A senior Labor politician has promised to not change the date of Australia Day, as the culture war sparring hit a crescendo two days out from the national holiday.

It comes as polling by research company Resolve Strategic for The Age/Sydney Morning Herald found just 24 per cent of people surveyed wanted to change the date, as opposed to 61 per cent who wanted to keep the country's national day on January 26.

Appearing on Sunrise, Education Minister Jason Clare accused opposition leader Peter Dutton of using rhetoric around January 26 as a political distraction, after Mr Dutton promised to legislate the day if the Coalition wins government this year.

"The date's not changing … we have the same fake fight every year," he said.

"We're the best country in the world. Australia Day is a great opportunity to celebrate."

This, despite former Treaty Advancement Commissioner Aunty Jill Gallagher AO telling reporters in Collingwood this week the date needed to change from January 26.

"We want to celebrate with you, but we can't celebrate on that date," Dr Gallagher said.

The Coalition, in response to some councils - some of whom have now backtracked on their decision - holding citizenship ceremonies on either side of January 26 after a Labor directive, said they will legislate the date, forcing councils to hold ceremonies on Australia Day proper.

Mr Clare pointed out the National Employment Standards deemed January 26 a public holiday, meaning legislation was unnecessary.

"It's already in employment law … that's why I'm saying this is a fake fight to distract from the mess of Peter Dutton's crazy policies," he said.

Conversations around January 26 routinely mirror political lines, with Mr Dutton's position on a number of Aboriginal issues - including when he walked out of Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generations in 2008 - causing consternation.

Last month, Dr Gallagher said Mr Dutton was using Indigenous people as a culture war smokescreen when he argued he would not stand in front of the Aboriginal flag if he was elected Prime Minister.

Labor have tried to walk the line between, with conservative media arguing they are beholden to the Greens, whilst many Indigenous organisations have said the Albanese government has not done enough in the 15 months after the failed Voice referendum.

Whilst polling has indicated more people don't want the date to change with some polling companies pointing to a change of attitudes after the Voice referendum failure in late 2023, a petition, launched by Naarm-based Clothing the Gap, calling for the date to change, has garnered more than 26,000 signatures.

January 26, which marks the date European settlers arrived in Australia as part of the First Fleet in 1788, has only been legislated as an official national holiday since 1994.

Writing in Guardian Australia on Thursday, Arrernte woman Celeste Liddle said she could remember a time before January 26 was a national holiday but couldn't remember a time when the date "has not been a day for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protest".

In 1938, the first 'Day of Mourning' was held in Sydney, with Aboriginal people protesting in funeral garb to Australian Hall, before passing a resolution which called for recognition and equality.

"This is why every time I hear conservative and/or reactionary white people crying out that Aboriginal people are trying to ruin this country and 'change the date', I wonder where they have been," Ms Liddle wrote.

"For what it's worth, 'change the date' has little to nothing to do with why we march on 26 January. Indeed, the fact that much of the 'Day of Mourning's' resolution remains relevant and unfulfilled, nearly 90 years down the track, is more indicative of the driving reason."

Yorta Yorta Shepparton Aboriginal Working Group, chair, Neil Morris said the Yorta Yorta community will honour the 'Day of Mourning' on Sunday.

"Some of us are for Abolishing Australia Day and would prefer we reform how we celebrate in this country and work towards events that could achieve that, whilst others are open to moving firstly to a Changing the Date process," he said.

"But what we are clear and unified on collectively is that as our Ancestors first did in 1938 on Gadigal lands is that this day is for us a Day of Mourning colonial impacts here and broadly for all Indigenous peoples on this continent."

Mr Morris added it was "profoundly painful" to have the feelings of disenfranchisement disregarded every year by people who just wanted to hold a celebration.

"This mindset is both dismissive and deeply unjust," he said.

"We'll continue to ask Australians to change the date so we can embrace a genuine day of unity—a day that brings everyone together, where no one feels excluded or unwelcome."