{"id":801173,"date":"2026-07-15T04:56:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801173\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T04:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:56:19","slug":"angus-taylor-cricket-australia-opposition-leader-hits-out-at-no-anthem-on-australia-day-cricket-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801173\/","title":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor Cricket Australia: Opposition Leader hits out at no anthem on Australia Day cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Updated July 15, 2026 \u2014 2:01pm,first published 12:24pm<\/p>\n

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Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has accused Cricket Australia of \u201cwoke moralising\u201d after it announced cricket would once again be played on Australia Day but the national anthem would probably not be played out of sensitivity towards Indigenous Australians.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s push into the cultural conversation comes as his ailing party opens the door to gender quotas after years of internal opposition to forcing the selection of women candidates.<\/p>\n

\"OppositionOpposition Leader Angus Taylor.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

Cricket was not played on Australia Day in 2025 or this year. In 2021, Cricket Australia stopped using the term \u201cAustralia Day\u201d at matches, prompting\u00a0then-prime minister<\/a> Scott Morrison to suggest Cricket Australia stick to cricket and stay out of politics.<\/p>\n

But after years of polls showing diminished public appetite<\/a> to change the date, the sport\u2019s governing body has now decided to schedule the Big Bash League final on January 26, 2027.<\/p>\n

However, Cricket Australia said the national anthem would be played if the host city, determined by which teams reach the final, requested it.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Taylor took to social media to criticise the decision, saying, \u201cCricket Australia\u2019s decision not to play our national anthem is yet more tone-deaf woke moralising\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, our past is not perfect. But our nation\u2019s achievements far outweigh the wrongdoings, and our nation is worth celebrating,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of kowtowing to activists who want to make Australians feel guilty about our past and ashamed of our nation, Cricket Australia should proudly play our national anthem at the Big Bash final, reflecting the views of the overwhelming majority of Australians \u2013 and cricket fans \u2013 who love our country and feel profound gratitude for being Australian.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Coalition leader has been struggling in the polls as he competes for attention from cultural conservatives who have flocked to Pauline Hanson\u2019s One Nation<\/a>. Taylor has also called out the frequency of Welcome to Country ceremonies and acknowledgements of country, vowed to change gender identity laws and outlined a hardline stance on migration that has been questioned by his internal critics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s most prominent Indigenous cricketer, fast bowler Jason Gillespie, has advocated for changing Australia\u2019s national day from the one marking the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788.<\/p>\n

\"CricketCricket Australia stopped using the term \u201cAustralia Day\u201d at matches in 2021.<\/p>\n

Big Bash League executive Alistair Dobson told News Corp that the January 26 match had been chosen due to its status as the national day and because it was the day after the conclusion of Australia\u2019s first Test in a tour of India.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that day means different things to different people. We fully recognise that and we will work with the home club and an advisory group around First Nations issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to ensure we build an appropriate recognition for everyone on the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indigenous former Labor senator Nova Peris, who has advocated for conservative causes in recent years, said this week that there was \u201cno reason why the Australian flag, the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Island flag could not fly together or why they could not have a minute\u2019s silence to acknowledge the fallen and then go on and sing the national anthem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe anthem\u2019s words are beautiful … Our nation is facing an identity crisis. We have to co-exist,\u201d she told News Corp.<\/p>\n

\"AustraliaAustralia played the West Indies on January 26, 2024, the last time Cricket Australia scheduled a match on Australia Day.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Appearing on ABC\u2019s 7.30 on Tuesday for the first time since he said the rival party\u2019s policies would lead to \u201can eternity of pain\u201d, Taylor was asked four times if he would categorically reject the possibility of forming government with One Nation.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Prime<\/a><\/p>\n

Initially insisting that the Coalition had \u201cabsolutely no plan for a deal with One Nation to form government\u201d, Taylor was asked again: \u201cDoesn\u2019t leaving it unruled-out, leave it on the table?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ruling it out,\u201d Taylor replied. \u201cThere\u2019s no plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason is simple: that they would, One Nation would, as a government, leave us with an eternity of pain, and they have a grab bag of policies where even a small subset of them would take this country into a fiscal crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liberal Party released a discussion paper on Wednesday morning outlining options for party reform to revive the ailing institution.<\/p>\n

Led by senator James McGrath, it painted a grim picture of the state of the party and its volunteer and fundraising network, revealing that more than 55 per cent of its shrinking membership was over 60. Of the cohort between 16-30, about 70 per cent were men.<\/p>\n

The paper, designed to open a debate about reform options, did not argue for or against gender quotas but raised the merits of such a policy. It presents options including open primaries or \u201ccommunity preselection\u201d where non-party members could vote, bonus weighting provided to female preselection candidates, requiring a minimum number of women stand in preselection contests, interventions to manage the outcomes of preselections, or quotas.<\/p>\n

\u201cCentre-right political parties have also employed quotas. Germany\u2019s CDU, for example, has a gender quota which requires that 30 per cent of all party positions (including elected offices, leadership roles, and appointments) be held by women by 2025,\u201d the paper said, while also outlining the common view that quotas may undermine merit-based selections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere they have been utilised \u2013 both in Australia and overseas \u2013 quotas have, over time, improved gender balance. After the 2022 federal election, 53 per cent of ALP federal MPs were women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor has spoken against quotas in the past, meaning a less interventionist strategy to attracting women candidates is more likely. The party preselected many women in important seats last election, but the seats were won by Labor or teal independents.<\/p>\n

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"PaulPaul Sakkal<\/a> is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated July 15, 2026 \u2014 2:01pm,first published 12:24pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-801173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801173","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=801173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}