It is remarkable living through the current fantasyland under the Gillard government. Things are turning sour rapidly, people are losing their jobs, the Global Financial crisis is looming yet the government and Labor party are preoccupied by politically correct peripheral symbolism and trendoid nonsense which is of little interest to the public at large. First it was gay marriage where we saw the issue hijacking the Labor conference last December. That's all very well, gay marriage does not have a direct impact on the majority and can be easily dismissed as a side issue. Far more disturbing is the threatened Aboriginal referendum which has the potential - if passed - to trample on the rights of every non-Aboriginal Australian and end up costing millions - if not billions - of dollars.
Let's look at what is proposed. A new section will be inserted into the constitution saying that Aborigines were the original inhabitants of Australia, that the land is theirs and that all law in Australia is derived from traditional tribal law. Another section will be inserted outlawing racial discrimination - like the Racial Discrimination Act in miniature - but only protecting Aborigines. There is pressure from ethnic groups to incorporate the whole Racial Discrimination Act holus bolus into the constitution.
The bright red danger lights should now be flashing furiously.
For a start, this is just a de facto Bill of Rights, the same legislation Labor has been trying to introduce for many years on a state and federal level. In the ACT the Labor government has actually managed to legislate a Human Rights Act and this has been exploited by savvy lawyers to the hilt. Last year a magistrate was actually sacked when it was found that he spoke to a juvenile offender too harshly in his sentencing, and that the magistrate violated the childrens' rights of the offender under the Human Rights Act. The sentence was overturned and the boy walked free.
Just imagine that happening with Aborigines. They would effectively be immune from all prosecution because of the fear that - under the amendments to the Constitution - any charges would be struck down by Constitutional lawyers in the High Court. It would be a lawyers' picnic. And the worst thing about this is that everybody else in the country would not have that same advantage. Aborigines would become a protected species and everybody else will become second class citizens. Just imagine Aborigines running wild every day committing crimes willy nilly knowing they couldn't be charged because it is unconstitutional.
Why should the Constitution put Aborigines on a pedestal just because "they were here first"? It is an abomination and just another form of discrimination. Reverse discrimination..
The second part about transferring the Racial Discrimination Act into the Constitution - but only applying to Aborigines - is so totally bizarre you have to wonder why this was actually put into the proposal in the first place. Surely they didn't think the public would wear this? The Racial Discrimination Act was used by the infamous white gang of Aborigines to try and silence Andrew Bolt in the court action last year. It almost worked - Bolt shut down his blog temporarily and almost retired from journalism - but was persuaded to keep fighting the good fight by the overwhelming majority of Australians. Rather than extending the idea of racial discrimination into the Constitution we should be abolishing these laws altogether.
So far the only support for a yes vote in the referendum has come from The Canberra Times, specifically editor-at-large Jack Waterford who has an obsession with Aborigines and is on record as describing himself as a former student radical involved in the protest movement in the 1960s and '70s. It is largely due to his presence that The Canberra Times has pushed every trendy lefty issue doing the rounds. The newspaper has even said that if the public votes No to the referendum Australia would be shamed and become the pariah of the world. The good news is that the public - even in left wing Canberra - is just not buying it. Even on The Canberra Times's own website - normally a case of preaching to the converted - 60% of respondents to their online poll voted no to the question "Will you be voting yes to the Aboriginal referendum?"
Any possible support for the referendum was shot down in flames with the disgraceful Australia Day riot at the Aboriginal tent embassy. Just imagine this sort of radical ratbaggery being protected by the Constitution.
This referendum will cost millions of dollars to hold in the first place. It is now clear that it will be comprehensively defeated, so what is the point of the exercise? Why go ahead with it? To make a few feral leftists feel warm and fuzzy? To parade the PC credentials of the instigators? To create work for the Aboriginal industry? A very expensive way to indulge the fantasies and infantile idealism of the Left.
The Gillard government should nip this whole referendum proposal in the bud and stomp on it comprehensively by announcing it will not go ahead. It represents a direct threat to the rights and liberty of the vast majority and has the potential to cost taxpayers billions of dollars in legal fees and tie up the courts for many years with lawyers being the only beneficiaries. We don't want it and we definitely don't need it.
