Australia Day remains a contested date<\/a> nationally, with supporters viewing it as a celebration of modern Australia and critics arguing it marks the beginning of colonisation and the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.<\/p>\n“It is my personal view that the 26th of January is not the right day to celebrate our national day,” the mayor said.<\/p>\n
Ms Hill said that when she was elected mayor, she promised herself she would avoid causing harm through her decisions wherever possible.<\/p>\n
“I made a promise to myself upon being elected \u2026 to do absolutely everything I can, in every decision I make, to not cause harm to other people,” she said.<\/p>\n
“That is consistent with my values as mayor, as a parent, as a friend, and as a long-term local in this community.”<\/p>\n
The decision has drawn criticism from independent MP Robyn Lambley, member for Araluen and speaker of the NT Legislative Assembly, who described the mayor’s move as “disgraceful”.<\/p>\n
“I think the mayor has not read the room,” Ms Lambley said.<\/p>\n
“Traditionally, the mayor has always presided over Australia Day ceremonies in Alice Springs.”<\/p>\n
Ms Lambley said Ms Hill was making the wrong decision.<\/p>\n
“As the new mayor, who hasn’t been around as mayor for Australia Day, she is making the wrong call,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Lambley argued the decision would offend many residents and that there was strong public support for Australia Day being held on January 26.<\/p>\n
“She is probably not aware that recent research by the Australian Institute of Public Affairs states that 76 per cent of Australians now support Australia Day,” Ms Lambley said.<\/p>\n
The Australian Institute of Public Affairs is a Melbourne-based conservative think tank.<\/p>\n
Ms Hill rejected the suggestion that her position would be divisive, saying she believed it encouraged respectful discussion.<\/p>\n
“By acting consistent with my values, I am doing the opposite of causing division,” she said.<\/p>\n
“What I am doing is encouraging respectful conversation about this issue, and I acknowledge there is a diversity of opinion.”<\/p>\n
But Ms Lambley questioned whether voters were aware of Ms Hill’s position prior to the election.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t see pamphlets stating that she wouldn’t be presiding over Australia Day ceremonies if she became mayor,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It wasn’t explicit.”<\/p>\n
Ms Hill disputed that claim, saying she had clearly outlined her views during a pre-election ABC panel discussion.<\/p>\n
“I was asked about my views in relation to Australia Day,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I made it very clear that it was not a day I was supportive of, that I didn’t think it was the best day for our national day, and that it did cause harm to a number of people in our community.”<\/p>\n
The Alice Springs Town Council has confirmed the Australia Day citizenship ceremony will proceed as planned, with Deputy Mayor Allison Bitar officiating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alice Springs Mayor Asta Hill has announced she will not preside over the town’s Australia Day citizenship ceremony…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[224611,224609,201930,224610,132465,140206,99203,43,224613,44,224612,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-428344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples","tag-asta-hill","tag-australia-day","tag-citizenship-ceremony","tag-colonisation","tag-first-nations-people","tag-harm","tag-headlines","tag-member-for-araluen","tag-news","tag-robyn-lambley","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}