'always was, always will be' doesn't help one dot.  Like I said in ET the subtext, as I read it is, no matter what you do, no matter how long you or your family are here you'll always be an interloper.

Hardly inclusive.  If anything it drives a giant wedge in.
 
Want a treaty, do it.
Want constitutional recognition, do it.
Want reparations, do it,
Want the anthem changed, do it.
Want a new flag, do it, 
Want Australia day changed, do it.
Whatever they want.  Do it.

But after that can we please just get on with enjoying Australia day without all the other baggage. 

Which part of my statement do you believe has zero substance?

Sections of the protesters were not only calling for Australia Day to be abolished, but Australia itself to be abolish. Seems as tho you missed the memo.

The key part about these supposed crimes, is they are in fact a past event, like many other past crimes around the world that current generations share no guilt of, you’re being ridiculous.

I made no mention of my beliefs towards aboriginal people generally, you’re trying to put words in my mouth, not cool. I assume many of the fools as those protests have no aboriginal ancestry. Australia has existed as a federated country since 1901, and its people (ALL of its people) considered Australian since 1949 so any issue prior those dates, take it up with the British.

That every say is insensitive to Indigenous people. Literally no one has ever said that.

These crimes aren't supposed and the effects can still be seen today so I'm not being ridiculous.

You pretty much did by implying that if you give them any of their demands they'll make further demands in another post and saying that their "Victim mentality" is tiresome instead of considering their legitimate grievances.

Also Indigenous people were considers "Flora and Fauna" by the Australian constitution until 1967 and Indigenous people have only been able to vote in Fereral elections since 1962 when the Commonwealth Electoral Act was passed.

When activists want the day abolished all together, it’s hardly a stretch on my part to say “every day is insensitive”.

#fakenews #neverhappened

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-20/fact-check-flora-and-fauna-1967-referendum/9550650#:~:text=Ms%20Clanton's%20claim%20is%20a,under%20federal%20or%20state%20law.&text=Experts%20told%20Fact%20Check%20that,constitution%20relating%20to%20Indigenous%20Australians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_and_Fauna_Act_Myth

0-0 ht in this argument hopefully the second half will be more exciting 

And here it is. This thread is the reason why we as a nation can't move on . Instead of having an open discussion about the date we get one side acting like assholes. 

Exactly, that ‘one side’ aren’t capable of open discussion. I posted earlier about an article written by  Craig Foster in the Guardian.
Until people can see beyond their own ‘little bubble’ there won’t be any concensus.

I'm confused. It says Carlito posted two posts ago but when quoted by Libelous it says MvFCArsenal16.8 as the poster.

How does that work? 

That's because MvFCArsenal was his original username.

Ah right. Couldn't find an option in the account settings. Does it still exist? 

I'm not sure tbh.