A second Melbourne council has voted in favour of making changes to Australia Day, including the rescheduling of citizenship ceremonies.
The inner-northern City of Darebin on Monday night backed a motion to hold community celebrations on a date to be agreed other than January 26 and which are inclusive of Indigenous people, just a week after fellow Yarra City Council voted for similar changes.
"We formally recognised that January 26 is not an inclusive date for our national celebration," Mayor Kim Le Cerf said.
Canberra's message to local government not to mess with Australia Day has fallen on deaf ears at a second Melbourne council.
City of Darebin councillors overnight voted in favour of moving January 26 events to an "agreed date" more inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents.
"We formally recognised that January 26 is not an inclusive date for our national celebration," Mayor Kim Le Cerf said after Monday night's majority result.
"January 26 is indelibly tied to the dispossession and subsequent oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and our council cannot ignore the exclusion this entails and the impact it has on the health and wellbeing of our Indigenous community."
The motion includes an end to citizenship ceremonies on January 26, instead offering new Australians the opportunity "in a positive and timely way throughout the year".
