Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sparked renewed public debate about Australia Day, after suggesting a day in July to mark the country’s 60,000 years of indigenous history.

During an appearance on Nine’s Today show on Tuesday, Mr Morrison proposed assigning a day during National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Week, in July, to acknowledge indigenous history.

“I’m sure there’ll be many other suggestions,” Mr Morrison said, adding that he wanted to gauge the opinion and ideas of Indigenous Australians before possibly establishing a date.

Mr Morrison said he wanted to canvass public opinion about creating a new national day to recognise indigenous people, as he fights off fierce opposition to Australia Day.

He said Australians should veer away from the kind of “self indulgent loathing” that Byron Shire Council exhibited in its efforts to move its official Australia Day ceremony to January 25.

The NSW council was stripped of its right to hold citizenship ceremonies after refusing to hold them on the January 26. It will still hold some council events on the day of the national holiday.

Labor supports Australia Day staying on 26th Jan, although we understand it’s a difficult day for many Australians. We are disappointed the Prime Minister has chosen to float such a significant idea like this through the media with zero consultation. It’s disrespectful.

— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) September 24, 2018

Mr Morrison said he thought Australia Day should continue to be celebrated on January 26.

“I want to bring Australians together around this day,” he said. “That’s why I have said I’m very open to the idea of having a national day where we can particularly focus on the achievements and success of our indigenous people in a very positive way.

“You don’t have to bring one down to raise another up,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Morrison wrote on Facebook that the “modern Australian nation” began on January 26, 1788. That was the day to reflect on what the nation had accomplished, become, and still had to achieve.

He said Australians could not simply pretend that the “day the ships turned up” and “the day … this country moved into the most recent, modern form of our history” was “some other day”.

“That is the day it happened, and that is the day where we have to deal with everything and we have to embrace it all, warts and all, and accept our successes and acknowledge where we haven’t done so well,” Mr Morrison told Today.

But Byron mayor Simon Richardson said Australia Day caused pain to some in the community.

“Is it true mateship to willingly, wilfully and continually to celebrate what rightfully is great to be an Australian on a day that some Australians are pained by?” the Greens mayor told 3AW on Monday.

Meanwhile, deputy Nationals leader Bridget McKenzie was also under fire on Tuesday for suggesting January 26 marked the day Captain James Cook landed in Sydney.

“That is when the course of our nation changed forever. When Captain Cook stepped ashore,” Senator McKenzie told Sky News on Tuesday.

“From then on, we’ve built an incredibly successful society, best multicultural society in the world.”

In fact, January 26 marks the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, which was commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip. Captain Cook had been dead for nine years by then.

The British explorer and navigator first set foot in Botany Bay on April 29, 1770, about 18 years before the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove.

But Senator McKenzie isn’t alone in the misconception.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young earlier this year sent out a statement attacking the government for funding a Captain Cook monument.

“Despite an important national debate about changing the date of Australia Day away from Captain Cook’s landing at Botany Bay, the government has decided to spend taxpayer money it is stripping from the ABC on yet another monument to Captain Cook on the land of the Dharawal people,” her statement read.

A spokeswoman later said the senator had not read the statement before it was sent out.

Australia Day has been held on various dates throughout the 20th century. In 1994 it was celebrated as a national holiday for the first time.

-with AAP