The federal opposition leader has encouraged Australians to celebrate Australia Day in the face of criticism of the annual celebration of Australian history and culture.
In response to a question on voices already in the national parliament that want to undermine Australian nationhood, Liberal leader Peter Dutton said on Flow on Friday:
"Well, it's an absurdity. I mean, we have a proud Indigenous history, we've got a proud British history, and we've got a great migrant story to tell and our country is a blend of all three – no one above the other – and we have to be very proud of our place on the world stage and what we've been able to achieve in our country. We live in the greatest country in the world. We shouldn't be ashamed of our history. We should learn from it, and we should be very proud of the fact that we're the envy of many countries of the world.
Mr Dutton addressed the current indigenous voice to parliament referendum debate, where his party remains undecided on its position due to a lack of detail from the Albanese government:
"We have a strong and stable democracy, which is why people are really questioning whether there's a need to change the Constitution. Because if you change the Constitution and the High Court interprets it in a particular way, then you can see our system of government, the decision-making process change very quickly and Australians understandably are reluctant to do that.
"We should be celebrating our flag, we should be celebrating Australia Day and all that's great about our country and the people who want to rewrite history or ignore certain parts of history, that's not the majority view in our country and good Australians should stand up and say so."
Hear the full interview with the leader of the opposition on the Flow podcast player below:
コメント