Australia Day: Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton go head to head over January 26

The Prime Minister has challenged the opposition leader to show bipartisan support for Australia Day celebrations on the shores of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin after Peter Dutton pledged to reinstate citizenship ceremonies on January 26.

Anthony Albanese’s swipe came after Mr Dutton accused the Prime Minister of signalling to councils that “Australia Day didn’t matter and there was something to be ashamed of” by allowing them to hold ceremonies on either side of that day to welcome new citizens.

“Would we reinstate the requirement for councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day? You bet it’ll be done in the first 100 days, and it will be a sign of pride and nationalism in our country,” Mr Dutton told reporters in Melbourne on Monday morning.

“I want us as a population to be united. I want us not to be divided, but I want us to stand up for what we believe in. And we will do that again, and we will have pride again in our country, and we’ll be our best country if we stand together,” he said.

In 2022, the Federal Government changed the law to allow councils to conduct citizenship ceremonies three days before or after Australia Day. In 2024, 81 councils decided to do so.

But Mr Albanese dismissed the opposition’s accusation at his own press conference in Canberra, calling on Mr Dutton to join him side by side at the national event to mark the day.

“My council holds them on Australia Day, and on Australia Day I’ll be here in Canberra at the national event. I encourage Peter Dutton to come,” he said.

“I’d also encourage Mr Dutton to attend the Australia Day awards. It’s a celebration of the best of Australia, the Volunteer of the Year, the Young Australian of the Year, the Senior Australian of the Year, and the Australian of the Year.”

The two leaders attacked each other on a range of policies in back-to-back press conferences as both the Government and the opposition swung into full election mode.

Speaking in Melbourne, where the Coalition is targeting a number of key seats in the Federal Election, Mr Dutton kicked off the week presenting the opposition as the party of law and order and with a pledge to provide $7.5 million over three years to boost Crime Stoppers.

He said the money for the crime prevention hotline, where the public can leave anonymous tips, would help the country’s law enforcement agencies crack down on the illicit drug trade and other violent and non-violent offences.

“As a former police officer, I know first-hand of the incredible work that Crime Stoppers does to keep Australians safe,” he said, while also promising to crack down on crimes committed by non-citizens and toughening the migration system.

“We have been an incredible beneficiary of migration to this country. But if people commit crimes as non-citizens in our country against Australian citizens, then they can expect to have their visas cancelled and for those people to be deported,” he said.

The Coalition leader also slammed the Albanese Government for being too soft on anti-Semitism and too slow to respond to an ongoing spate of attacks on the Australian Jewish Community.

“I wrote to the Prime Minister in November of 2023 asking for a national cabinet to be convened. We’re 14 months past that, and the Prime Minister still hasn’t responded to that letter,” he said.

“I believe that that’s when the anti-Semitism task force should have been established and that the Prime Minister should have sent a very clear and definite and strong message to the premiers and to the chief ministers and to the police commissioners that we have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism,” he added.

“I think one of the most shameful periods in our history is unfolding before our eyes at the moment,” he said.

“It’s the Jews today. Who is it tomorrow? If people who have a background of having come from Asia, or they’re Catholics, or they’re Protestants or they’re atheists, whoever they might be. Are they the target of the next hate crimes?”

Mr Albanese hit back that Mr Dutton was looking for “areas of division where he can try to promote fear in the community.”

He said his Government would continue to work with state premiers and the appropriate authorities to tackle crime and to combat anti-Semitism and stressed that state and territory governments took the lead on these issues.

“There is no place for anti-Semitism in Australia,” said Mr Albanese.

“That’s not what we’re about as a multicultural, tolerant nation that has respect for people of different faiths. It’s a crime, and the people responsible for that crime should face the full force of the law.”