by ERIC ABETZ – THE overwhelming rejection by the Australian people of the Voice appears to have emboldened many previously silenced people to push back on the guilt narrative.
Be it the enduring of the tiring and wearisome “Acknowledgement of Country,” which according to many of Australia’s Aborigines is either a joke or simply made up, or the woke proposal of “truth-telling and treaty” which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was so anxious not to talk about during the recent referendum.
- We’re told the overrepresentation of Aboriginals in jails is a direct result of colonisation.
- Yet, the overrepresentation of the Aboriginals in national parliament is not because of this same colonisation.
- Cherry-picking statistics is never clever.
There are now emboldened Australians willing to speak out. Now people on the other side can do a bit of their own truth-telling and expose the hollowness of the one-way traffic Australians have had to endure in recent years.
When it comes to truth-telling, Queensland Police Union President Ian Leavers has not held back.
REJECT
In an opinion piece published in his local, The Courier Mail, Mr Leavers would have spoken for many of the nearly 70 per cent of State citizens who voted to reject the Voice in Queensland.
Yet the pushback from the usual suspects shows that some have learned nothing from the repudiation of their corrosive views by their fellow Australians, and in particular, Queenslanders.
The ideas that had been gaining traction, which allows people identifying as Indigenous to be automatically released if suspected of a crime and not requiring bail, earned the justified wrath of the representative of those in our community who risk limb and life every day to protect us and our property.
The continual clamber by certain elements to suggest that every misfortune an Indigenous person faces is due to colonisation needs to be called out.
And Mr Leavers did it with facts and the powerful ingredient of on-the-ground experience of a working police officer.
While State government ministers, academics and others in the Aboriginal industry formed a conga line of condemnation full of hyperbole and self-righteous flagellation, they were unable to debunk the stark evidence that Mr Leavers produced.
It is a sad reflection on the state of journalism and public debate that the “outraged” could call for Mr Leavers’ resignation and provide him with free character assessments while studiously avoiding the persuasiveness of the evidence and rationale he had to offer.
They played the man and not the ball, steering clear from any debate of the facts.
We are told to believe that the statistical overrepresentation of the Aboriginal population in our jails is a direct result of colonisation and the resultant socio-economic and historical disadvantage from which they suffer.
Yet at the same time, the statistical overrepresentation of the Aboriginal population in our national parliament is not because of this same colonisation and the socio-economic and historical disadvantage.
Cherry-picking statistics is never clever.
Consistency of argument and use of data allowing for genuine discussion has been denied to the Australian population – that is until the advent of the tidal wave of No voting gave “permission” to reject the prevailing woke orthodoxy.
ABUSE
So when statistics point to heinous levels of violence and sexual abuse in Indigenous communities perpetrated by the Indigenous on their fellow Indigenous peoples, the deniers seek refuge in name-calling and obfuscation.
It would not surprise Mr Leavers and his police comrades to learn that Indigenous females are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence-related assaults. The police are the first responders and deal with the carnage.
In one year, there were 150 Indigenous deaths due to assault. An Indigenous woman is 10 times more likely to die from assault compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts.
And who attends these scenes?
Not State government ministers in Queensland nor the gaggle of academics who were so quick to disparage.
No, it’s the police whose representative was right to speak out and expose the nonsense and corrosive influence on community safety and law and order of an ideology that denies the need for Indigenous lawbreakers to be held accountable for the safety of all of us and, in particular, their own.
Treating Indigenous criminals differently from other criminals is a recipe for resentment and false assertions of Aboriginality, leaving the police in a precarious predicament.
No wonder Mr Leavers and his colleagues were pleased with the proposed dumping of the truth-telling policy by the Queensland Labor government.
The government would be better off listening to the voice of the first responders so ably articulated by their president.PC
“The continual clamber by certain elements to suggest that every misfortune an Indigenous person faces is due to colonisation needs to be called out.”
That’s “clamour”, Eric, not “clamber”. As I’ve already noted in a previous comment, you really should run your material past me before you go to print (I have to date received a mere four up votes for said comment, but I am, as always and without a doubt, correct in my assertions).
P.S. The editorial staff at Politicom need to look sharp, because having howlers get past the keeper detracts from the site’s credibility.
Thank-you Morrie. Your suggestions, though sometimes harsh, are always welcomed. We will do better. All the best. Sean.
Quote:
“Be it the enduring of the tiring and wearisome “Acknowledgement of Country,” which according to many of Australia’s Aborigines is either a joke or simply made up, or the woke proposal of “truth-telling and treaty” which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was so anxious not to talk about during the recent referendum.”
There are over 300 “First Nations countries” that have survived in Australia. In Aboriginal culture one Voice could not speak for all our those “countries” and communities, in fact by lore no “mob” can speak for any other “mob”.
They have many languages and cultural beliefs and traditions.
So how are “Welcome To Country” ceremonies representative of the “country” and language?
Makarratta Commission now established and before the Voice referendum was conducted is Arnhem Land language and culture, so how by lore could it apply to all “countries”, let alone apply to Australians today citizens of the Federation of States, Commonwealth of Australia? The British Empire colonised Australia from 1788 to 1901. Whatever took place, good and bad, was between ghosts of the past, so how could Australians today be responsible for compensation (reparations) or eligible to receive compensation?
And what about Native Title land rights? The Mabo decision relied on continuous occupation, Aboriginal Land Councils are Commonwealth of Australia creations. And those Land Councils control the communities on “country” including the housing. And why are Land Councils permitted to apply for more land on the basis that the claimed land is unoccupied? Like Balmoral Beach, Wakehurst Parkway land, a small unused Bowling Club land in the Lane Cove Council District, and many other examples nation wide?
Why are Land Council given tax-free status on mining royalties, entry fees, pastoral leases, etc?
Where does the $40 billion every year from taxpayers go?
Aboriginal Industry is not representative of all Indigenous Australians.
Aboriginal political activists are within the Indigenous Australian communities representative of a small minority of the 810,000 Australians who claimed to be Aborigines at the last 2021 census. Noting that there was an increase of more than 300,000 registered at the 2016 census.
Voice + Treaty + Truth Telling Makarratta Commission activist agenda should be rejected in line with the decision of 61 per cent of Voice referendum voters who voted No.
Indeed, consider that every State has a Cabinet Minister and Department of Indigenous Affairs, there is also a Federal Minister and Department, and other government departments that have sections to respond to Indigenous Australian’s who need assistance. And Indigenous Australians vote.