The clownshow that is Tasmanian politics careens on, honking and hooting, overstuffed with idiots playing to the children in the crowd. Launceston City Council, which is the political equivalent of being appointed General Manager of your local Bunnings sausage sizzle, is going all-out to cement Tasmania’s status of capital of virtue-signalling numpties.
Launceston will shift its citizenship ceremonies and awards to January 25, shunning Australia Day for its links to Aboriginal dispossession.
The Launceston City Council on Thursday unanimously voted to shift the January 26 ceremonies to the preceding day.
We in the north of the island used to pride ourselves on being the sensible half of the state, leaving all that “woke” business to Sandy Bay wankers in Hobart and nosey-nanna Boomers in their Glamorgan retirement villages. Not any more, unfortunately.
Never mind that Launceston’s CBD is a wasteland of empty shopfronts, local roads are potholed and gridlocked, and the northern campus of UTAS is shedding students at a rate of knots, this muppet-collective of watermelons and theolibs have got the really important stuff to deal with. After all, they’ve already saved the planet by declaring a “climate emergency”.
Of course, there’s no clownshow in Tasmania without Punch. Competing with Sue Hickey for the dubious distinction of being the biggest pimple on the arse of Tasmanian politics is professional whinger extraordinaire, Michael Mansell.
“They are trying to be inclusive and to represent all people in their jurisdiction, not just white people, and their decision is full of common sense,” said veteran Aboriginal activist Michael Mansell.
With his race-blinkered vision, Mansell apparently fails to notice the scores of Australians of all ethnicities and colours who joyfully celebrate their national day on 26 January every year.
He urged the federal government to stop threatening councils who shifted citizenship ceremonies from January 26, claiming it was losing the battle.
“The federal government is saying ‘there’s no freedom of speech here — you will do it our way or you will be punished’,” he said. “That approach is doomed to fail because you can’t make 24 million people abide by something that is irrational.”
That’s never stopped Mansell before. Despite his bluster, 24 million Australians completely disagree with him. That’s the number of Australians whom recent polls consistently show are opposed to changing the date of Australia Day. This isn’t about “freedom of speech”, either. No-one’s stopping these cretins babbling whatever they like about Australia Day. The government is simply under no obligation to alter a gazetted public holiday because of it.
Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz accused the Launceston council of putting “virtue signalling” ahead of the wishes of the majority of ratepayers.
“It is out of touch with the ratepayers — we know that 75 per cent of Australians support Australia Day on the 26th of January,” Senator Abetz told The Australian. “Why on earth do you pick the 25th of January? What’s the tradition? What’s the historical reason for it?’
“The only rationale that can be offered is that it’s not the 26th of January. That’s hardly the basis to make a considered decision.”
theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/australia-day-launceston-city-council-shuns-january-26-for-ceremonies
I’m not a huge fan of Eric, either, but he’s bang on the money, here.
In the end though, the council will have to reckon with the Commonwealth, who actually hold responsibility for Australia Day. Hopefully, Scott Morrison will give them the thick ear they deserve.
“If some councils, as we’ve seen, want to play games, well, you don’t have to run citizenship ceremonies, other arrangements will be made,” the prime minister said. “But we will not undermine Australia’s national day […] I’m a prime minister for standards.”
theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/13/scott-morrison-forces-councils-to-hold-citizenship-ceremonies-on-australia-day