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| Scot MacDonald |
Mr MacDonald made the comments while discussing calls made by Left Renewal, a socialist splinter-group of the Greens.
"The Left Renewal faction, or whatever they call themselves, actually operate out of the offices NSW Greens MPs," Mr MacDaonald said.
"If they wanted to distance themselves, they'd remove these people from their staff but they haven't done that.
"So we're faced with the position that the Greens are still backing these people and still believe that Australia Day is not for them."
Greens MP David Shoebridge was quick to throw away Mr MacDonald's claims, saying the party does not, in any way, support burning the Australian flag.
"It's remarkable that the jingoistic Liberal party who harbour some pretty deep racists in them to criticise other parties' membership," Mr Shoebridge said.
"The Greens are pretty clear about this, we don't support - as a state of federal party - burning the flag but we absolutely support reviewing 26th January as our national day and particularly for our First Peoples."
Australia Day has been heavily criticised for being on the same day as British colonisation 1788, with many now calling it Invasion Day.
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| David Shoebridge [Picture: Max Mason-Hubers |
Mr MacDonald said he was open to the opportunity to change the day, but didn't want it to become negative.
"I'd be very concerned if we went to an overly negative description of it like Invasion Day," he said.
"It was certainly a disruptive occasion in 1788, no question about that."
"I think most of us are working very, very hard at getting along with each other and I've got the utmost respect for our Indigenous communities."
Mr Shoebridge, on the other hand, welcomed the chance to change the day to something more accessible.
"Many people like May 8 - M8 Day. I personally think there's a lot to be said about the day in which we successfully passed a Referendum to give our first people proper citizenship and to celebrate that as a moment of coming together," he said.
"Whatever the day is, we can certainly do a lot better than the day that marks the invasion and the dispossession
of people who'd been in this remarkable continent for 40,000 years."
