Andrew Bolt: Hard work, not divisive tax break plans, the way to get ahead

We should thank Jill Gallagher for exposing the disturbing fact that an endless gimme-gimme is the only thing we’ll get from the disastrous victim mentality of the Aboriginal industry.

We should thank Jill Gallagher for telling us any treaty between Aboriginals and the Victorian government must include exempting Aboriginals from paying land taxes, stamp duty and council rates. Oh, and we should also give them interest-free loans for homes.

Gosh, didn’t we last year vote exactly against this kind of apartheid in the referendum on the Voice? So why is Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allan saying these are indeed things she’ll negotiate in reaching a treaty with Aboriginals?

But, yes, we should thank Gallagher, a former treaty advancement commissioner, first of all for exposing the disturbing fact that this kind of endless gimme-gimme is the only thing we’ll get from the disastrous victim-mentality of the Aboriginal industry.

Apparently the more than $40bn a year Australian taxpayers already lavish on Aboriginals is still not enough. Nor are all the grants of native title land. No, says Gallagher, Aboriginals need a chance to create wealth, especially by buying property.

“My mother, my grandmother, my great-grandfather never had an opportunity to create wealth so they could pass it on to their families,” she told the ABC on Wednesday. “None of our families had that opportunity”.

No? In fact, Australia is so rich with such opportunities, including for Aboriginals, that waves of immigrants have come and prospered.

Apparently the more than $40bn a year Australian taxpayers already lavish on Aboriginals is still not enough. Picture: Aaron Francis

They include Jewish refugees who came with nothing, immigrants fleeing poverty in southern Italy, boat people from Vietnam with just the clothes on their backs.

There was something else about Gallagher’s answer – claiming her mother’s line couldn’t create wealth – that struck me, and which was confirmed just by looking at her.

Gallagher clearly also has white ancestors. Didn’t they, at least, have the same chance to create wealth as many other Australians? So, does Gallagher qualify for the whole tax holiday she’s demanding for Aboriginals, or get only half? And what about some other guy whose 16 great-great-grandparents include, say, just one Aboriginal? Do they get these tax breaks, too?

I smell a giant rort. No wonder the past two censuses – 2016 and 2021 – showed more than 130,000 Australians calling themselves Aboriginal who hadn’t in the census before. Watch how many more there’ll be if claiming Aboriginality gets them off paying stamp duty.

Here’s a tip for Gallagher and Premier Allan. Australians have made clear they hate such divisions by race.

The way to get ahead is not through more freebies, but hard work.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Hard work, not divisive tax break plans, the way to get ahead