Sounds like communism

It’s a free country.

Until you start changing things. Then you get called a communist. The recent decision by the City of Greater Geelong to change the focus for January 26 has been a lightning rod for hyperbolic criticism.

The details around what has happened have been diluted by rivers of outrage.

The “issue” of Australia Day does this to people.

Over the years there have been a lot of strong voices and many columns of opinion pieces dedicated to the rights and wrongs of this one particular public holiday.

It’s an emotional day because it reflects how we see ourselves.

Are we celebrating colonisation, our future direction, our new arrivals?

It’s complex and worthy of nuanced dialogue.

It is certainly no surprise that this year, in the shadow of the referendum, any alterations to the January 26 arrangements will bring the loudest voices to centre stage.

But this week, one MP’s voice of outrage was dialled up to 11.

So much so that the leader of the MP’s party could not support their political view.

Liberal MP Bev McArthur was trying for some kind of record of conservative outrage when she wrote that Indigenous people should be appreciative of the “wonderful things that have been enabled via colonisation”.

Ms McArthur claimed the best thing about colonisation was democracy.

“The arrival of communists instead of the First Fleet would no doubt have created a different outcome,” she said.

This may be news for the politician, but democracy did not arrive on the First Fleet.

The British did not actually show up with ballot boxes and how-to-vote cards. There were no co-design principles and consultations.

They brought prisoners in chains and soldiers with guns.

There was murder and invasion. There was not uniform peaceful settlement, and that is why there was no treaty. They came uninvited and they took the land.

Any other reading of that period is intentional ignorance or misinformation.

But the suggestion that “communists” would have created a different outcome is an instructional insight into the brains trust of the messed up Liberal Party of 2023.

It is no wonder John Pesutto has walked away from his own MP.

“Communism” was not even a word in the dictionary when the British brought their prisoners.

It is this kind of chaotic, illogical rhetoric that makes the decision process of the City of Greater Geelong look so transparent and reasonable.

The council undertook a consultation process.

People were free and invited to participate.

The numbers were crunched, recommendations formed and then, guess what?

Elected representatives voted. Now, everyone has the right to be unhappy with the outcome.

But if you don’t like it, at the next election, you can vote them out and get it changed.

Non-violent change is democracy. Previously the federal Liberal government mandated that local councils would be stripped of their right to host citizenship ceremonies if they refused to hold them on January 26.

Big government forcing local councils to run citizenship ceremonies on one state-sanctioned date? Sounds like communism.

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The council undertook a consultation process. People were free and invited to participate. Elected representatives voted. Now, everyone has the right to be unhappy with the outcome. But if you don’t like it, at the next election, you can vote them out and get it changed.