Is the 'Change the Date' movement gathering momentum?
Is the 'Change the Date' movement gathering momentum?
Normally I tune out to this annual debate since it feels so polarised and stale, but the messaging from Woolworths, Cricket Australia, the Australian Open and others this year suggests big companies are concerned about an attitude shift within Australian society. It seems they've decided the inevitable backlash is now worth it because the silent majority has begun leaning in favour of change.
Is this just a natural result of this being the first post-referendum Australia Day or is there a longer-term change unfolding here?
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There is a longer term change happening here.
I think more and more Australians are starting to feel genuinely ashamed at the idea of celebrating a day/event that is a source of pain and grief for many.
Eh I feel it’s more most people just don’t care about Australia Day.
We’re more concerned about having a day off than celebrating someone landing in Sydney.
That's me. Couldn't give a toss about the reason behind it, so do whatever you like. Just make sure we get to keep the day off and I'm down for whatever.
That's part of it, but it's not the end of it. If that were all it was, then Woolworths, Cricket Australia etc, wouldn't be actively avoiding it
Well if less people care for it, those companies would also have less reason to do it, no?
Chief executive Brad Banducci told Today that a declining demand in sales of the merchandise was behind the move.
They don't want to get caught in the middle. If it were just declining sales, they'd gradually fade it out.
But they don't want turn off people who are upset by it, and they're not invested in selling it, especially given declining sales, so they silently remove it in one go. Then when they get caught up in the middle of it anyway, they claim it's just declining sales, because literally anything else will make them the centre of a news cycle about a topic they're trying to stay out of
In the case of Woolworths, yes, but I'm not sure rising ambivalence is the reason why sporting events are avoiding it. In this situation, outcry following change is generally louder than outcry for change so it would make more sense to just proceed as usual if ambivalence was actually the consideration here. Either way, diminishing support for Australia Day will only strengthen the cause of its detractors.
Yeah 100%. You can see the change just in gen z's attitudes towards this. The rallies are also getting bigger each year.