NSW Premier Chris Minns has blasted the country’s Race Discrimination Minister over his ‘absolutely crazy’ anti-Australia Day comments.
Giridharan Sivaraman’s controversial take on the national holiday, made on an independent radio station in Melbourne last October, resurfaced this week.
‘Australia Day is Invasion Day for our First Nations brothers and sisters and is a day of mourning in many ways and not a day to be celebrated,’ Mr Sivaraman said.
‘And to not acknowledge that just compounds racism.’
The NSW Premier described Mr Sivaraman’s comments as ‘bonkers, absolutely crazy’ during an appearance on 2GB radio on Friday.
‘The thing about Australia Day and national days is they are incredibly important for countries. You have to think about what unites everybody – different backgrounds, different races, different religions,’ Mr Minns said.
‘If you live in a country you need national days to actually pull communities together, because everything else seems to be pulling us apart.
‘So if you start jettisoning things like Anzac Day or Australia Day or start to diminish them, or pull them down in the public consciousness, what’s going to actually pull people together?’
NSW Premier Chris Minns (pictured) has blasted the country’s Race Discrimination Minister over his ‘absolutely crazy’ anti- Australia Day comments
Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman, who earns $400,000 a year, said acknowledging Australia Day ‘just compounds racism’
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus (left) has distanced himself from comments made by Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman (right)
Mr Minns added that ‘every successful civilisation if you like, but every successful modern country rallies around a common purpose’.
‘And as soon as you start jettisoning those things, well what’s the point of living together?’ he said.
‘Couldn’t have said it better myself,’ Fordham replied.
In the same radio interview last October, Mr Sivaraman also claimed Australia’s ‘systems and institutions are inherently affected by racism’ which ‘maintain white power and privilege’.
The Race Discrimination Commissioner role, which pays around $400,000 per year, is responsible for ‘promoting equality… conducting research and educational programs to combat racial discrimination’.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus hailed Mr Sivaraman as a ‘great asset’ when he was appointed for the role from a shortlist of candidates in February 2024.
But Mr Dreyfus has insisted changing the date of Australia Day was not up for debate.
‘As the Prime Minister has said on many, many occasions – the government has no plans to change the date of Australia Day,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.
‘The Australian Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory authority and as such, questions about statements made by the Commissioner should be directed to them.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Sivaraman for comment.
