A controversial Melbourne council has attracted criticism for apparently directing staff not to refer to January 26 as Australia Day.
Yarra City Council was last year stripped of its power to hold citizenship ceremonies by the federal government after it scrapped January 26 as the national day, honouring sensitivities of the date to Indigenous Australians.
But a January 15 directive from the council chief executive notified staff to refer to the date only as “the January 26 public holiday” in public pronouncements.
"Last year, Council made a resolution to change the way we mark our national day on January 26," the bulletin to staff said.
"This includes no longer referring to this date as ‘Australia Day’. All staff are asked to use the words ‘January 26 public holiday’ rather than ‘Australia Day public holiday’ when notifying clients or customers of the opening hours of their service or centre on this day."
Multicultural Affairs Minister Alan Tudge said it was a ridiculous move.
“Labor and Green local councils outbid themselves on how ridiculous they can be on Jan 26th,” he tweeted.
“Yarra Council has hit the lead, banning staff from even uttering “Australia Day” on the day.”
Fellow federal Victorian Liberal MP Tim Wilson added his voice to the criticism.
“This is Orwellian ‘New speak’ stuff. Yarra Council Staff have a duty to defy their Councillors behaving like overlords,” he tweeted.
Yarra Councillor Daniel Nguyen in a statement said the directive was to staff to follow protocol for administrative purposes.
He said part of the council's August 2017 decision to change the date was to "no longer refer to this day as ‘Australia Day’ and instead refer to it simply as January 26 in all Council communications".
"The bulletin did not refer to the way staff may choose to recognise the day in their private lives," Mr Nguyen said.
"It provided advice to staff to ensure the intent of Council’s decision is reflected when preparing official communications from Council."
The council was not trying to cancel the public holiday, he added.
"We encourage people to commemorate the day in any way they choose," Mr Nguyen said.
"What we are hoping to do is get people thinking about the issue and make a collective effort to acknowledge that this date causes pain and sadness for many Aboriginal people and the impacts continue to be felt to this day."
