CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
The Federal Opposition Leader has this week proposed holding another referendum to constitutionally recognise Indigenous people, but without making any changes to the system that currently leaves Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a 3rd world standard of life expectancy, education and living standards.
This means he is now rewriting his party’s position on the Uluru Statement, which is the founding document that the Indigenous Voice to Parliament has been modelled off, and was drafted up by a vast number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community leaders and elders, and was once championed by the Liberal Party as a possible solution to First Nations disadvantage when they were in power.
While the community leaders behind the Uluru Statement had hoped that the Indigenous Voice To Parliament would not descend into an argument between left and right, the Liberal Party and Nationals are no longer as supportive of this proposal as they were when they were in position to take credit for it.
Unfortunately, with the Coalition stuck in opposition in every state government except Tasmania, the upcoming referendum has been dragged into the culture wars – because an it’s a lot easier to come out victorious against proposed constitutional changes than it is to win an actual election.
So after losing close to twenty seats to Albanese and the Teals in the 2022 Federal Election, the Opposition has engaged in some of the most impressive political and mental gymnastics ever seen in Australian politics – landing themselves in a position where they are now furiously defending a system that they have historically criticised as a waste of money.
With the Indigenous Voice aimed at greatly minimising the amount of white saviours and idealistic public servants that make up a bloated beuracracy between Indigenous issues and the politicians in a position to fix them, many had assumed that mainlining a community advisory body direct to Parliament House would be a wet dream for the Liberal Party – whose entire political ideology is apparently one that aims to create a smaller government.
However, with nothing else to stand for, The Liberal Party and the two Aboriginal people in the public eye who seem to share the same position as them, are staunchly fighting to maintain 7 layers of well paid public servants that play Chinese whispers between Parliament House and the extreme poverty and health crisises that exist in Indigenous communities.
The Coalition, and their US-based Evangelical Christian financial backers, are urging Australians to VOTE NO and protect the hip hop workshops, the ever-growing prison system, the blue-haired voluntourists and the dead wood career pen pushers who drain billions from the budget each year.
