Fun fact: We are the last country in the entire commonwealth to still celebrate its national day on the date of British colonisation. Every other country has changed it - including New Zealand. Why?

Because all those other countries realised that none of the things that make their countries great today can be traced back to that date - or that other, better days supplanted it.

January 26 wasn’t the founding of our democracy, or the creation of our civil rights. It was not even the foundation of our national government, which didn’t appear until January 1, 1901. Most of the people who landed that day were working class prisoners who had only slightly better legal and political rights than the local Aboriginal people who died of Smallpox and violence.

The date is simply the anniversary of the original act of land theft and dispossession by the British.

I’ve never wanted to fly our flag, which contains the British flag still on it, on that day.

In New Zealand, they also, like us, held their national day on the anniversary of British colonisation, until they realised that was insensitive and changed it to Waitangi Day all the way back in the 1930s.

Instead of taking the same noble path, we doubled down on the stupidity. Most Australian states didn’t even celebrate Australia Day until the 1980s. It was only celebrated in NSW. They got dragged along when Bob Hawke and later John Howard wanted to make a big deal of the bicentenary and national identity.

When we become a republic it should be changed to the date of the proclamation of or full independence from the monarchy.