The Upside Down World In Tasmania
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Down in Tassie things are different to the rest of Australia. The upside down world in Tasmania has the Liberal state government supporting a Yes vote in the Voice referendum, whilst local Aboriginal groups want a No vote. The polls are predicting a rare win for Yes in the Apple Isle, whereas the mainland story is predicted to be all about No. Why is this so? Tasmania is infamous for massacring most of its Indigenous population back in the day. Perhaps this has something to do with the apparently anomalous situation happening there in relation to First Nations recognition in the Australian Constitution and an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The War In Israel & Gaza In The World
The global media are focusing on the war in Israel and the Australian media is doing backflips between the Voice referendum and Israel. What do these superficially disparate events have in common? Well, they both concern two distinct but co-existing populations within the same national borders. The Palestinians and the Aboriginal people of Australia have both been dispossessed of their land. Hamas definitely has greater access to weapons than any members of First Nations people in Australia. The killings have been terrible and we are lucky not to be faced with such horrendous stuff here in Australia.
Tasmania Out Of Sight Out Of Mind
Tasmania is often a forgotten part of Australia in the mind of the national media. This smallish island at the bottom of the bite has its own reality and locals do their own thing. Perhaps the Voice is an opportunity to redress the wrongs done by those living many generations ago? It is interesting to observe the journey that the Voice has traversed over this last year. Pundits predicted at the start that the Voice had the initial support of a majority of Australians. Yet, we have seen the leeching of this support over the months, as white Aussies cottoned onto reasons to vote No. Why is this so?
Peter Dutton Doesn’t Play Bipartisan Politics
The wise men and women of Australian politics have told us that you cannot win any referendum in Oz without bipartisan support. Indeed, some of them are actually blaming PM Anthony Albanese for continuing on with the Voice referendum once Peter Dutton chose to campaign for the No vote. We live in a funny world where the No sayers are lauded and those attempting to buck the system for positive change are criticised. Australia is a racist nation and the Voice referendum has revealed this. If anything good is to come out of it, it is this. First Nations people make up just 4% of the population. There are huge gaps between the wealth and wellbeing of whites and that of the Indigenous population. We have just had 10 years of Liberal National Party federal government, where nothing much changed in regard to this. The Coalition cut spending on Aboriginal Affairs during their decade in government, as they do most often when they get into government. Ken Wyatt, the previous LNP Minister for Aboriginal Affairs has just resigned his Liberal Party membership over their campaigning against the Voice and the lies Peter Dutton is telling about the Voice proposal. Despite this white Australia has grasped the mistruths and lies about division and signed up to vote No in droves, if the polls are to be believed.
Downward envy is a favourite Australian position and it isn’t a move from the Kama Sutra.
I would say to Australians:
Ned Kelly was a loser,
Gallipoli was a defeat,
Get real Australia!
Conservative Warriors Playing Politics With Australia’s Future Once Again
Playing politics has cost Australians 20 years of inactivity on climate change, via Tony Abbott and his conservative cronies. Abbott is back, despite being booted out by the Australian electorate, this time funded by a Trumpist venture capitalist to the tune of millions of dollars.
The No campaign is backed by Advance Australia and Whitestone Strategic – right wing groups wanting to bring US style politics to Australia by manipulating social media platforms with fear mongering and hate speech.
“If that’s not confusing enough, Advance, and FA, are fronted by Peter Dutton’s hand-picked shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Also connected to the FA campaign is Tony Abbott, who is an adviser to Advance – the group having unsuccessfully defended him in his then North Shore electorate of Warringah in 2019.”
Al those older Aussies you see in Vote No tee-shirts are organised and funded by these groups. These same people were involved in trying to defeat marriage equality in Australia – which tells you a lot about where they are coming from in terms of their idea of fairness and equality for all Australians. Rich businessmen backing fascists, does that remind you of something like Germany in the 1930s.
The truth is that most Australians don’t know any Indigenous people, not really, they would not count them as close friends. Only 1 in 6 Aussies have anything to do with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander folk. This allows for plenty of manipulation by political parties and vested interests in regard to what they say about them. If you don’t know who someone really is it is easy to believe lies and exaggerations. This has been shown to be true during the Voice referendum.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.
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