Sussan Ley's analogy comparing the arrival of the First Fleet to Australia with Elon Musk's efforts to get to Mars was "strange" and disrespectful to Indigenous people, the prime minister says.

The deputy Liberal leader delivered an Australia Day message at a local church service on Sunday, where she said: "In what could be compared to Elon Musk's SpaceX's efforts to build a new colony on Mars, men in boats arrived on the edge of the known world to embark on that new experiment."

Ms Ley added that like astronauts arriving on Mars, the first British settlers would be confronted with "a different and strange world, full of danger, adventure and potential".

The Liberal deputy was seeking to illustrate how "daring" the British expedition was for its time, and counter the "Invasion Day" narrative saying while the colonial story was not "perfect", it had been distinct from "the imperial impulse to extract wealth and rule through naked violence".

But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was the wrong analogy.

"I thought when someone said that to me yesterday they were making it up," Mr Albanese said.

"This is the second most senior person in the Coalition — the deputy leader of the Coalition has suggested that there is an analogy here. Well, there weren't people — there aren't people that we know of in Mars.

"Australia was not terra nullius when Captain Phillip and the First Fleet came through Sydney Cove. And I thought that was a very strange analogy to draw, and one that was disrespectful of the fact that there were people here."

A spokesman for Ms Ley said it was "not surprising to see Anthony Albanese lacks the imagination to understand the significance of Australia's founding story".

"This is the problem when you have a prime minister who was an activist at university instead of a student — he may see Australia's founding as an invasion story, but I do not," the spokesman said.

Ms Ley is not the first to draw comparisons between colonial-era expeditions and space exploration.

The United States space agency NASA named a shuttle in honour of Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour, and in 2023 astronauts compared their mission on Space Shuttle Endeavour with its namesake, discussing how both contended with problems and discoveries.

Ms Ley's spokesman said it was evident from this weekend that support for Australia Day was clear and Australians should be proud of its history.

Over the weekend Opposition Leader Peter Dutton stated his intention to restore pride in Australia Day, saying if he is elected "the days of being ashamed of Australia Day in our country are over".

The Coalition's Indigenous Health Services spokeswoman Kerynne Liddle told ABC Radio National she was tired of people pointing the finger at colonisation.

"I get very tired of the ongoing conversation about blaming colonisation for everything," Senator Liddle said.

"When I knock on doors of people who are desperate, who need help, they don't say, 'Can you talk about colonisation?' To me, they don't say, 'Can you fix up everything since 1788.' What they say to me is, 'Can you fix my home? Can you improve my health? Can you improve education standards for my children?'

"I'm talking about where we are today, where we want to be tomorrow, not looking back."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-27/abanese-sussan-ley-elon-musk-analogy-disrespectful/104862906

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE SINS OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

SEE ALSO: