Identity politics shames all of us
ITHOUGHT the job of the National Rugby League was just to help people play sport. But no. Under chairman Peter Beattie, former Labor premier of Queensland, the NRL is playing politics instead.
Worse, it’s playing the dumbest and most divisive politics today – the identity politics that the Morrison Government now wants to inflict on us all.
Beattie has already backed gay activists, telling superstar Israel Folau he’s not welcome to play in the NRL after quoting what the Bible said would happen to gays when they die.
Then, Beattie said his NRL was “supportive” of race activists on its teams who refused to sing our national anthem, and – get this – that “we try to be inclusive”.
What a hypocrite. Is Folau included?
But now Beattie has made his biggest political play – totally unrelated to the sport he’s meant to administer – by releasing a video committing the NRL to the Uluru statement.
As his video explains, that
statement is a call by Aboriginal activists two years ago for a “First Nations voice in the constitution”.
Let me put that more accurately. The Uluru statement is actually a plan to smuggle apartheid into Australia’s constitution, by creating an Aboriginal-only parliament to advise the real one that represents us all.
Could Beattie please explain why this is any of the NRL’s business? Isn’t the NRL there to run a sport, not wreck the nation?
But something about identity politics makes even smart people forget what their job really is.
See how Qantas, an airline, branched out to run a samesex marriage campaign.
Or look at the latest madness from the Queensland Government, which scrapped its Mining Safety and Health Advisory Committee for not having enough women.
Be clear about this idiocy: this committee was scrapped not for failing to give good advice on keeping miners alive, but because only one of the committee members giving that advice wore a skirt.
“You have to make sure gender representation is respected,” blathered Queensland Mines Minister Anthony Lynham.
So for four months this committee did not meet, during which more Queensland miners died. Unbelievable.
But speaking of idiocy, can anyone go past what the Morrison Government’s new Indigenous Affairs Minister, Ken Wyatt, said yesterday?
Australia had to change its constitution, Wyatt brightly announced.
He would work to give us this Aboriginal-only advisory parliament – the one demanded by the NRL – because Aborigines around Australia were saying “we need a voice so that we can be heard”.
To hear Wyatt say we must finally give Aborigines a voice in politics requires a suspension of eyesight.
You see, Wyatt himself identifies as Aboriginal. What’s more, he’s a politician, and around him in our national parliament are four other politicians who identify as Aboriginal, plus others who got there with the help of Aboriginal voters.
Wyatt even comes from a state whose Treasurer identifies as Aboriginal.
Is Wyatt not walking and talking evidence that Aborigines already have that voice in politics? That voice is called a vote, and every Australian adult has one.
So don’t be fooled. What Wyatt and – it seems – his boss, Prime Minister Scott Morrison want is more than just a “voice” for Aborigines.
They want an Aboriginalonly parliament that will inevitably give Aborigines more formal political say than any other tribe in the country – Chinese, Muslim, Jewish, Italian, Greek, Sudanese or Sikh.
Under Wyatt’s plan, this Aboriginal Parliament would discuss legislation that affects Aborigines, but which legislation doesn’t?
Aren’t Aborigines also Australians, affected by everything from defence policies to tax?
And watch out: such an “advisory” parliament is likely to develop an effective veto power over the real one.
Until this Aboriginal parliament is consulted, could legislation be passed by the real parliament?
Then will come the backlash.
When one “race” of Australians gets handed more power over the rest, other Australians will identify with their own “race” or ethnicity, to defend their interests.
Such race politics is a highway to hell, just when this fractured country needs to limp back to unity instead.
Surely our best hopes lie in judging Australians not by their “race”, colour, class, birthplace or gender, but by their character and talents.
So who cares if a mine safety expert is a woman or a man?
Who cares if a rugby superstar is a Christian or a gay?
Who cares if someone in parliament has Aboriginal ancestors or none?
Ask instead whether they’re doing a good job. Or whether they’ve gone mad with identity politics – and power. Watch Andrew Bolt on The Bolt Report LIVE 7pm week nights