'Time to change the date': Isabel Lucas joins Greens Australia Day campaign

The Greens have enlisted actor Isabel Lucas in their campaign to change the date of Australia Day.

Isabel Lucas has featured in a new Greens social media video.

Isabel Lucas has featured in a new Greens social media video. Source: Facebook

Former 'Home and Away' star Isabel Lucas has featured in a Greens social media video urging the country to change the date of Australia Day. 

Ms Lucas appears with fellow actor Tony Barry and a cast of ordinary Australians who talk about their personal reasons for wanting the date changed. 

One participant offers: "having Australia Day on January 26 is a painful reminder for many Indigenous people."



While another says that "it's the day their lands were forcefully invaded and culture changed forever."

Ms Lucas only briefly appears to say "now's the time to change the date of Australia Day."

January 26 marks the date the First Fleet landed in Sydney Cove in 1788 and the beginning of British colonisation in Australia.

"The fact someone with the profile of Isabel Lucas is prepared to get involved and advocate so passionately to #changethedate shows this is a significant issue that can't be ignored any longer," Greens MP and Aboriginal Affairs spokeswoman Dawn Walker said on her Facebook page.

"Celebrating on a day that causes so much hurt and suffering to Aboriginal people does not unite us and doesn't bring us together."

Some local councils have already changed the date of their local celebrations, including Yarra and Darebin in Victoria and Fremantle in Western Australia.




The new Greens video comes after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull released his own Facebook video on January 15 rejecting calls to change the date of Australia Day.

"I'm disappointed by those who want to change the date of Australia Day, seeking to take a day that unites Australia and Australians and turn it into one that would divide us," Mr Turnbull said in the Facebook video.

"A free country debates its history – it does not deny it. It builds new monuments as it preserves old ones, writes new books, not burn old ones."


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By Nick Baker


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'Time to change the date': Isabel Lucas joins Greens Australia Day campaign | SBS News