Oz day 'T' shirt controversy

A number of chain stores/supermarkets are voluntarily withdrawing a line of Australia Day Ts from sale, following complaints about latent racist under-tones in some of the logos. Basically, an allusion to 1788 as being the establishment date of Oz is disputed, rightly, because the country had clearly been occupied for +/- 50,000 years before that. The implication being that European colonization is intended to be seen as paramount in Australia Day celebrations and, that might be some kind of throw-back to the now totally discredited White-Australia policy of yesteryear(?)

I personally think it's an over-reaction to a slight mistake made due to an apparent lack of prior research by the manufacturers (in all probability of overseas origin themselves?). What IS mildly  interesting to me, is the fact that these T shirt logos were apparently approved by none other than the office of the prime minister, which is now ducking for cover by saying that they are only required to ensure that proposed use of the FLAG does not alter the flag's design or details in any way. They are not required or authorised to vet accompanying slogans.

HULLO! What happened to good old common sense? Were alarm bells not triggered by the obvious potential for widespread misinterpretation of the words ... or, did they think they were compatible with government policy?