Following on from the dumping of the hated Internet censorship by Communications minister Stephen Conroy after being put on hold for three years comes the news that the Aboriginal referendum - which was originally slated to coincide with the upcoming Federal election - has now been put on hold for three years as well. The reason given being that with the continuing bad odour caused by the Australia Day riot in Canberra, the referendum might be defeated.
The extraordinary and dismaying thing is the way the media greeted the announcement with disappointment, as if it was a terrible failing of the public that they would even consider voting against such a wonderful and noble gesture. Rather than indulging in an orgy of self-flagellation as the left wing media would like us to do, we should all be thankful that such a threat to our country has been deferred. Yes, deferred, not dumped unfortunately.
Unlike Internet censorship - upon which millions of dollars and countless manhours were spent for nothing - the Gillard government has taken steps to ensure that the Aboriginal referendum will eventually be held. In the final weeks of parliament this year, legislation was pushed through binding any future government into holding the referendum. Very much like how the Keating Labor government in its final year put through legislation forcing the Howard Liberal government to hold the republic referendum in 1999, so too the Gillard government will be forcing Tony Abbott's government to hold the Aboriginal referendum.
You might think there is no threat in this. John Howard campaigned for a No vote in the republic referendum and the public delivered. This time, however, Tony Abbott is apparently in favour of a Yes vote in the Aboriginal referendum, no doubt sensitive to any "Dr No" jibes from Labor. That will make the task of defeating this referendum even harder. No referendum which has received bipartisan support has ever been defeated.
I've previously gone through the reasons why we should vote No to this referendum, the chief one being that in this multicultural and pluralistic society we would be singling out one race of people in the Constitution as somehow being special and superior. Also that the most objectionable features of the Racial Discrimination Act would be written into the Constitution meaning that discrimination cases would no longer just be dealt with by bothersome bureaucrats from the Human Rights Commission, Constitutional lawyers would be dragged into it and cases would gummy up the High Court for years and cost the taxpayer billions of dollars.
It is clear that the Aboriginal referendum will be one of many time bombs laid by the Gillard government before they get the boot in the election. We should all be vigilant and never drop our guard with this mob.
