Opposing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Go, Pauline, Go! By James Reed
It is clear that the Coalition will go weak on the Indigenous voice referendum issue, and will support it. Thus, it is good to see Pauline Hanson get off to a flying start in opposing it. Will this just galvanise the Left? Well, the Left already takes this issue as a holy grail, so forget it; it will be the ordinary people against the New Class and Those in the Shadows, who see these constitutional changes as suiting their agenda. Still, we should have already have begun intense lobbying of Coalition MPs on this issue, but it must not end there, for Pauline is right; whatever they say, they will cave in at the end. Grassroots activism to get the word out, leaflets that one can distribute to electorates which are not in the “woke’ zone of the inner city elites, talkback radio and the likes, are what to do now. Either that or face Australia sinking even deeper into the dust of history.
“Pauline Hanson will make herself the face of the 'no' campaign against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament after claiming it would be 'Australia's version of apartheid' in an extraordinary speech to the Senate.
The One Nation leader tripled-down on Wednesday on her strident opposition to voters being asked to enshrine the advisory body into the constitution.
Her office has since registered 46 website domains as they ramp up their efforts against the legislation, with VoicetoParliament.com.au and Ulurustatement.com.au among the group, the Telegraph reported.
'I'm confident Australians will resist giving a minority of people more power than the majority based on race,' she told the publication.
'That sort of thing was known as apartheid and it was rightly consigned to the dustbin of history. How can we possibly be contemplating this in Australia?'
The One Nation leader put herself forward to lead the movement because she was fed up with dealing with the Coalition and claimed they 'basically agree with it'.
'I'm sick and tired of the separatism,' Ms Hanson said.
The speech to a largely empty chamber while most were distracted by Greens leader Adam Bandt's National Press Club address was just a week after she sensationally stormed out of the Senate during an acknowledgement of country.
'The risk is very real that the sovereignty that all Australians have over their land and country will be handed to a racial minority,' she said.
'Why does this have to be in the constitution? What is the real ulterior motive? This can only be about power - creating a nation within a nation.
'This can only be about taking power from whitefellas and giving it to blackfellas. This is Australia's version of apartheid.
'Are they prepared for the compensation or reparations which will be demanded when the High Court decides that traditional ownership means sovereign control?'
Senator Hanson, without missing a beat, moved on to another attack on the entire concept of acknowledgement of country speeches.
One is read at the start of Parliament every day, and she after her walkout complained they were now even delivered on airplanes.
'Where will you stand, given that you acknowledge traditional ownership every day? Do you acknowledge that I, like millions of Australians, legally own my land and worked very hard for it?' she said.
'Do I have rights to my land, too? Can't you acknowledge my connection to my land and my love for my country?'
Senator Hanson then attacked her most forceful critic, Greens senator Lidia Thorpe, who caused her own scene on Monday by raising her fist in a 'black power' gesture and called The Queen a 'coloniser' as she gave her oath of allegiance.
'I note Lidia Thorpe's racist interjection in the past when she told me to go back to where I came from,' the One Nation MP continued.
'She can rest assured that I did, indeed, go back to where I came from - back to Queensland, where I was born and where I raised my children, and where my parents and grandparents were born.
'There is nowhere else for me to go. Australia is my home. Australia is our home - indigenous and non-indigenous alike.'
Senator Hanson's entire five-minute speech was her most unequivocal rearguard against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
It included strong praise for controversial Aboriginal senator Jacinta Price, who is the lone indigenous MP who opposes the advisory body.
Senator Price claimed Australia was 'saturated' with tokenistic 'virtue signalling' like acknowledgement of country, and the Indigenous Voice was not universally accepted among her people.
'I personally have had more than my fill of being symbolically recognised,' she said in her maiden speech last week.
'No, prime minister, we don't need another handout… and no, we indigenous Australians have not come to agreement on this statement.'
The Country Liberal former deputy mayor of Alice Springs even backed up Senator Hanson's walkout and position on the issue.
'I think I understand Pauline's frustrations. We don't want to see all these all these symbolic gestures. We want to see real action,' she said.”
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