I continue to be staggered at the sheer hypocrisy being demonstrated by Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas. Yesterday, your newspaper had this as its first line in an article by Caitlyn Rintoul and Joe Spagnolo: “In a blistering attack on the PM, Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas said it should not be the job of local government authorities to decide when Australia Day should be celebrated".
The decision by the Albanese Government a whole year ago was as follows: “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he won’t be moving Australia Day from January 26 after the government granted local councils the freedom to hold citizenship ceremonies on the three days either side. Immigration Minister Andrew Giles on Friday said the “pragmatic” change meant citizenship ceremonies could take place from January 23 to 29, reversing a Morrison government policy that required councils to hold one on January 26 as part of their Australia Day celebrations."
Where in the Albanese Government decision does our Lord Mayor read some kind of conspiracy theory into this that leads him to describe this as a move to change the date “by stealth”? All that I read into it is an option for Councils to hold their citizenship three days either side of the 26th. Already Councils have citizenship ceremonies almost every month. So what is the problem with any of those dates?
Lord Mayor, let us not muck around with diminishing the status of the Lord Mayor to one of political point scoring and just announce your candidacy and move on from your position.
Suresh Rajan
