Opinion
If there’s one thing we know about the left, it’s that they never, ever take “eff off” for an answer. Like the spoilt political toddlers they are, they react to even the firmest “No” by screaming and crying, stamping their little feet, and shaking their little fists. If that doesn’t get their way, they resort to trying to sneak behind our backs.
We’ve already seen the tantrums, following the resounding defeat of the “Indigenous Voice” referendum, now we’re getting the sneaking. State Labor governments are trying to slither in their own versions of “Indigenous Voices”, hoping no-one’s paying attention.
Now, the Productivity Commission’s getting in on the act.
Governments across the country should relinquish powers on Aboriginal affairs policy to Indigenous communities and legislate watchdogs with more authority than the defeated voice would have had, to save failing efforts to close the gap, the Productivity Commission has declared.
Less than four months since 60 per cent of voters said no to an Indigenous advisory body in the Constitution, the commission accused governments of not listening to Indigenous communities despite signing up to do so in the Closing the Gap agreement and said watchdogs with the ability to “punish” them were necessary.
Does that mean lining up politicians for a traditional spearing? While I’m sure many Australians would pay good money to watch that, it ignores the fact that Aboriginal Australians already have the same means to punish politicians as the rest of us: vote them out.
Otherwise, this proposal is just another leftist racial-separatism gambit. What the PC is asking for is a scattergun version of what was the tacit goal of the “Uluru Statement”: racially separatist Aboriginal ethnostates.
But, hold on, I hear you say: aren’t the Productivity Commission just a bunch of dry, old economists?
Not any more. Now, they’re headed by a wet, young economist, hand-picked by the Albanese government.
New chair Danielle Wood is not just a millennial, she’s also the CEO of the Grattan Institute, a kind of mini-WEF, globalist thinktank. Its policy prescriptions cover the usual Build Back Better talking-points, from Big Australia mass immigration, to “Net Zero”, to Covid vaccine hype.
Wood was annointed by the Albanese government on the eve of the referendum, when the Voice was clearly sinking in the polls. Despite the PC Report being initiated two years ago, following the resounding defeat of the Voice referendum, Wood hastily drafted a request to extend the final report delivery date by six weeks — a request duly granted by her boss, Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
The whole thing reeks of being a government insurance policy.
The commission’s radical blueprint, revealed on Wednesday, comes a day after Anthony Albanese and Linda Burney were accused in parliament by both the left and the right of failing to have an alternative to the defeated Indigenous voice to parliament.
Surely the point should be that there isn’t one? Australians voted to defeat the very idea of a racially-separated country. The conceit that governments, defeated at the ballot box, should try and sneak around the clear wishes of voters because a bunch of bureaucrats think they know better, is an appalling indictment of the political-bureaucratic elite and its born-to-rule attitude.
The Prime Minister on Tuesday would not say whether he intended to implement the remaining two elements of the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart now that the voice – the first element – had failed […]
The voice was the first of three elements of the landmark Uluru Statement from the Heart, which the Albanese government fully supported when it came to power in 2022. However, in the wake of the referendum defeat, Mr Albanese and Ms Burney have refused to make treaty or truth-telling as priorities for 2024.
Yet, as former PM John Howard points out, the whole notion of a state making a treaty with its own citizens is a Constitutional absurdity. The clear implication is that Aboriginal Australians are not citizens — an implication even more repugnant than the lie that Aboriginal Australians “were classed as flora and fauna”.
Yet again, the left is determined to force Australia onto the path of racial separatism.
The Coalition of Peaks, which signed the Closing the Gap agreement and represents more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, said through its acting lead convener Catherine Liddle on Tuesday that governments must take the findings seriously. “As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we know what is best for our communities, but governments across the board are still not meaningfully giving us a voice in the decisions that affect our lives,” Ms Liddle said.
“When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are given ownership over the decisions that affect their lives, the resources they need, and the opportunity to partner with government, we see better outcomes.”
The Australian
“More than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations”? That’s a whole lot of voices, already.
Still, no worries — but let’s see you take responsibility for your own funding. No more milking the non-Aboriginal taxpayers for tens of billions of dollars every year.
And when the gap refuses to close, still — who will you blame, then?