Petition Launched To Make 'Untouched' Australia's National Anthem

There have been many calls over the years to change Australia's national anthem to make it more inclusive to Indigenous people.

'Advance Australia Fair' has been our war cry for decades and it's only just been slightly updated after years of campaigning.

However, one woman is seeking to get the entire track thrown in the bin and replaced by a banger.

Ella Walden has launched a Change.org petition to make 'Untouched' by The Veronicas our official national anthem.

Writing on the online campaign, the Aussie believes while 'Advance Australia Fair' is perfectly fine, 'a lot of the lyrics either don't make sense in the context of them being sung or are outdated'.

She took particular issue with words like 'girt' and 'toil', which she reckons doesn't really gel with a modern Australia.

"This anthem has very little rhythm and is only to be sung respectfully," she said. This form of singing is incredibly outdated."

In setting out her reasons for The Veronicas' 2007 hit to be slotted into our national song, Ella explained that it much better reflected 'Australia's rave-like culture'.

"I have proposed a much greater song that represents Australia in a better way, that everyone likes and is inclusive to all Australians, as well as making other countries jealous of our incredible national anthem," she wrote.

She believes 'Untouched' 'is a perfect song to represent 'all of Australia' because, according to 'studies done by me', a whopping 100 per cent of people in the country love it.

"Not only does it represent Australia's hard partying style, it was written by 2 people who were born in Australia, automatically making it a much more fitting anthem," she said.

The petition hasn't received a lot of love since it was launched, however Ella is hoping it can attract enough attention to enact change. The Veronicas have been told about the petition and admit it would be a cool idea.

The duo was asked by Hit Queensland's Cliffo and Gabi this week, and Lisa said: "We didn't even hear about it so you have to get the word out there babe."

Jessica added: "We can give it a signal boost for sure. Someone needs to send it to us!"

At the beginning of this year, Australia's national anthem was altered to make it more inclusive.

The song's first line, which used to go, 'Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free', has been changed to, 'Australians all let us rejoice, for we are one and free."

It helps to acknowledge that Australia isn't actually that young and First Nations Australians lived for tens of thousands of years before European colonisation.

Featured Image Credit: The Veronicas

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie