The left has elevated “anti-racism” to an article of faith. In their worldview, the left is by definition anti-racist, so it follows (in their pretzel logic) that anyone not on the left must be a racist. Hence, the left’s reflexive screams of “racist!” at everyone who disagrees with them.
Yet it seems that that the left’s obsession with finding racism anywhere and everywhere they can too often causes them to be very, very racist indeed. The latest vanity of the left is a so-called “Indigenous Voice to Parliament”. Which sounds an awfully lot like constitutionally-enshrined racial preference.
It is dividing Australians into two classes instead of unifying us a nation. It confers a special class of governance privileges on a small group of Australians.
Worse, it divides Australians on racial grounds.
It’s a lamentable fact of history that the constitution adopted in 1901 included some explicitly racist clauses. If we are committed to racial equality, as we should, then surely the only rational course of action is to expunge all race-based articles from the constitution.
Instead, the left want to replace the old race-based articles with new race-based articles.
To repeat my favourite quote from US Chief Justice John Roberts, “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”. Advocates of the voice want to entrench permanent discrimination on the basis of race in our Constitution. They have no answer to that fundamentally retrograde step.
Well, they still have the only answer that they ever have when their arguments fail the tests of fact or logic: just scream “racism”.
The voice is growing into a crusade…the proposal, relying on emotion, not empirical analysis, is becoming a textbook case of good intentions that will be brought asunder by dreadful outcomes. Proponents will not be able to plead unintended consequences because many are foreseeable right now.
It would be bad enough if the voice were temporary, designed to last only until the gap in living standards was addressed, or if it could be amended, repaired or replaced if it did not work as intended or if it became unnecessary. But constitutional entrenchment means that for all intents and purposes it cannot easily be changed or replaced. Racially entrenched discrimination will become a permanent feature of Australian life because social justice activists will portray any attempt to reform the voice as the manifestation of evil.
Of course, we have already tried going down the route of exclusive, race-based governmental bodies.
That we have already tried an experimental voice, and it was a dreadful failure, won’t be forgotten by quiet Australians. Who can forget the Australian and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the rorting, dysfunction and chaos? The voice could be worse because it will be legally entrenched; ATSIC on constitutional steroids.
While we don’t yet have the foggiest idea of the proposed powers of the voice, voters are right to be sceptical. The voice will clog up the arteries of our system of government…An elected body based on race necessarily puts a premium on Aboriginality. Fraught questions then emerge about who is entitled to vote and who is entitled to be elected to the new race-based body. As more indigenous Australians intermarry and integrate, will tiny percentages of indigenous heritage suffice?
The Nazis’ obsession with racial exclusiveness lead them to issue Ariernachweis, “Aryan certificates”, which supposedly proved the holder’s “racial purity” and, thus, qualification to hold certain public positions. For all their demented determination to find “Nazis” everywhere, the left are blind to the fact that they are taking the first, dangerous steps on the same path.
A bad idea is a bad idea no matter how warm and welcoming it appears at first glance.
theaustralian