Greens Throw Support Behind Calls To Change Hottest 100 Date

Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam has thrown his support behind the call for triple j to move its annual Hottest 100 countdown away from its traditional home on 26 January, aka Australia Day, aka Invasion Day or Survival Day, saying it would be a "great move".

"It opens up the conversation about the hurt caused by celebrating our national day on a day of such sadness for many," he told The Music, "and makes the Hottest 100 a more inclusive event, not least for the growing number of Aboriginal musicians getting airtime on triple j."      

The renewed discourse over when to hold the yearly countdown — and, in a broader context, "Australia Day" itself — blew up this morning after Pedestrian.TV didn't just poke the hornet's nest but outright caved it in with a story citing "multiple well placed sources" claiming that station management and staff are in "serious talks" about the possibility of moving away from 26 January. 

While we all await an impending statement from triple j (expected later today) [UPDATE: it's here], furious debate has reignited online between traditionalists and progressives over the appropriateness of the day as a cause for celebration, with some remaining totally unfazed, while others — including Ludlam and the Greens — take issue on account of all the physical, emotional and mental suffering inflicted against Indigenous people by white Australia following British arrival in 1788.

"It's a day that inflicts huge pain on the First Peoples, and is the opposite of inclusive," the senator said. 

"Every year, calls become louder to respect those for whom January 26 represents a tragedy, not a celebration, and to seek a more appropriate date to mark national unity and diversity."

The "change the date" campaign, in the Hottest 100 context, has been picking up steam for some time now; petitions and incentives have sprung up in support in recent months — the former is just under halfway to its projected goal of 5000 signatures and the latter comprises a free Falls Festival ticket for anyone who can convince the station to move the countdown — though wider debate about the day extends even further, encapsulated nicely in a heartfelt post by The Presets earlier this year, when they explained their abstinence from celebrating the day. 

Additionally, A.B. Original's infectious invective January 26 has been racking up airplay on the station, the grand irony of any future Hottest 100 success that track might yield for its co-creator Briggs — "If we get caught celebrating anything on that day we'd be disowned," the acclaimed rapper told Fairfax — probably totally lost on people who love hearing the track as well as refusing to hear the Indigenous standpoint on the issue.

The petition — started by 24-year-old Grace Wells and 23-year-old Luke Cripps, both of Hobart — says that triple j "is capable of using their broadcast to make a statement of solidarity with the experience of those whose countries were colonised", and that changing the date of the Hottest 100 would "send a message to First Nations' Peoples that they, and their experiences, are valued and respected by other Australians".

Indeed, the day's lack of inclusivity would be a key sticking point among triple j's young, socially aware audience — and, Ludlam says, the station likely knows it.

"The Hottest 100 on Triple J has always been primarily about the most loved music of the previous year, but the station is also where generations of young Australians have accessed their news and current affairs, and served as a conversation space for young Australians," he continued. 

Importantly, Ludlam says, such a move would not necessarily set a precedent of the ABC, as a publicly funded broadcaster, 'bowing to public pressure' on contentious issues.

Head this way if you want to sign the change.org petition to request that triple j change the date of the Hottest 100.