OPINION
As should surprise no one, the left and the troughers of the Aboriginal Industry are throwing an epic tanty at losing the “Voice” referendum. “Indigenous leaders” meaning the tiny clique of city-based activists, academics and assorted troughers who’ve made whole careers out of milking the $30 billion annually flushed down “indigenous affairs” are cracking a sulk and having a “week of silence”. If only it was forever.
The left-elite minority (only a handful of the richest, most exclusive electorates in the nation voted Yes) are screeching “racism” (but don’t they always?), as well as their new favourite buzzword, “misinformation”.
Heaven forbid that these chattering ninnies should face up to the fact that they lost a democratic vote, fair and square. No, it could only be because everyone else is too stupid and immoral to vote like they do.
The reality, though, is that far from “ashamed”, Australians have every reason to be loud and proud about the referendum result: because, overwhelmingly, ordinary Australians rejected the politics of racial separatism. Against the intersectional tribalism of the left-elite, Australians declared that we are one people, under one law.
The No vote represents a magnificent assertion of universal citizenship. It’s a decision not only to protect the Constitution. It’s an act of love for Indigenous Australians, a determination they shouldn’t be imprisoned in an identity politics category. Instead, as individuals they’re integral to Australian life, with all the rights and obligations all citizens share.
The leeches of the Aboriginal Industry owe their entire careers to separatism: Aboriginal-only jobs, and placements at university. “Indigenous only” facilities, scholarships, grants and loans.
Almost none of these actually do a damn thing to benefit the poorest Aboriginal Australians, in remote communities. Instead, the bulk of the money Australian taxpayers pay every year flushes into the pockets of city-based “box-tickers”. Most of whom are whiter than thee or me. When a publicly-funded radio host blatherskites about “the colour of our skin”, it seems fair to point out that his skin is ridiculously pale.
This wasn’t a vote against Indigenous Australians or closing the gap. It was a vote of inclusion. But there was also this message: Australians support equality, they don’t support identity politics and racial essentialism. Indigenous advancement won’t come through the Constitution. Activist leaders massively overreached. In doing so, they unintentionally did harm.
Mostly because they’re doing nothing to address the root causes of indigenous disadvantage: a culture of dependency and violence.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the referendum’s central figure, rightly argues Indigenous advancement will come from cultural change, education, employment, ending family abuse and the like. Much Aboriginal policy has been effective and good. A lot has been ineffective or worse. Some 55 per cent of our continent has been granted to native title, but this hasn’t led to all those living on this land finding productive lives.
While native title warms the self-proclaimed virtue of city-based elites, it does little to advance Aboriginal disadvantage in remote Australia. Precisely because it locks Aboriginal Australians into being living museum pieces for the edification of the tilty-head left. Worse, like powerful Iwi in New Zealand, it lines the pockets of a handful of nepo families, while Bro in South Auckland goes scratching.
An Indigenous family wanting to own their own home has to move to a nearby town, not on Aboriginal land, because native title can’t be alienated. No one, including Aboriginal people, can own it. Aboriginal people can be land-rich and dirt-poor. This kind of policy doesn’t bring Indigenous Australians productive lives, it locks them out of the good life readily available to everybody else.
The Australian
But the well-off elite few are determined to cling to their racial privilege. So, don’t expect to see any soul-searching or humility from the left.
Instead, Australians must gird themselves for a sustained cultural and political assault.
Because, if history’s taught us one thing, the left never takes No, however emphatic, for an answer. Instead, they sulk and whine, badger and bully, until they get their way.
However awful their way is.