In opposition, Anthony Albanese relentlessly attacked Scott Morrison for either being “missing in action” during national disasters or supposedly merely flying in for photo ops. “I won’t go missing in action,” Albanese bragged.
And the instant he was elected? His very first act as Prime Minister was to vanish overseas. And again. Then go on holiday.
So there should be no surprise what “Airbus Albo’s” response has been, as Alice Springs has become the epicentre of a brewing national emergency of Aboriginal youth lawlessness.
Albanese initially refused opposition leader Peter Dutton’s call to visit Alice Springs and see the calamity unfolding there for himself. He preferred as talk radio host Ray Hadley said, to hang out with Bill Gates and pose for selfies with his dog. Albanese was finally, reluctantly, dragged kicking and screaming to the Alice for a fly-in, fly-out visit so cursory that it was more insulting than not turning up at all. The PM flew into Alice Springs in the afternoon and was back in Canberra that evening.
And his response? More prattle about his divisive, useless “Voice”, and not a single practical solution on offer.
Certainly, no admission that Labor was wrong, disastrously wrong, to overturn alcohol bans in NT Aboriginal communities. No concession that they should have listened to Aboriginal women on the ground who begged for the bans to stay. And an absolute refusal to reverse the catastrophic policy change.
Anthony Albanese will not support blanket alcohol bans across central Australia to combat grog-fuelled violence in Alice Springs, despite warnings from Indigenous leaders that urgent “positive discrimination” is needed to protect under-siege households and businesses.
The Prime Minister on Tuesday backed the Northern Territory government’s three-month plan to impose takeaway alcohol bans on Mondays and Tuesdays and limit sales to one per person per day but said communities must be consulted on future actions because “people need to be treated with respect”.
Where is the respect for Aboriginal women brutally bashed by Aboriginal men, invariably drunk, at rates that would send city-based middle-class feminists screaming for the hills?
Where is the respect for Aboriginal children who are abused, brutalised, going hungry but not going to school, and instead turning to anarchic gang violence, because their parents are too drunk to know or care?
All they get is more woke yabber.
Mr Albanese also linked his push for a constitutional voice to parliament with improving future outcomes for indigenous communities in central Australia […]
Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson said he was unsure whether the response from Mr Albanese was the “right circuit breaker” and was not confident it would do anything to stop children “roaming the streets late at night.”
“It just blows my mind that this is the best thing that we can come up with,” Mr Paterson said.
It’s not like Aboriginal voices are already shouting into the big, empty sky in Canberra’s heads about what needs to be done.
Ahead of meeting Mr Albanese, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress health service head Donna Ah Chee said grog bans must be reintroduced because alcohol was causing the crisis. Ms Ah Chee, who has lived in Alice Springs for 36 years, said she had never felt so unsafe and was frightened after having her home broken into twice in four days.
“I was up watching a movie and I heard this bang … I jumped up and heard this second, really loud, bang … I get to the kitchen and it’s actually my window. It had been completely smashed,” Ms Ah Chee told Sky News.
Ms Ah Chee said she came face to face with the two offenders, who were screaming at her to give them alcohol. She said a coalition of NT Aboriginal groups predicted in May last year there would be an alcohol-fuelled crime wave when the Stronger Futures legislation and alcohol restrictions ended on July 17.
Challenged on whether the alcohol bans that were lifted in some Aboriginal communities last year were race-based, as described by Natasha Fyles, Ms Ah Chee said: “What we’ve always said is there’s positive discrimination and it’s called a special measure … What about the rights of children and women … What about the rights of women getting bashed?”
The Australian
Of course, it’s “race-based” — because so is the problem.
Only a leftist politician or an Aboriginal gravy-train activist would refuse to see it.
As Aboriginal academic Anthony Dillon says:
For those Aboriginal Australians in Alice Springs impacted by crime, both as perpetrators and victims, I do not think protesting against Australia Day celebrations is top of mind. Their priorities are likely finding a safe place to dwell in and fresh food to eat.
The Australian