NSW Labor has proposed axing the Queen's Birthday holiday in June and replacing it with a day commemorating Indigenous culture and loss as an alternative to moving Australia Day, which critics say is synonymous with white invasion.
Debate on the appropriateness of holding Australia Day on January 26, the day British ships first arrived in Port Jackson, was sparked by two Melbourne councils who announced they will decline to observe the day with official citizenship ceremonies.
But the NSW Opposition Leader, Luke Foley, said he believed the national day was "set in stone" but that as a compromise the June Queen's Birthday holiday should be transformed to commemorate Indigenous culture.
"I'm not in the business of re-writing history but there needs to be a completeness in telling our history," he said, in an interview with Sydney radio station 2GB. "The Queen was born in April yet for some reason we celebrate her birthday in June.
"Whether it's now or after her majesty passes away it got me thinking whether that public holiday would be the best occasion for celebrating 40,000-plus years of Indigenous history."
The move by the Melbourne councils has sparked intense debate about the degree of recognition of Australian Indigenous history generally and the appropriateness of the current national holiday.
The move comes just weeks after Labor's state conference voted in favour of adding a holiday to the calendar that would allow the nation to reflect on the "tragic cost" to Indigenous people that followed the arrival of the First Fleet in 1778.
Linda Burney, the Labor frontbencher and the first Indigenous woman elected to NSW parliament in 2007, told the conference for many January 26 was considered "invasion day" or "survival day".
But Ms Burney has said she does not believe Australia Day should shift and has noted Australia has done more to include Indigenous recognition in its celebrations.
Mr Foley has put a dampener on the assumption that Labor's platform change would result in an extra day off in NSW, which has only 11 state-mandated public holidays compared to Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory had 13.
Mr Foley joked that the easiest policy for a politician to sell was an additional day off but that he was mindful of the additional costs borne by businesses in the state.
