The Prime Minister has reignited the debate around Australia Day by moving to make it mandatory all councils hold a citizenship ceremony on the 26th of January.

It’s in response to three councils saying they won’t hold a ceremony on that day, as a political statement.

If a council doesn’t hold its ceremony on January 26, they could lose their right to hold them at all.

The Australian Local Government Association says most other councils already hold a ceremony and if they don’t it’s usually because it’s too expensive.

President David O’Loughlin tells the Weekend Edition there was no consultation with the government before this decision was made.

“I don’t know why there’s zero consultation. There’s been plenty of time since this issue came up, probably 12 months, in fact, more than that.

“They’ve already stripped the right from those three councils, which they can do.

“Let’s face it here, this is a Commonwealth responsibility, that delegate down to council and councils out of good faith choose to do it.”

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