Rapper and poet Omar Musa refused the Queanbeyan City Council's request for him to be an Australia Day ambassador because he said January 26 represented a date that had increasingly become the focal point of the country's culture wars.

''I am not against the idea of a national day per se, but I think it's glaringly obvious that this particular date is so disrespectful towards Aboriginal people, it's an exclusionary day,'' he said.

Musa, who has lived in Melbourne for the past year, said, ''I want to make it clear I have nothing against the Queanbeyan City Council and I am completely up for supporting my home town in any capacity, but I just feel that with my stance on this I could not with good conscience appear as an ambassador.''

A spokesman for the Queanbeyan City Council confirmed Musa had been asked to be an ambassador and had declined. He could not comment on Musa's decision.

Musa won the Australian Poetry Slam in 2008 after winning the Canberra Poetry Slam. He released his debut album World Goes to Pieces in 2010 and supported American soul and jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron on his German tour early last year.

Musa performed his popular work My Generation when he appeared on the panel of the ABC discussion program Q & A last year and is working on new album and his first novel, based around Queanbeyan.

He said he was not surprised at the fracas on Australia Day when Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott were bundled out of a restaurant by security police after Aboriginal protesters surrounded the building.

''I think it's just a sign of how high tempers are, how tense this day is becoming,'' he said.

''I've noticed over the last 10 years that feelings are becoming more and more inflamed every year.

''The arguments are becoming very vitriolic and poisonous on Twitter, Facebook and in the public arena.

''You are probably never going to find a date for a national day that everyone will agree on, and is inclusive of everyone, but I think Aboriginal people feel so excluded and disrespected that it's pretty obvious that it shouldn't be this date, something that has come to symbolise dispossession of Aboriginal people.''

As January 26 commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 and the proclamation of British sovereignty, Aboriginal leaders have asked for the date to be changed.

''I think Australia Day has become the focal point for a lot of these culture wars and almost rightly so, because there are so many questions about it,'' Musa said.

''What is the nature of Australian identity, what characterises the Australian people, what happened in the past and how should it be recognised or analysed, it seems to be becoming more and more heated.

''It's become a day that commemorates the dispossession of the original people of Australia but I think most people have forgotten that and now it's just a big piss up and a brawl.

'' I read some statistics that there is the highest rate of violent assaults of any day in Australia, it's got to the point where people feel a bit scared go to out and about.

''I think that is a pretty shoddy state of affairs, definitely not a day we should feel proud of if that's what it means and signifies and that's the way people behave.''

Musa said politicians on both sides had become detached from the grassroots sentiments.

''It doesn't feel as though either of the political parties stand for anything, and if they do try and pretend they are listening to the people it's always some dreary jingoistic insecure nationalism,'' he said.

Poet Rejected Australia Day Ambassador Offer