Albanese appointments show enormous disrespect for all Australians
The Australian people rejected the Voice overwhelmingly, but the Albanese government has blindly failed to accept the reality and should be rewarded with a thumping election loss, writes Piers Akerman.
Opinion
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Last year’s referendum on a Voice to Parliament cost taxpayers a minimum $450m, probably closer to half a billion, and there was a clear result.
The Australian people rejected the full proposition overwhelmingly.
However, the Albanese government which proposed it has blindly failed to accept the reality that 60.06 per cent of the population voted No.
This mulish obstinacy dishonours both Yes and No voters and undermines the democratic process. Not only has the Albanese government abused the trust of the people in ignoring the express will of the majority, it has subsequently made a series of appointments which show an enormous disrespect for all Australians.
The most significant was the appointment of Sam Mostyn, a long-time left-wing Labor staffer, to the $709,000-a-year position of governor-general.
Mostyn’s salary is $214,000 more than her predecessor’s, justified by the fact that she wasn’t in the military or judiciary (as previous G-Gs have been) and didn’t qualify for a government pension.
That overlooks two things, the first being that the honour and the pre-existing salary level should have been sufficient enticement.
The second is that Mostyn was a wealthy businesswoman in her own right, a member of a number of boards, including the deluded and politicised Climate Council and Reconciliation Australia.
Five years on the public teat was not going to send her bankrupt.
Her utterances since taking office read like rejected scripts written for NZ’s former and unlamented disaster of a prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, all full of love, hope and charity but singularly lacking in practicality.
The Albanese government has also been using your money to pay $326,000 annually to Justin Mohamed, the nation’s inaugural ambassador for First Nations people.
Mohamed turned in a travel bill of $145,000 last financial year after visiting Honolulu for the Festival of Pacific Art and Culture, San Francisco for APEC Economic Leaders’ Week, Dubai for the COP28 climate conference, and Geneva for United Nations meetings, among other overseas trips. On these junkets he has talked about nothing that couldn’t have been discussed by a bureaucrat from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Mohamed is the head of the Office for First Nations International Engagement, which has a budget of $13.6m over four years.
On Friday, we learnt of yet another appointment, Latrobe University professor Clare Wright, who has been appointed chair of the National Museum of Australia’s council.
Wright, who is not Indigenous, says she was “adopted” into the Yolngu in northeast Arnhem Land in 2010.
“I took an active role in a political campaign (the Voice referendum) that was important to me. I thought constantly during that campaign of what it would mean to my yapa (sister) and the children and grandchildren of the Yolngu people to have a voice to parliament,” she told The Australian newspaper.
This appears to be a blatant politicisation of a role which should be free of politics, but everything is political to the Albanese government, even when that political position has been rejected by the people.
In fact, despite Australians kicking the Voice proposal into touch, the federal and state governments are doing all they can to put into place the demands that were defeated.
Such outrageous contempt for the will of the people is rare in democracies.
It is to be hoped the Albanese government’s disdain will be rewarded with a thumping rejection when it has to answer to the public.
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