Jackie ‘O’ Henderson calls for Australia Day date change and says she’s tired of feeling ‘shamed’ for celebrating on January 26
Jackie O Henderson has called for the date of Australia Day to be changed.
The 47-year-old told her co-host Kyle Sandilands on KIIS FM’s The Kyle and Jackie O Show, she doesn’t want to feel ‘shamed’ for celebrating this country.
‘I want to be able to celebrate Australia because I love this country and I am really patriotic,’ Jackie explained.
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson (pictured) has called for an Australia Day date change and says she’s tired of feeling ‘shamed’ for celebrating on January 26
‘I want to be able to do it in a way I don’t feel shamed about doing it so I’m more than happy to change the date.’
She continued: ‘If you change the date, it is not hurting you personally but by not changing the date, it is hurting a lot of people.’
A long-running campaign to abolish Australia Day or change the date has a growing number of Aussies feeling uneasy about our national day of celebration.
The 47-year-old told her co-host Kyle Sandilands (pictured) on KIIS FM’s The Kyle and Jackie O Show, she doesn’t want to feel ‘shamed’ for celebrating this country
The date has been controversial for years as it’s the day in 1788 when the First Fleet arrived in the country and Sir Arthur Phillip raised the British flag in Sydney Cove.
Many view the date as representative of the beginning of the painful and devastating impact colonisation has had on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Telstra along with Channel 10, Woolworths, mining giant BHP, financial firms Deloitte and KPMG and bio tech company CSL have joined the growing list of companies and organisations who are allowing staff to work on January 26.
‘I want to be able to celebrate Australia because I love this country and I’m really patriotic. I want to be able to do it in a way I don’t feel shamed,’ Jackie said
Channel 10 bosses told their staff in an email that the network will not be celebrating Australia Day and that employees could come to work instead of taking the day off.
Parent company Paramount ANZ’s chief content officer, Beverley McGarvey, and co-lead Jarrod Villani referred to Australia Day as ‘January 26’ in the email.
The pair told staff it was ‘not a day of celebration’ for Indigenous people and said employees could decide whether they wished to take the day off as a public holiday or work if they preferred.
The date has been controversial for years as it’s the day in 1788 when the First Fleet arrived in the country and Sir Arthur Phillip raised the British flag in Sydney Cove. Many view the date as representative of the beginning of the painful and devastating impact colonisation has had on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (pictured, Australia Day protest)