TIME TO SAY ENOUGH
NE thing more and more Australians are crying out for is for our elected leaders to just once make a stand against activists. Instead of politicians with the guts to say “no”, they routinely ignore conservative contributors while tripping over themselves to appease the Left.
The common thread of activism by minorities is that very rarely is compromise allowed. We either do it their way or be threatened or called every nasty name under the sun.
Whether it’s gay marriage, climate change, the environment, immigration, indigenous issues, militant feminism, smoking, drinking or eating fatty foods, activists are like a two- year- old who will never listen to calm reasoning and just keep stamping their feet until they win.
But for once, it would be great to see a government put its hand up and just say “No”.
At the moment, if something is demanded by the Left, governments take the easy route of giving them the lollies they scream for in the hope they’ll be quiet for a bit. But they never go quiet. Take the snap ban on live exports, or the kneejerk inquiry into youth detention in the Northern Territory.
People who urged a more conservative approach were ignored.
But the problem with conservatives is that they tend to be content to whinge to each other rather than smash windows at a politician’s office or march in the streets burning the Aussie flag.
But this tolerance has resulted in activists for any cause going feral until they get their way ... and governments allow it to happen.
Take gay marriage. The Australian people voted at the last election for the Coalition which ran on a platform of having a plebiscite, but Labor, The Greens and a few crossbench senators gave the finger to the Aussie public and knocked that on the head – twice. Now with a public postal vote proposed, SSM advocates have threatened to challenge it in the High Court.
When other compromises have been mentioned such as allowing religious exemptions to discrimination laws, the activists spit the dummy at those as well. They demand everyone do what they want without giving an inch in return. That’s not negotiation, it’s browbeating petulance.
Some opponents of SSM fear changing the definition of marriage from “a man and a woman” will open the floodgates for people to agitate for other definitions to be included, such as polygamy and marrying animals.
This is scoffed at but activists have strong form for not simply being happy with a win. They must keep protesting for everything to change.
Take indigenous activists. First there were land rights in the 1970s, followed by the Mabo native title court decision in 1992.
Then in 1995 they were given permission to fly their own flag, and have been granted access to “Murri Courts”, exclusive rights to hunt protected animals, and extremely generous welfare programs.
We call many places their Aboriginal names, we proudly laud our indigenous achievers and we delivered a national apology for the so- called Stolen Generation.
Surely that would be enough for the activists to stop burning Australian flags, say thank you and get on with their lives, but now the talk is about changing the date of Australia Day, constitutional recognition and mandating an indigenous voice in parliament.
It’s the same with environmental issues. The greenies aren’t content at already locking humans out of huge swaths of nature, imposing extreme restrictions on farming, fishing and mining, and scaring governments into costly and ineffective climate change policies. They’ve killed the country’s logging industry and have succeeded in banning dumping dredge spoil in the Barrier Reef lagoon. Now they want to stop any new mines, close down the Coral Sea, they demand we pay the world’s highest power prices for renewables, and they stop casinos and resorts being built … anywhere.
No compromises, no gratitude for past concessions, just more bile.
The activists have had a good run for decades, but now we need politicians to do what any good parent does, and just say “Enough”.
If the agitators don’t like it, they can aim for sensible compromise or accept the umpire’s decision like rational and reasonable human beings.