Australia Day – January 26 – marks the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 in Port Jackson, New South Wales. That was the day Governor Arthur Phillip raised Great Britain’s flag in Sydney Cove.

Slowly over a number of years, there has been a growing unrest, particularly from members of the Aboriginal community that Australia Day shouldn’t be a day we celebrate as a nation. 

It should be a day we can all celebrate coming together, of camaraderie, and to recognise our cultural diversity. And as the Australia Day website says, we should always look to our future.

Because January 26 marks the day of colonisation, Indigenous Australians often feel it is insensitive to celebrate the day. So where to from here?

There have been suggestions we should instead celebrate the day we became an independent nation – January 1. There have been strong links to September 1 – the day we celebrate National Wattle Day in this country.

Scientists tell us wattle has been growing in this country for some 35 million years, and it would certainly remove that growing feeling of unrest and protest surrounding January 26.

What we don’t want – or need in this country – is people taking extreme, radical steps to push their agenda, as was the case earlier this week when a splinter group of the Greens political party called for the Australian flag to be burned on Australia Day this year.

Rightfully, Greens leader Richard Di Natale distanced himself from the calls and the radical faction within his party. Senator Di Natalie said that he did not support the burning of the flag. He should have gone further and condemned the splinter group itself. They are members of his party.

The Senator was correct to say that we as a country did need to have an “important national conversation” about how Australians celebrated their national day.

But while there are fringe elements on both sides of the debate advocating violence and spouting political statements that will only inflame an already polarising, sensitive issue such as this, no one will achieve anything of any great significance.