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Lidia Thorpe boasts that Dan Andrews quietly canceled Melbourne’s Australia Day parade while calling for the date of the national holiday to be moved
- Lidia Thorpe welcomed the cancellation of the Australia Day parade
- The Victorian government said the parade would not take place
- The decision marks the third year in a row that the parade has been cancelled.
Lidia Thorpe has welcomed Daniel Andrews’ decision to cancel the Australia Day parade for the third consecutive year in Victoria.
The state government planned to pull off its annual parade along Melbourne’s Swanston Street on January 26.
The event was previously shelved in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic and then again in 2022 as the Omicron outbreak persisted.
Ms Thorpe hailed the move as a sign of “progress” and the result of a tough campaign by protesters demanding that the tradition be scrapped.
Lidia Thorpe has welcomed the decision to cancel the Australia Day parade for the third year in a row in Victoria
Ms Thorpe hailed the move as a sign of “progress” and the result of a hard-fought campaign by protesters demanding that the tradition be scrapped.
“Blak’s grassroots activists in solidarity with the Aboriginal Resistance Warriors managed to abolish the Aus Day Parade,” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
“That is progress and that is the power to tirelessly mobilize the masses year after year.”
The flag-raising ceremony will be observed as usual at Government House, while on January 26 there will be a salute with firearms at the Sanctuary of Remembrance.
An event will be held in Federation Square to ‘reflect, respect, celebrate’ in lieu of the regular Australia Day parade.
Victorian First People’s Assembly co-chair Marcus Stewart said it was a positive step in the right direction, but more work was needed.
“We need to create a day that we can all celebrate, not one that drives us apart,” he said. Age.
‘Change is hard, and change takes time. The parade [was] slapped in the face and rubbed with salt on the wounds, so it is a positive step that will not be carried out.’
Opposition leader John Pesutto demanded that Prime Minister Daniel Andrews explain why the “family” event would not take place.
Revelations emerged on Saturday that the state government had plans to scrap its annual parade along Swanston Street in Melbourne on January 26.
He said the decision to cancel the parade was disappointing and had not only brought families together but helped increase spending in Melbourne.
Anthony Albanese has stated that ‘it’s OK’ to give workers, whether in government or the private sector, the choice of whether or not to work on Australia Day.
The Labor government has lifted the Morrison government’s short-lived ban on civil servants working on January 26, allowing civil servants to take another day off if they do not wish to celebrate the occasion.
Major companies including Woolworths, Telstra, Network Ten and some of the Big Four accounting firms gave employees time off work on January 26.
The prime minister told KIIS FM’s Kyle & Jackie O on Friday morning that giving workers choice was a matter of flexibility.
“It depends on each of the departments, as it depends on employers in other areas,” he said.
“So some employers say if you want to work on Australia Day, you can have another day off.
“And I think it’s okay to have some flexibility in the system.
‘I’m going to have a very busy Australia Day myself. I have a full schedule and I’m looking forward to it.’