I'm not so sure that it's that flippant or superficial. Green and gold are our international colours, and wattle is on our national coat of arms.

And I'm not sure it would require sustained energy and effort for it to develop into a meaningful celebration. I'm pretty sure a non-divisive celebration of us, together, as a nation, a community would go down a treat no matter what date. Citizenship ceremonies, multicultural parades, picnics, concerts - all would transfer easily.

With little chance of a fire ban we'd be OK with fireworks and barbecues. And I couldn't think of a nicer day to hold a barbecue than the first day of Spring, when the temperature would be more likely to be 25 degrees than 35.

Kim Huynh's "Let's choose a new and better date" (January 20, p17) canvases some possible alternative days on which to celebrate Australia Day.

There is, however, another option: No national day.

National days are not compulsory. I believe our current head of state lives in a country without one. There could still be, for example, a citizenship day for citizenship ceremonies and Wattle Day (September 1) may be the appropriate day for this. However, until Australia reaches a level of maturity whereby it meaningfully acknowledges its First People and genuinely comes together as an integrated nation, there is really no mutually agreed "national day" to celebrate.

In the meantime, January 26 can remain a public holiday but should revert to its former name, "Foundation Day", as that long past disembarkation at Sydney Cove is what non-indigenous Australia is really commemorating on January 26.

In my experience, anyone starting an argument with "the truth is ..." invariably does so without offering any justification, and in the hope that others will just accept what is simply an opinion!

Kim Huynh (January 20, "Lets choose a better date") is guilty of that. His argument rests solely on his own assertion that the 26th January is not an appropriate date to celebrate, and he then goes on to consider alternative dates, but ultimately failing because even he cannot identify a more suitable date.

Perhaps Mr Huynh should just consider the fact that January 26 marks the commencement of settlement of this continent by the British and that no other event in the last 80,000 years or so has so shaped the Australia we live in today. Denying history doesn't change it - this nation is what is today because of British settlement - it drives every aspect of our daily lives. No other date is as relevant.

Sure - lets acknowledge past mistakes and ensure every citizen gets an equal opportunity to benefit from our society, but Mr Huynh (and others who raise this annually!) should perhaps accept the reality of that event in history that brought us to where we are today, and join the majority of us celebrating our nation.

Ray Goodlass makes a convincing case in defence of the "greenies" who are being blamed by some commentators for the extreme destructiveness of the bushfires that have been raging since September last year ("Hazard-reduction conspiracy theories must be rejected", Sunday Focus, January 19, p15).

As Mr Goodlass points out, the main reason for less-than-ideal hazard-reduction burning is the exceptionally hot, dry weather that has affected eastern Australia for many months.

This has drastically reduced the 'time window' for the safe burning of tinder dry forest-floor vegetation and plant debris.

If we must find someone or something to blame, I suggest that we need look no further than the politicians who persist with bolstering a fossil fuel industry, which may well have passed its use-by date, with billions of dollars of subsidies each year.

Without generous subsidies, the coal industry, in particular, would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to compete with renewable energy.

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