Briggs Blasts Turnbull Over Comments About Yarra Council's Aus Day Decision

Briggs has taken aim at Malcolm Turnbull after the Prime Minister rejected Yarra Council's decision to stop recognising Australia Day on 26 January as "utterly out of step with Australian values".

Speaking to The Age, the Aussie hip hop artist said Turnbull's comments were divisive. 

"Because this day marks the beginning of oppression and dispossession and disempowerment of 500-odd sovereign nations," Briggs said.

"When Indigenous Australians are telling him that 'This is divisive', you don't get to say 'no it's not'.

"He tried to concede that the history of European settlement has been 'complex', that's just a pretty way of saying there was a lot of massacres."

Briggs has been hugely vocal about the date of Australia Day needing to be changed. Last year, he and fellow rapper Trials (as AB Original) released protest song January 26 which came in at #16 on triple j's Hottest 100 this year.

"It's a no-brainer, man," Briggs said.

"We can't celebrate on that day. I've said it before, it's so disrespectful. You can't not acknowledge that that day is problematic for the nation."

Briggs concluded that "[Turnbull should] show some real acknowledgment, show some real leadership and stop being a coward."