CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
As Peter Dutton ramps up his culture wars by refusing to stand in front of the Aboriginal flag, the Liberal Party and NewsCorp are beginning to audit every hospitality operator who has not yet sworn their loyalty to January 26th.
With not much else in the toolbelt that could make the Federal Opposition look like a formidable government if they ever took power, the Liberals and their powerful friends running the media protection racket have once again started ranting and raving about even the slightest efforts to make Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel like they are welcome in their own country.
And Peter Dutton’s glaringly obvious inability to appeal to voters with policies has been on show for all this week, as the recurring ‘Australia Day debate’ has somehow kicked off before we even get through Christmas.
The national public holiday is rejected by a growing segment of the wider public, organisations, and local governments due to the date it is celebrated. January 26 is viewed as a day of solemn commemoration for the Indigenous community, as it marks the day Britain colonised their land. It is for this reason that Australia Day is often referred to as “Invasion Day”.
However, those who show respect to the sentiments held by Aboriginal people risk politically fatal backlash. Because the only thing worse than shooting someone in 2024 is to acknowledge that a lot of people were shot 100 years ago.
Last week, a major pub group was accused of being treasonous woke cocksuckers for opting to give Australia Day celebrations a wide berth. After hysterical media backlash, they have since reversed this decision.
However, elsewhere across the country, other major pub groups are hoping nobody notices that they have plans to do the same – just without formally announcing it.
And in frustrating news for the right-wing political class, it’s not because of their bleeding hearts. It’s because this shit isn’t worth it.
Hosting pub events that attract drunken half-dressed rednecks who actively exclude immigrants and Aboriginal people from their ‘Australia Day’ celebrations doesn’t make enough money for the hotel groups to justify doing it.
Especially when this entire concept of Australia Day is only 20 years old, and is merely a mythologised invention created by the Liberal Party to boost the type of divisive nationalism that they resort to when they find themselves unelectable. Not to mention that it’s a ‘national’ day that literally celebrates British naval history, and is modelled closely on the ANZAC Day of remembrance, just without all the mourning.
Also a quiet day at the pub with a dark room full of pensioners playing pokie machines is always going to pay more money than having to put up any Australia flag bunting and pretend that foreign-owned tax-evading pub group gives a fuck about fostering a sense of pride amongst their local community.
