Not so much love from vitriolic ‘Yes’ supporters
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has announced the Liberals will oppose a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous Voice, dubbing it the “Canberra Voice” that won’t resolve issues on the ground in Indigenous communities.
I agree with him. It won’t.
The only way to resolve the issues affecting many Indigenous communities is to get kids going to school, adults working in real jobs and social stability so people want to live, work and invest in them.
Economic participation, not bureaucracy. Self-determination, not government control.
The Voice will choke the neediest Aboriginals with more bureaucracy when they need less, tie up those community organisations who are making a difference in a new, labyrinthine organisational structure, and divert funding from real outcomes.
Liberal Party rules allow backbenchers to cross the floor without expulsion so some will break rank, including former Opposition spokesman for Indigenous Australians Julian Leeser, who quit the shadow cabinet on principle.
I find this interesting because at the National Press Club he pointed out problems with Albanese’s constitutional amendment, said it would leave great doubt and uncertainty and recommended the Voice’s right to make representations be in legislation not the constitution. He said: “It’s not enough to say that these questions will be addressed in legislation afterwards. You can’t outlegislate the constitution.” These are important principles too. The reaction to the federal Liberal Party’s decision by some leaders of the Yes campaign was disgraceful.
In a rant on Radio National Breakfast, Noel Pearson let loose on Dutton, declaring: “I was troubled by dreams and the spectre of the Dutton Liberal Party’s Judas betrayal of our country” and that Dutton is “an undertaker, preparing the grave to bury Uluru”.
He means of course the Uluru Statement adopted at a Yulara resort 30km down the road from the great rock itself (but apparently now synonymous with it).
He went on: “When they go low, we’re gonna go high. We’re gonna meet hate with love. We’re gonna meet fear with understanding.”
Love and understanding went out the window when he continued to savage Dutton, saying that it was “symbolic on the day of the Passover, leading into Easter, we should be betrayed like this and the country should be betrayed like this” and that Dutton is “chucking Indigenous Australians and the future of the country under the bus just so he can preserve his miserable political hide”. This isn’t an isolated outburst. Last year, when the Nationals announced their opposition to the Voice, Pearson accused Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price of being caught up in a “redneck celebrity vortex” and a puppet of conservative think tanks he claimed were using her to “punch down on other black fellas”.
I expect he will continue to dish out bile to anyone who won’t do what he says.
Some of his fellow Yes supporters haven’t been much better, including Marcia Langton who reacted with vitriol: “This is the Australia we live in; it is racist. … We have to make sure that we win this campaign because, if we don’t, then the racists will feel emboldened.”
She said if the referendum was defeated, most non-Indigenous Australians would not be able to look her in the eye. So even if people vote Yes, should they be ashamed because others voted No?
Dutton’s opposition to the Voice was conciliatory. He said the Liberals support constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians (by which he means actual recognition, not some vast new bureaucracy to rule us all) and legislating for grassroots bodies that can advise governments on practical outcomes for Indigenous people. Price’s opposition is very matter of fact and one of the main reasons she opposes the Voice is that it will divide people by race.
But the message from the Yes campaign is clear. If you dare to oppose the Voice, no matter how measured, reasoned or principled your opposition, you’re a redneck, racist, bigoted, nasty and a Judaslevel traitor and you will be publicly abused and shamed for doing so. So much for love and understanding.