Opposition Leader hits out at no anthem on Australia Day cricket

Updated July 15, 2026 — 2:01pm,first published 12:24pm

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Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has accused Cricket Australia of “woke moralising” following confusion about whether the national anthem would be played at the first Australia Day cricket match in years.

Taylor’s push into the cultural conversation comes as his ailing party opens the door to gender quotas after years of internal opposition to forcing the selection of women candidates.

Cricket was not played on Australia Day in 2025 or this year. In 2021, Cricket Australia stopped using the term “Australia Day” at matches, prompting then-prime minister Scott Morrison to suggest Cricket Australia stick to cricket and stay out of politics.

But after years of polls showing diminished public appetite to change the date, the sport’s governing body has decided to schedule the Big Bash League final on January 26, 2027.

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Cricket Australia has not stated if the anthem will be played on the national day.

Taylor took to social media to criticise Cricket Australia, saying its “decision not to play our national anthem is yet more tone-deaf woke moralising”.

“Yes, our past is not perfect. But our nation’s achievements far outweigh the wrongdoings, and our nation is worth celebrating,” he wrote.

“Instead of kowtowing to activists who want to make Australians feel guilty about our past and ashamed of our nation, Cricket Australia should proudly play our national anthem at the Big Bash final, reflecting the views of the overwhelming majority of Australians – and cricket fans – who love our country and feel profound gratitude for being Australian.”

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Hours after Taylor’s statement, Cricket Australia called out “inaccurate reporting and commentary”.

“It is incorrect to say the national anthem is being specifically excluded,” it said. “We play the national anthem at international matches, but do not usually do so at domestic matches, including the BBL final.”

“As stated during our BBL schedule launch, decisions about on-field ceremonies and other formalities on Australia Day will be made closer to the game and in association with the relevant clubs and stakeholders.”

The Coalition leader has been struggling in the polls as he competes for attention from cultural conservatives who have flocked to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. Taylor has also called out the frequency of Welcome to Country ceremonies and acknowledgements of country, vowed to change gender identity laws and outlined a hardline stance on migration that has been questioned by his internal critics.

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Australia’s most prominent Indigenous cricketer, fast bowler Jason Gillespie, has advocated for changing Australia’s national day from the one marking the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788.

Big Bash League executive Alistair Dobson told News Corp that the January 26 match had been chosen due to its status as the national day and because it was the day after the conclusion of Australia’s first Test in a tour of India.

“We understand that day means different things to different people. We fully recognise that and we will work with the home club and an advisory group around First Nations issues,” he said.

Indigenous former Labor senator Nova Peris, who has advocated for conservative causes in recent years, said this week that there was “no reason why the Australian flag, the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Island flag could not fly together or why they could not have a minute’s silence to acknowledge the fallen and then go on and sing the national anthem.”

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Appearing on ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday for the first time since he said the rival party’s policies would lead to “an eternity of pain”, Taylor was asked four times if he would categorically reject the possibility of forming government with One Nation.

Initially insisting that the Coalition had “absolutely no plan for a deal with One Nation to form government”, Taylor was asked again: “Doesn’t leaving it unruled-out, leave it on the table?”

“I’m ruling it out,” Taylor replied. “There’s no plan.”

“The reason is simple: that they would, One Nation would, as a government, leave us with an eternity of pain, and they have a grab bag of policies where even a small subset of them would take this country into a fiscal crisis.”

Taylor also came under pressure on Wednesday to explain frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s resharing of a post from a controversial podcaster who argues that Labor preferences migration from India to grow its voting bloc.

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Earlier on Wednesday, the Liberal Party released a discussion paper outlining options for party reform to revive the ailing institution.

Led by senator James McGrath, it painted a grim picture of the state of the party and its volunteer and fundraising network, revealing that more than 55 per cent of its shrinking membership was over 60. Of the cohort between 16-30, about 70 per cent were men.

The paper, designed to open a debate about reform options, did not argue for or against gender quotas but raised the merits of such a policy. It presents options including open primaries or “community preselection” where non-party members could vote, bonus weighting provided to female preselection candidates, requiring a minimum number of women stand in preselection contests, interventions to manage the outcomes of preselections, or quotas.

“Centre-right political parties have also employed quotas. Germany’s CDU, for example, has a gender quota which requires that 30 per cent of all party positions (including elected offices, leadership roles, and appointments) be held by women by 2025,” the paper said, while also outlining the common view that quotas may undermine merit-based selections.

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Paul Sakkal is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X or email.

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