Anchors in the Storm

Last week in Parliament, when I spoke on the Public and Bank Holidays Amendment Bill 2025, I knew that between the Labor Government and the Greens the chance of preserving the historic date of our most important public holiday was already lost. We simply didn’t have the numbers. 

In what was, I believe, a great shame and a misstep by the Barnett Government - changing the name from “Foundation Day” to “WA Day” in the Western Australia Day (Renaming) Bill 2011 - the door was opened to the activists of the “Change the Date” movement.

I don’t doubt that the intention was well-meaning with arguments around making the celebration of Western Australia’s history more inclusive – particularly in recognising the original inhabitants prior to European settlement. Unfortunately, though, not everyone approaches these issues in good faith and words matter. Memory is carried by the words we use; erasing those words exposes our communal memories to gradual decline and eventual loss. 

During my Honours year studying history, our work on Aboriginal historiography and linguistics showed just how vital the preservation of words and language is. We see this daily in debates over place names and efforts being made to more widely incorporate Indigenous place names across the state. Whatever one thinks of that practice, my point here is that names, dates, and places matter in culture and ongoing social coherence.  Erasing them is rarely accidental and the consequences for our civic life are profound.

The Indigenous people of Australia know this - but so do the radical activists who resent the very concept of Australia and its remarkable origins in English and European thought, values, and faith.

In one of its most disingenuous legislative manoeuvres yet, the WA Labor Government, hand-in-glove with the Greens, orchestrated a quiet historical swap: dislodging Western Australia Day from its historic June anchor and switching it with the King’s Birthday.

Make no mistake: despite superficial arguments about aligning calendars or chasing better weather to celebrate the state we know and love, this switch is entirely intentional.  It is a calculated effort by the political Left to sever Western Australia from its origins.

The King’s Birthday is an adaptable observance of civic convenience, whereas the first of June is an unalterable historical fact. King George II shifted official celebrations to June simply because November weather in London was not conducive to “Trooping” the military colours. By contrast, the first of June is not arbitrary. It marks the arrival of the Parmelia in 1829 and the foundational moment that brought Western Australia into existence.

To peel that date away from its mooring and relegate our foundational anniversary to a weekend of zero significance is part of an insidious movement to distance our society from its British and settler heritage. If the Left has its way, Foundation Day will be erased entirely from civic consciousness – reduced to an empty, sanitized "spring festival." Citizens will be encouraged to enjoy the sunshine while forgetting the vision, courage, and sacrifice of those who crossed treacherous seas to build a new civilisation.

We saw this ideological stubbornness laid bare during the Committee stage debates. When my colleague, the Hon Maryka Groenewald MLC, brought forward a thoughtful amendment to reinstate Proclamation Day, a date that formally commemorates Western Australia achieving self-government and establishing the very parliamentary democracy we sit in today, it was summarily dismissed.

As Maryka and I argued, if the critics object to 1829 on the grounds of colonial displacement, why refuse to celebrate the moment our people gained the constitutional right to govern their own affairs? What could be more democratic, or more worthy of celebration, than the birth of our own self-rule?

The answer is obvious: the modern Left is not interested in celebrating democratic milestones. It is captivated by critical theory, an ideology that demands history be viewed exclusively through the prism of grievance, failure, and collective guilt.

I trained as an historian. A mature, self-confident society does not run from historical complexity. We do not need to hide or diminish the hardship, conflict, and dislocation experienced by Indigenous populations during settlement. An honest accounting acknowledges those realities. But we must be equally unequivocal in stating an undeniable, objective truth: the British settlement of Western Australia was an overwhelming good.

It established the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, property rights, civic institutions, and the free society that has made Western Australia one of the most prosperous, peaceful, and envied places on earth. People from every corner of the globe long to live in our state because of the stability these foundations provided. We did not drop out of a spaceship yesterday; we are the heirs of a distinct constitutional tradition, and it is a legacy we should defend with genuine pride.

When you systematically dismantle historical anchor points, you do not create enlightenment; you create fragmentation. Having spent considerable time living and working in France over the decades, I have observed firsthand the deep societal fractures that occur when a nation’s intellectual class actively wages war against its own heritage. In Europe, the erosion of foundational history, civic self-confidence, and common cultural roots has accelerated polarisation, alienated communities, and led to profound civil unrest. The breakdown we are watching unfold across Europe is the direct consequence of convincing entire generations that their nation’s history is inherently wicked.

Australia is not immune to that trajectory. A resilient society requires an unfiltered, dialectical view of history, one where we weigh virtues against faults without capitulating to the modern urge to cancel our forebears. When governments systematically strip our calendar of its historical significance, they weaken the common ties that bind us together as a people.

We cannot build a coherent, confident future by allowing the Left to overwrite our past. Western Australia has an extraordinary story of resilience, good governance, and achievement. It is time we stood up, rejected this ongoing revisionism, and defended the foundations that built our home.