MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan 26, (AP): Australians celebrated and protested across the country on Sunday as Australia Day drew attention to political differences over Indigenous rights months out from a federal election. Australia Day marks a British colony being established at Sydney Cove on Jan. 26, 1788, which eventually led to Britain claiming the entire country without a treaty with its Indigenous inhabitants.

Indigenous rights advocates call Jan. 26 "Invasion Day” and protest rallies have been held in major cities. Many argue that Australia’s national day should not commemorate such a divisive event. Australia Day is usually a public holiday and because it fell on a Sunday this year, Monday has been declared a holiday. Acknowledging the hurt that Australia Day causes many Indigenous Australians, the most disadvantaged ethnic group that accounts for 4% of the population, many businesses refer to the ”January long weekend” rather than the "Australia Day long weekend.”

Australia Day has in recent decades been the date on which immigrants became Australian citizens in public ceremonies. But several local government councils have chosen to hold citizenship ceremonies on different dates due to the controversy. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor Party government has attempted to accommodate differing views of Australia Day since it won elections in 2022.

The government in 2023 decided to allow public servants to work on Australia Day and take another day off instead, reversing a previous conservative government order that they must not work on Jan. 26 when it falls on a week day. Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said that all councils will be required to hold citizenship ceremonies on Jan. 26 if his party wins elections due by May 17. "If the prime minister doesn’t have the strength of leadership to stand up to mayors and others who don’t want to celebrate Australia Day, then our country’s in more trouble than we first realized,” Dutton said two weeks ago.

Dutton has accused Albanese of "equivocating” on his support for Australia Day to appease the minor Greens party. The Greens party opposes celebrations on Jan. 26. Many observers, including Dutton, expect Labor will lose its parliamentary majority at the next election and may need the support of Greens lawmakers to form a minority government. Albanese has accused Dutton of being divisive by declining an invitation to attend Australia Day events in the national capital Canberra. Instead, Dutton attended a citizenship ceremony in his hometown of Brisbane.