The ‘No’ campaign has emboldened racists, and emboldened Peter Dutton to become the worst version of himself
I was brought to tears reading Evonne Goolagong Cawley’s heartfelt op-ed today – a simple, graceful reminder of what this referendum is about. “When I was a little girl, I remember hiding under the bed so I wouldn’t be taken from my mum,” began the Wiradjuri woman and former tennis champ, noting she might not have won Wimbledon were it not for the 1967 referendum, and imploring Australia to say “Yes” again. The Voice, she wrote, is a “straightforward request” to be heard, while all the “noise and nonsense is designed to frighten people”, much the same as with Mabo and the apology. “History proved them wrong. Every single time they have cast shadows, the bright Australian sunshine has proved stronger,” she said of the scare campaigns, asking voters to keep their eye on the ball. “You’ve cheered for me,” she concluded, appealing to Australians of her generation. “Now, please, vote with me: vote Yes.” Goolagong Cawley’s appeal brought to the fore a question I have repeatedly asked myself through this unnecessarily nasty campaign: what kind of person takes such a modest plea, a simple request to be recognised and listened to, and turns it into something ugly and sinister?
It truly has been staggering watching Peter Dutton tear down this referendum, claiming – with the help of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Rupert Murdoch – that an uncontroversial idea, supported by the vast majority of Indigenous Australians, backed by doctors, lawyers, judges and the community sector, is “divisive” and “Orwellian”. There would still be a “No” campaign without Dutton, of course. The National Party would still be opposed, and Tony “intergenerational trauma is a neo-Marxist fiction” Abbott will be beating his assimilationist drum until the day he dies. But Dutton was the man who turned this unifying proposal into a partisan game – the leader with the power to prevent this misinformation clusterfuck, but who chose to ignore the direct appeals to his better nature and instead made this campaign a living nightmare for Indigenous Australians, one that threatens to do serious damage to Australia as a nation.
For months now, Dutton, who holds one of the most influential positions in the country, has been using his platform appallingly, stoking misinformation and bigotry. In the past 24 hours, his flagrant lies seem to have reached new levels of absurdity, seeing him claim – with no basis whatsoever – that the PM chose not to change the referendum wording to something more amenable to Dutton because outgoing Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told him not to (Joyce was not a member of any of the referendum working groups, which were made up of constitutional experts and Indigenous leaders). As Michael Bradley wrote in Crikey last week, the opposition leader has long made claims he couldn’t possibly believe, doubling down when he’s caught out. But there was something truly alarming about this one, with Dutton feeling emboldened to make up transparently conspiratorial nonsense, knowing it would not be fact-checked in our national broadsheet.
As of writing, Dutton still has not condemned the disturbing video sent by neo-Nazis to Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe, in which a balaclava-clad man claiming to be from “Warriors for Convict Resistance” reads a statement endorsing “white Australia”, before burning an Aboriginal flag and performing a Nazi salute. (Government ministers have condemned the “disgusting” video, although Thorpe blames Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the federal police for doing too little to protect her.) It seems Dutton’s interest in condemning Nazis back in March really was a stunt, with the “No” campaign completely uninterested in condemning the behaviour its encouragement has wrought.
It has been well documented that Dutton is only opposing the referendum for political gain, after deciding this was the best way to damage the government. Most agree there will be little benefit in it for him – his approval rating has sunk along with initial support for the Voice, demonstrating that his wrecking ability is not necessarily an appealing leadership trait. Earlier this week, I questioned how the moderate Liberals’ consciences were faring, as they said things about the campaign they know to be false. But what I really find myself wondering, daily, is how Peter Dutton could possibly sleep at night, knowing what he has done to the country, and to Indigenous Australians, who simply asked to be heard.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley clearly still has faith in the power of the “bright Australian sunshine” to illuminate the dark shadows that are clouding this debate, and in the “simple goodness of every Australian heart” to stand with First Nations people. But will such faith prove to be misguided when pitted against Peter Dutton, a man who decided to use this referendum to appeal to people’s worst natures, and in turn became an even worse version of himself?
GOOD OPINION Yes we Vatican
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“The world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point … [‘Radical’ protesters] are filling a space left empty by society as a whole, which ought to exercise a healthy ‘pressure’, since every family ought to realise that the future of their children is at stake.”
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Pope Francis says the rich must make profound changes to tackle the climate crisis, calling for “a decisive acceleration” in the transition from fossil fuels, and slamming carbon capture and storage as “like pushing a snowball down a hill”. Meanwhile, the Climate Council has welcomed the federal government's plans to rejoin the global Green Climate Fund, but says the most important thing Australia can do is end support for new fossil fuel projects.
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BAD OPINION Integrate southern land
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“We should end the separatism that has bedevilled Aboriginal policy ... Aboriginal people are fine Australians, and they should be encouraged to integrate into the mainstream of our society.”
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Former prime minister Tony Abbott uses assimilationist talking points as he rails against the Voice. Liberal MP Julian Leeser offered a strong counterpoint, quoting from the Uluru statement, which says Indigenous children “will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country”.
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7am Podcast Micheline Lee on fixing the NDIS
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It’s just over a decade since the NDIS, the scheme to support Australians living with a disability, was called the social reform of a generation. Last week, it was called out in the disability royal commission report as a system in desperate need of attention. Today, Micheline Lee on what’s wrong with the NDIS – and how we can fix it.
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The amount that could be saved over a decade by “rejigging” the Stage 3 tax cuts, while still delivering cuts to the majority. A report examines four options, all of which would give those earning between $45,000 and $124,600 a bigger tax cut – a “pretty easy political sell”.
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The Policy Plan to address asylum claim backlog
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The government has announced plans to improve refugee processing, including $159 million to speed up decisions, blaming former Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton for overseeing a rise in false claims that are clogging up the system. Dutton has hit back at suggestions he was weak on compliance, yesterday telling an outright lie about the number of asylum seekers who have arrived under Labor.
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