I don’t think that’s a good idea. Everyone will be hungover from the night before. Two holidays on the one day? I hope this never happens.

@@latenightlogic Na, the 31st becomes the New Year holiday and then the 1st is tacked on. Yep, total piss up for two days, it’s a winner already, and two nights in a row of crackers.

My pleasure.

@sunyata4974 'Time to move on and build a better country together.' Fine words, but for well over 200 years Aboriginal people have been on the bottom of the ladder, and the Voice referendum shows a large number want to keep them there. 'E[n]gland introduced the nation state to the world to reduce wars.' Hahaha...oh wait, you're serious?? Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I remember Australia Day was a very low-key holiday, that most people didn't know the reason for, and which would get moved to the nearest Monday to make a long weekend. Since 1994 it's always been on 26 January, on the quite reasonable grounds that we should know and think about what we're commemorating. But as a result of doing just that, increasing numbers of people are saying, 'Hang on a minute...' 26 January is a weird day to commemorate - really it's the birth of Sydney and NSW, but not Australia. Most countries choose their independence day for a holiday. For New Zealanders it's the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. An American equivalent might be Thanksgiving, but that commemorates the settlement in Massachusetts by the Pilgrim Fathers. They were seeking religious freedom - an inspiring story, yes, but not the actual first settlement. That was Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Remember the massive celebrations in 2007 for the 400th anniversary? No, me neither. Jamestown did have something to distinguish it, though - the first importation of slaves in 1619. Funny how they don't talk about that. 1 January, when the six colonies joined to make the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, would make more sense, but that date's already taken. Arguably Australia's real national day is 25 April, Anzac Day, as it's a day that has real emotional meaning for Australians. If we want to keep 26 January, the only way to make it relevant is for it to mark a new start - sign a treaty with Australia's indigenous people on that day.

@@Elitist20 I agree with much that you said ... but Thanksgiving Day is NOT an American equivalent. Thanksgiving day was yes a mostly kept alive and encouraged by religious protestants, which tied together the older roots of thanksgiving along with the original starts at both Charles City, VA (along James river) as well as around the same time in Plymouth, MA. The landing at Charles City in 4 Dec 1619 upon first arriving and landing in which they called for an annual religious celebration to be kept as a holy day of thanksgiving to God. Plymouth also had a similar religious celebration for good harvest. The end result is it now represents a day of thanks for a good harvest and represents ties to the origins of the first settlers in Jamestown in 1607 having a feast with the natives at the end of the autumn to sustain them through the winter. An actual American equivalent would be Independence Day, 7 July, as the celebration for its founding of a new nation and independence. Which leads to differences as that independence day was over its prior Britain rulers a couple hundred centuries after the invasion of Europeans upon the native indigenous Americans. While Independence Day does not commemorate overtaking the native people (since that had been done long prior) in any shape or measure and so is not quite the same as Australia Day, but it still is exactly equivalent as celebrating the nation itself and its foundation. Yet it still in no way is like Thanksgiving Day which represents more a unity of the native peoples with recent settlers (invaders), coming together to have a feast and more importantly giving of thanks for hopefully a good harvest of crops. More in tune to the much older religious tradition of a harvest festival. Not anywhere close at all in equivalence. The Jamestown of 1619 is not the exact same as the Jamestown of 1607, nor even the current Jamestown. Jamestown of 1619 was actually originally called James Fort. All of those are close to each other, but were all separate started settlements. Jamestown 1607 ceased to exist in 1610 and Jamestown 1619 (prior James Fort) ceased to exist in 1699. What everyone today recalls when thinking about old historic Jamestown is that first settlement in 1607 ... which did not have slaves. As again was abandoned in 1610. Besides the recorded history of slaves in the Americas in 1619 was not actually in Jamestown either. It was at Old Point Comfort which was nearby to Jamestown. Again notice the 'old' as that place also no longer exists and was abandoned with the new Point Comfort once again being established nearby upriver just as the Jamestown had been several times. These are while being nearby, are in actuality being miles from each other. Old Point Comfort was several miles and several days journey from Jamestown. So yea no wonder why no one talks about it, because it simply is not true. Most of those first slaves were likely ended up in the fields around the country between the point of Virginia peninsula (aka Old Point Comfort) and further up river leading to James Towne Island. It is possible that one or two perhaps were sold and ended up even in Jamestown, but that is highly unlikely. Of course you do not recall any massive 400th anniversary ... the USA is not that old. No one celebrates any longer the start of the European invasion and concurring of the America's. The British, Spanish, Dutch, and French etc have long since moved on of their claims over such areas as well as no longer any commonwealths. Canada declared independence from British rule in 1867, and while it does have strong English influences is really just as much French based as it is English. To go back that far would be celebrating things such as British America, or Rupert Lands, or New France (Nouvelle-France), or Province of Maryland. All of which no longer exist and so of course is no longer celebrated.

@@kevinfisher1345I agree Thanksgiving is not an exact equivalent - I was looking at it as an example of a commemoration of a *broadly* first-settlement event. It's true that the early attempts at settlements in Virginia were stop-start, precarious affairs. My point was that colonial Virginia just doesn't have the place in the American popular imagination that colonial Massachusetts does - because, as you say, no-one celebrates European conquest and invasion of America anymore. All of which makes Australia Day strange in this day and age.