I grew up in the 70 s and 80 s and Australia Day was just a day off . No one gave a shit , no one . So did I . This was not my experience and I feel badly for you that this was yours . 1988 people loved the idea of a massive party or piss up , the rest of the year shit was ignored . Given the fact that it ' s entire purpose was celebratory , not commiseratory , I don ' t see an issue with the piss up part . As for the ignored part , it was far from that where I grew up . Again , since your experience was more negative I feel badly for you for that . They even gave us coins at school to commemorate the year , mos of the coins ended up in the bin cause no one gave a shit . Actually the coins were the things I seem to remember where there was actual apathy . Then around 2002 it began to pick up . Then 2005 Cronulla riots started and BOOOOOOOM AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI . Whoa , hang on . I thought we were all concerned about 1996 and it was John Howard ' s fault . Now you ' re conflating history to fit and paint the narrative you want . Not interested in that . And its been one massive cringey party since . If you view the place you live in through a prism of negativity because of the ideological chip on your shoulder , that ' s no one ' s problem but yours . We ' ll have a positive and inclusive celebration of what we want a liberalised and inclusive Australia to be . You can stay home if you want . Sorry but its also divided the nation . There are issues to sort out , that is beyond reasonable dispute . But the idea that negatively defining ourselves by the issues we face rather than positively by the solutions we want to the point where we ' re fractured as a society is demonstrably and literally ridiculous and is thankfully not an idea accepted by mainstream Australia . Left Educated , Intelligent and Good . Right Wilfully ignorant , violent , and baaaaaadSweet fucking jesus . For someone who ' s apparently got an interest in fighting the harm that occurs from prejudicial behaviour based on group identity you seem to have no problem subscribing to stereotypes that enable your ideological comfort zone .