British settlement was a “good thing” for indigenous Australians, Tony Abbott says
FORMER Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made more controversial comments about Australia Day as he also suggested our immigration intake should be reduced.
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FORMER Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made more controversial comments about Australia Day as he also suggested our immigration intake should be reduced to lower house prices.
Speaking today on 2GB, Mr Abbott told host Ray Hadley that scaling back immigration numbers will help with other issues Australians face in the long term.
“If in the coming year we can take real action to take the pressure off powers prices by perhaps further scaling back our climate change preoccupations, if in the coming year we can take the pressure off housing prices and make it easier for locals to get jobs by scaling back immigration, these are the sorts of things that when it comes to an election the government would get credit for,” Mr Abbott said.
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He also claimed European settlement was a “good thing” for indigenous Australians.
Speaking today on 2GB, Abbott told host Ray Hadley that the events of January 26, 1788, when Captain Arthur Phillip landed in Sydney Harbour, were of benefit to the Aboriginal inhabitants.
“What happened on the 26th of January, 1788, was on balance, for everyone, Aboriginal people included, a good thing,” Mr Abbott told the program.
“It brought Western civilisation to this country. It brought Australia into the modern world.”
Amid calls from some quarters, including The Greens, to change the date of Australia Day,
Mr Abbott was in favour of keeping the day of national celebration where it is.
“It’s very rarely a one-way street, so to speak, but if you look at the Australian achievement over the last couple of centuries, it is overwhelmingly a positive story, and increasingly it’s a positive story for indigenous Australians as well,” he said.
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Mr Abbott’s comments come after he penned a column for The Australian in which he argued against calls to change the date of Australia Day: “there are 364 other days to wear a black armband”.
“It’s hard to imagine a better Australia in the absence of the Western civilisation that began here from that date (January 26, 1788)”, Mr Abbott wrote.
“The rule of law, equality of the sexes, scientific curiosity, technological progress, responsible government — plus the constant self-criticism and lust for improvement that makes us so self-conscious of our collective failings towards Aboriginal people — all date from then; and may not have been present to anything like the same extent had the settlers fanning out from Sydney Cove been other than British.”
