As I said last week, truth is among the first casualties of war, with both sides manipulating narratives to suit themselves, ‘false flag’ operations, or simply telling lies to cover unpalatable events. Did Israel bomb the hospital in Gaza? My immediate reaction when I heard the news was that I doubted it. To bomb a hospital would have been total, complete political ineptitude on the part of Israel and I couldn’t imagine Netanyahu and the Israeli Defence Force being so stupid. I wasn’t surprised to learn that the ‘attack’ was the result of a misdirected rocket from a bunch of Gaza militants who support Hamas. But of course it was an opportunity for the media to attack Israel and for the Arabs to withdraw from a meeting with US President Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, the Middle East remains on the brink of war because fundamentalist Islamic groups supported by Iran want to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth. The Jews have every right to the land of Judaea, which the Romans called Palestine. They have turned a harsh, infertile land into a vibrant, modern, democratic country, built by their own toil where women have equal rights. Contrast that to the undemocratic, misogynistic countries that surround it. Peter and I stand with Israel.
Back in Australia the referendum has been and gone. To win, the YES vote would have had to win in four states and win overall in the whole country. That’s what it needs to change our constitution. It was soundly defeated, with NO receiving more than 60% of the overall vote and winning in all of the states by substantial margins. The only state or territory where the YES vote won was in the Australian Capital Territory (which is really Canberra’s city council). That in itself indicates there is a Canberra bubble which is out of touch with the rest of the country. See the breakdown of the results at the Australian Electoral Commission website.
You’d think the comprehensive defeat – the most comprehensive of any previous referendum – would be the end of it and we’d move forward. But the YES campaigners don’t seem to want to concede. They can’t actually say that the decision was wrong (this is a democracy after all) but they can intimate NO voters were deliberately misled. Here’s just one example from The Australian.
“Yes backer Troy Bramston was fair-minded enough to concede some of the errors of the Yes campaign but still accused the No case of propagating “deliberate misinformation … on the political and legal implications of the voice … (with) Trump-like arguments to sow confusion, resentment and fear”. [source](paywall)
The breakdown of which electorates voted for which results shows that overwhelmingly supporters of the YES vote were in the inner (wealthier) suburbs of the big cities, many of them where the sitting representatives were Greens or Teal “independents”. Regional Australia and the bush voted NO. In our electorate, and those surrounding it, the NO vote was over 80%. Analysts went further, suggesting that, based on the average number of people with degrees in the electorates, YES voters were better educated. Extrapolate that and what they’re suggesting is that the thickos in the cheap seats weren’t smart enough to understand the YES case. Thanks very much.
All of this fits in very well with what the YES camp was saying before the vote.
Prominent media personality Ray Martin told people in a speech before the referendum: “What that excellent slogan [if you don’t know, vote NO] is saying, is if you’re a dinosaur or a dickhead who can’t be bothered reading, then vote No.” [source]
Then we have prominent Indigenous YES supporter Marcia Langton’s remarks suggesting NO voters were motivated by “racism” and “stupidity”. [source]
Get over yourselves, people. You lost because the proposal failed the first principle of democracy – everyone is equal – it lacked detail, it was divisive and open-ended, and would end up perpetuating the belief that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are victims.
I think it’s time we moved on and did a comprehensive forensic audit of the bottomless pit that is the Aboriginal industry. And that we listen to Aboriginal people like Jacinta Nampijinpa Price who know what it’s like to live in the town camps of Alice Springs, not the leafy suburbs of the inner cities.
Apart from that, the book I’m writing is a little bit stalled but I’m writing as though it’s a jigsaw puzzle, with the various scenes hopefully coming together at the end. And I’m still having fun. Which is all that really matters.
And the illustration at the top was done via Midjourney
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