Analysis Of Dick Smith's Truth Of Australian Day

In this opinion piece published in the Sunday Herald Sun on the 35th of January 2015, the writer, Dick Smith emotional expresses and exerts the “truth” of Australia Day, suggesting it should be named First Fleet Day contrastingly. Throughout the article Smith strongly expresses his stance on the issue, and attempts to persuade the reader by noting how this day of celebration traditionally makes Aboriginals feel. Smith’s tone is ever changing during the duration of the piece, changing to a more emotive and respectful tone when talking about the Aboriginals and what they have done to “nurture and sustain” our country. As Smith changes arguments as does his tone, when establishing his clear and coherent viewpoint, his tone is very forthright and

Smith continues his pattern of strong emotive language whilst depicting the poor and inhumane treatment of the Aboriginals and how in accordance to the newly aquatinted British laws and customs, they were “for the most part, invisible and discounted”. Statements such as these are used to position the reader to feel sympathy towards the Aboriginals as they come to terms with the full extend of the hardship and discord faced by them. Moreover, adding to the understanding of how tirelessly throughout history and continuing today, they have fought to obtain rights equal to those of a white Australian. Smith then continues by appealing to the readers sense of sustainability. By recounting how the Aboriginals “nurtured” and “preserved” Australia and how the life of modern Australian isn’t sustainable, and how we, should seek guidance and assistance from the Aboriginals. The Aboriginals established and maintained a “rich” and “remarkable” culture, although now our “finite world” expanding exponential, will not survive. This strongly positions the reader by as mentioned, appealing to their sense of sustainability and future, it prospers a sense of fear in a way by predicting the future we may be predisposed to have, due to our current behaviour

Smith establishes his self as a point of authority by included that he was the Chair of National Centenary of Federation council. This creates a image of authority and expertise, positioning the reader to respect Smith as someone who has both campaigned for this change, and, has a respectable position within our paramilitary system. Correspondingly, Smith advocate the date change by making the reader feel as if they can be apart of the solution, by included mass amounts of inclusive language. Words like “us” “we” “our” are repeated throughout the entire paragraph to create a sense of inclusion within the readers, this acts to unify readers to partake in the solution - that evidently being to change the date. To conclude, Smith include a poll at the to show the reader the popular opinion on the issue. This inclusion of statistics is no accident as it positions the reader to see how the rest of their country feels towards the issue. By included the polls, it forces the reader to come to terms with how popular deacons the is. This inadvertently instills an idea of popularity and agreeing with the masses in the reader to finally gauge their agreement on the