Australia

Andrews government quietly shelves Australia Day parade

The Andrews government has quietly shelved its Australia Day parade – a move welcomed by the co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria who described the event as an annual “slap in the face”.

A flag raising ceremony will go ahead at Government House, as will a gun salute at the Shrine of Remembrance, but the parade down Swanston Street, in Melbourne’s CBD, will not return this year after two years of cancellations.

Instead, the government will host an event in Federation Square to “reflect, respect, celebrate” on January 26.

Attendance at official Australia Day events dropped dramatically from 72,000 in 2018 to 12,000 in 2019 and just 2000 in 2020, according to City of Melbourne figures.

“Victorians are choosing to mark Australia Day in different ways,” a spokeswoman from the Department of Premier and Cabinet said on Saturday.

Thousands of people have turned out in recent years for an Invasion Day rally on January 26, a march through Melbourne’s organised by the group Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance.

Marcus Stewart, the co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, an elected body to help develop a Treaty framework for the state, welcomed the government’s decision not to proceed with a parade.

“It’s a positive step forward, but we still have a long way to go. We need to create a day we can all celebrate, not one that pushes us apart,” Stewart said.

“Change is hard, and change takes time.”

Stewart said January 26 marked attempted genocide through British colonisation and was a day to mourn Indigenous people who have died in custody and during the frontier wars.

“The parade [was] a slap in the face, and rubbed salt in the wounds, so it’s a positive step that it won’t be proceeding.”

The parade was cancelled in 2021 due to COVID-19 and did not return in 2022, which Acting Premier Jacinta Allan at the time said was not due to the pandemic. “This has got everything to do with how, as a community, we choose to mark the day differently,” Allan said last year.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the cancellation was deeply disappointing.

“This is a popular family event that both brought communities together and people into our CBD – it shouldn’t be tossed aside without any explanation,” Pesutto said.

“Daniel Andrews must explain to Victorians why this important event will not be proceeding.”