We treated Indigenous Australians as slaves. From the 1930s until the 70s our FNP faced the Aboriginal Control Act where up to 70% of their wages were withheld and in many cases lost by governments without any restitution. It’s taken until 2023 for that to be finally recognized in WA where the government has been ordered to pay $180M in compensation. Mind you WA wasn’t the only state to lose funds this way Qld was another. Yes, Aboriginals were slaves they built the cattle Industry in this country and in return, were paid a pittance, far less than Whites were. But then they were judged under welfare regulations that justified stealing their children.
Less than 3 weeks ago Peter Dutton was telling Australia that the Yes campaign would divide a nation already divided and that a No vote guaranteed to keep things as is united. Indigenous Australians don’t just suffer a glass ceiling but a cast iron one providing them with less historic room for growth. Dutton’s call for a Royal Commission into Indigenous Child Abuse is a shameful treatment of victim blaming. Dutton declares they’re different and deserve to be blamed for that difference a continuation of the Racist reality that’s always existed. Dutton said Yes to the Cash Card, Yes to a donation of $12M to a school run by Jacinta Price’s mother, and Yes to an audit on money received by remote communities. The fact is Yes was recognition of 235 years of racism that has continued to exist in this country and a wish to change it. Dutton’s No is a continued 235 of division and a continued denial that fails to explain why Australia remains, unlike any other other colonial nation on the planet. Australia is the standout without any treaties or any Constitutional principle that recognizes its FNP’s Universal Human Rights. It
The results of the Voice Referendum have highlighted ongoing issues of racism from which Australia is struggling to move on, writes Michael Galvin.
olddogthoughts 