Wow, what a big week it was in politics!
The allegation of sexual assault against Senator David Van by Senator Lidia Thorpe, the continuing political assassination of Brittany Higgins by News Corpse and its lap dogs plus the pursuit of Senator Katy Gallagher that blew up in Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s face made for a fascinating seven days in federal politics.
Now Ernesto hasn’t got much time for Senator Thorpe and he sees her as an attention seeker who has betrayed her people by opposing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Ernesto finds it bizarre that a person who says she is so passionate on improving the lives of her people will now sit shoulder to shoulder to build the case against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament with the members of the No campaign, some of whom, such as Pauline Hanson, have well known views on race.
Having said that, when Senator Thorpe made the allegation of sexual assault against Senator Van, one could feel the collective ‘eye roll’ throughout the Senate chamber.
Apparently Senator Thorpe has had issues with Senator Van for a while and the ‘powers that be’ had Senator Van’s office moved away from Senator Thorpe’s — no investigation into her allegations, just move him on.
Problem solved.
Remember the response of the Catholic Church and George Pell when accusations were made against paedophile priests? No investigation — just move them elsewhere.
Are we seeing a pattern here? You don’t upset the status quo. Old, white, male privilege must be protected at all costs.
It is (sadly) telling that Mr Dutton and the Liberal Party only acted on Senator Van when a white woman (Amanda Stoker) and another unnamed accuser said “Me Too”.
Mr Dutton, if you remember, boycotted Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008 and he opposed the Indigenous Voice to Parliament without engaging in the discussion.
He has no interest in bettering the lives of our Indigenous population, his only purpose is to divide the community on the issue of the Voice for political purposes.
As a footnote, despite the large Indigenous population in the Goulburn Valley, our federal representative, Sam Birrell, came out toeing the National Party line in opposing the Voice long before any details were known.
It remains to be seen how our state representative, Kim O’Keeffe, will vote on this issue but recent commentary in the News suggests she will be a No also.
The Indigenous population of Australia has been racked by injustice for many years, the Voice is a chance to try to ensure these injustices don’t continue into the future.