Reconciliation, Parliament And The Missing Link

From the end of Reconciliation Week yesterday, being Mabo Day, to next Monday’s King’s Birthday and the federal parliament finally settling in to place, what is the State of the Nation?

I began Reconciliation Week by putting the Aboriginal flag up and posting it on social media:

A real partner in reconciliation is not obsequious and unwilling to call out disingenuousness.

Sarah Ferguson’s interview with Pat Dodson on the 7:30 Report “On the way forward after the failed Voice referendum“, last night brought nothing new to the process. What will really move it forward is when people like him acknowledge their European as well as their Aboriginal heritage and ancestry.

Reconciliation Week begins on the anniversary of the ground-breaking 1967 Referendum and ends on Mabo Day.

It’s no surprise that integrity is a key policy of the Teals; there’s a general shortage of it and not just in politics.

Parliament

Ambition is all very well, but it depends on how you go about it. It doesn’t matter if you’re female and identify as Aboriginal, your behaviour defines you. Being impatient, like Jacinta Nampajimpa Price’s defection from the Nationals to the Liberals is, has tarnished her reputation. Had she stayed with the Nationals and become its leader, it would put her on track to becoming Deputy Prime Minister. Apparently that’s not enough and party policy differences be damned. Dorinta Cox’s defection from the Greens looks much worse. After multiple staff allegations of bullying and being excluded from the new leadership line-up, she decided to give the Greens the finger and join the Labor party, ‘because I can do more in government’.

Both women have inflated the numbers for the major parties in the Senate. It doesn’t represent what their constituents voted for.

The massive majority the ALP now has is a house of cards, built on a primary vote swing of only about 2.3%. The final result in the House is now Labor 94, Liberal/National 43, Greens 1, Katter 1, Independent 9, undecided 1.

What’s That Block of Purple That Wasn’t There So Long Ago?

The Teals are a breakaway from the Liberals who grew impatient with its attitude toward climate change, women and integrity. It should be clear from their survival this election that there’s something in the Teal phenomenon conservatives should be taking note of.  It speaks to their confusion about climate change and their lethargy on women’s representation. This failure within the Liberal Party to put people and facts before expediency has created an integrity problem, too.

There are a lot of broken egg shells on the right and when that happens, someone wants to make an omelet.

Something is needed to bring clarity to the conservative side of politics. It is not progressive to regard women as equally capable of leadership. It is not progressive to regard climate change as a serious reality. It is not progressive to have integrity. These are just normal.

So What Does It Mean To Be ‘Conservative’?

Multiculturalism is progressive. It is idealistic and corrosive. Conservatives should oppose it for compassionate reasons, for Australians who are truly Australian, including Aborigines. They should nail their colours to the mast on it.

The Liberal Party is named so because it is supposed to be moderate, not staunchly oppositional to all change. That is not our way. Change is an evolutionary process, but done only when truly advisable. The Labor Party and Greens have become a destructive, slow-moving dreadnought on a predestined course to utopian oblivion.

The truly advisable change that is needed today is doing better, not bigger. I wrote about this in The Conservative Conservationist. Too few politicians have even heard of overshoot. This year, Earth Overshoot Day falls on June 5th. If everyone on Earth lived with Australian consumption patterns, Earth Overshoot Day would have been on March 14th. A conservative conservationist isn’t unadventurous and overly cautious in lifestyle or attitude. It recognizes limits and adjusts to them to achieve a sense of abundance. It also critically analyses and puts truth before belief, no matter how uncomfortable it is, for oneself or one’s friends and compatriots.

This means picking policies from across the political spectrum that are right for the times no matter where they come from and no matter how they used to align with other policies and parties.

The Missing Ingredient

What’s missing from Australian social and political life is genuine self-regard. Not pride as such, but the normal stuff of nations; self respect that puts Australians in Australia first. A caring country, like a caring person, must take care of itself first, keep its house in order and have a safe haven to retreat to. Without this, implosion and burnout is inevitable.

The stand out line in this year’s election came from Sarah Ferguson.

Fresh from delivering the Opposition budget reply, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton speaks to ABC’s Sarah Ferguson.

SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER:  The Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, joins me now, fresh from the chamber. Congratulations on your speech and welcome back to 7.30.

PETER DUTTON, OPPOSITION LEADER:  Thank you.

SARAH FERGUSON:  I want to start with immigration. Sky called it “massive”. What you have announced is a 25 per cent cut to Australia’s migration intake. Where in the system will those cuts be?

PETER DUTTON:  Well, there are a number of parts, obviously, that make up the problem that the Government’s created at the moment. It’s obviously been a huge influx of international students. The numbers have gone up in the programs otherwise, including the refugee and humanitarian program as well as the permanent migration program.

So our proposal is to reduce each of those and to make sure that we can release housing stock, existing houses that are there already, for which there is huge demand from Australians either to rent or to purchase and to put Australians first in terms of home ownership. That’s a very key part of the speech.

SARAH FERGUSON:  Australia first doesn’t sound like a very Australian-type thing to say.

PETER DUTTON:  Well, there are countless families I’ve spoken to, as I’ve gone around the country…

SARAH FERGUSON:  I think it’s the tone I’m talking about.

PETER DUTTON:  Well, of every nationality, of people who’ve just arrived, people who are second, third generation from India or China – they can’t find a house for their child. For their child who’s in the workforce, working hard, paying taxes, but cannot for love nor money buy a house.

ABC 7:30 Report 16 May 2024

“Australia first doesn’t sound like a very Australian-type thing to say.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. Yet it barely registered with Peter Dutton, who is all in with the internationalist culture. Enough of that. Let’s talk about the King’s Birthday coming up.

Thank God For The King

The King’s Birthday is a public holiday in all states next Monday across the country, except Queensland and Western Australia.

The Australian Government releases the King’s Birthday Honours List, recognizing individuals who have made significant contributions in areas such as community service, business, sports, and the arts. Some cities hold ceremonial events, including military parades, gun salutes, and flag-raising ceremonies to honor the monarchy.

Major sporting events are held on this long weekend, especially in Victoria and New South Wales. Some areas host fireworks displays and community fairs, although they are less common than on other public holidays.

Since the holiday falls in June (winter in Australia), many people take advantage of the long weekend to go on short trips or have family gatherings.

Excelnotes

Western Australia celebrates the King’s Birthday on September 29th and Queensland celebrates on October 6th. for King’s Birthday. Celebrating later in the year is a sensible idea because most of our public holidays are in the first half of it. It would be convivial and unifying for the whole country to celebrate the nation’s Head of State on the same day, wouldn’t it?

In October I’ll be throwing another outdoor BBQ party as I have done in the past. This year, there will be a Royal Commission inquiring into which Australian family should replace the Windsors! Party-goers will then participate in a Referendum to install the country’s first home-grown dynasty! We’re going to have a ball.

Queensland Day

This Friday, (6th of June) is Queensland Day – the anniversary of Queensland’s creation as a separate colony to New South Wales in 1859. It will be celebrated in the evening by the Royal Historical Society of Queensland at the Tattersall’s Club and the Samuel Griffith Society at the Queensland Club. I renewed by membership with these organizations because they genuinely appreciate our history and constitution. The SGS has a ‘Campus Law and Liberty Chapters’ initiative to promote the Society at universities. It works to educate young Australians about the Constitution and promote discussions of constitutional affairs. A much needed service to counter the decades of Marxist negativity that was in its infancy when I was a student of the Sociology Department of La Trobe University.

Queensland Coat of Arms (the oldest in the country) and the State Flag.