Should We Ban Australia Day As Well?

[icyfroth]

We are after all celebrating the landing of the First Fleet on January 26th 1988...

Aldi pulls 'racist' T-shirts after online outrage

Discount supermarket chain Aldi has pulled an Australia Day T-shirt and singlet from its stores amid claims on social media that designs featured on the garments were racist.

Complaints that the range of promotional T-shirts with 'AUSTRALIA EST 1788' logos were racist led to people targeting @ALDIAustralia on Twitter and calling for them to be withdrawn.

The T-shirts and singlets were scheduled to go on sale on this week in the lead up to January 26.

Twitter users slammed the design as racist and culturally insensitive to indigenous Australians, who inhabited the continent for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.

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Perhaps we should abandon the celebration altogether.

[cherry*135]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

Some people have different ways of objecting to things I suppose 🙂 hopefully the message gets through to management

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Throwing stuff in a shop/public area is not an acceptable way to object to store policy/NSW laws. I suggest they aren't a rational

person to do that and have other 'issues' in life.

If the customer doesn't like those rules they should shop elsewhere.

One person who can't control their behaviour isn't going to send any sort of message to management.. except perhaps they might order the staff to inspect that persons bag EVERY time they come in the store (which they are legally able to do).

No the store can't touch your stuff. but they can request you open your bag so they can see inside, or ask the bag owner to take things out of it so they can see what they have in there.

NSW Fair Trading

Bag checks are often carried out by retailers in an attempt to control theft. In fact, if they choose to, retailers can make bag checking a condition of entry to their shops. A set of principles called the Bagcheck guidelines have been developed which shoppers need to know.

[i-once-was-bump]

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@boris1gary wrote:

and theres the rub. a lot of posts on all these forums proclaim they want to support australian jobs and australian made. unless of course it costs them a little more.

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boris most of my shopping choices have to be ruled by cost.

I don't like it but that is the situation I am in now and can't see it changing anytime soon.

Also there are not a lot of Australian made goods out there to buy to support Australia jobs.

When it comes to clothes, the only clothes that seem to be made in Australia and very, very expensive designer clothing and I don't have anywhere to wear such clothes even if I could afford to buy them.

[boris1gary]

Apologies bump, I should have worded the original post a little better, I do understand that some people shop at aldi for financial reasons and I didn't mean to offend those people. Your right about clothes, there are very few made here these days or much else either.

[icyfroth]

Update -

Big W joins Aldi in ditching 'racist' T-shirts

A second supermarket giant has ditched a line of Australia Day T-shirts with an identical slogan to the "racist" shirts Aldi has agreed to abandon.

Big W has confirmed that it has taken two styles of shirts with the words "Australia Est. 1788" off their racks this morning.

A spokeswoman said the department store would not be commenting further on its decision to ditch the shirts and that the reason for the move should be obvious.

"We've removed the shirts from sale this morning," she said.

Have you seen other Australia Day garments with the same or similar slogan? Let us know by emailing news.feedback@ninemsn.com.au.

Big W's decision comes after Aldi yesterday announced it would remove its range of T-shirts and singlets following claims they were racist and a torrent of backlash on social media.

[darksideofthemoon]

There are so many countries that the Brits overran, I'm not sure all of them 'celebrate' their landing days...  Then do the Portuguese celebrate their landing in the USA??

I think we are past celebrating the day the Brits landed in Australia.

Surely we could celebrate National Australia Day?  That would include everyone and so much more up to date.

[**meep**]

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@darksideofthemoon wrote:

There are so many countries that the Brits overran, I'm not sure all of them 'celebrate' their landing days...  Then do the Portuguese celebrate their landing in the USA??

I think we are past celebrating the day the Brits landed in Australia.

Surely we could celebrate National Australia Day?  That would include everyone and so much more up to date.

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?????

Isn't that what Australia Day is? 

[*crikey*mate*]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

Well, Australia was not estabalished in 1788.  Is this the only shirt objected to?  If so, I agree with the objections.

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When was it named Australia?

What is actually the reason for Australia Day being celebrated?

[*crikey*mate*]

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@**meep** wrote:

Every Country has a 'National Day'.

What date do you propose for Australia?

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When Australia Day was established, the real origins of this Island were not recognized. The world was still under the belief that at the time of arrival, Terra Nullius was true. It was only in the 17th or 18th century that Australia became known as Australia, as a result of Latin translations.

Australia Day is about when the First Fleet arrived here. That was in 1788. That, prior to Mabo, was when Australia, as we know it, came into existence.

So, if we wish to disassociate the meaning of what Australia Day represents, then a different day needs to be chosen as our National Day.

I am happy to volunteer the date of my birthday. I would like a public holiday on my birthday.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@am*3 wrote:

Kudos to Aldi for withdrawing the T-shirt design objected to, from sale.

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I agree, but technically, the t shirts were correct. That is when Australia, was established. Before this time, it wasn't Australia, but a very different place which the First Fleet illegally displaced and then took control. That's when Australia was established, but I do not understand why, with what we now know, it would be cause for any kind of celebration.

The t shirts weren't racist. They were just dismissive of this country's origins prior to it becoming Australia.

[freakiness]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

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@am*3 wrote:

Kudos to Aldi for withdrawing the T-shirt design objected to, from sale.

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I agree, but technically, the t shirts were correct. That is when Australia, was established. Before this time, it wasn't Australia, but a very different place which the First Fleet illegally displaced and then took control. That's when Australia was established, but I do not understand why, with what we now know, it would be cause for any kind of celebration.

The t shirts weren't racist. They were just dismissive of this country's origins prior to it becoming Australia.

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NSW was established in 1788, not Australia.