Credlin: The fact is PM, your Yes claims don’t pass muster
Australians now have six weeks to decide whether our system of government should remain colourblind, writes Peta Credlin.
Opinion
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We now have six weeks to decide whether our system of government should remain colourblind.
October 14 is the most important vote in our recent history. It’s much bigger than an election because constitutional change is for keeps, while what one government does, another government can undo.
So far, everything about the Voice campaign has been unfair: the government’s initial refusal to fund a brochure putting both sides of the argument; the government’s delay in giving donation tax-deductibility to the No campaign; its refusal to fund both sides of the referendum as John Howard did in 1999; plus its dragooning of big business, big sport and big philanthropy – all of which need to stay on the good side of government – to make multimillion-dollar donations to the Yes camp that will see the airwaves and social media flooded with insinuations that it’s only polite to vote Yes but almost racist to vote No.
At last, though, there has been one small spark of fairness.
A few days ago, after complaints of bias, Facebook cut ties with the RMIT University FactLab as its arbiter of what’s allowed to remain on social media. It’s a small but significant win and a grudging concession by big tech that posts shouldn’t be blocked or cancelled just because vetting organisations don’t like inconvenient facts.
After Facebook labelled as “false information” my Sky News editorial that the Uluru Statement, the one that the government is committed to “in full”, was actually a 26-page ambit claim for treaties, reparations and self-government rather than a gracious invitation to walk together towards reconciliation, Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson formally complained.
He said “the decision of a foreign-headquartered social media platform to interfere with legitimate public discourse during a referendum … is particularly egregious”.
In response, Facebook conceded “possible bias or unfairness in some of the (Voice) fact-checks being applied by RMIT” and said that it was suspending RMIT as its fact-checking partner “effective immediately”.
Even so, as of 11.13am on Friday, the RMIT FactLab site still claimed it “works in partnership with Meta (Facebook’s owner) as third-party fact-checkers debunking problematic posts … to help slow the spread of harmful information”.
While big tech might have momentarily eased its campaign to suppress the truth about the Voice, the Albanese government is relentlessly peddling half-truths and falsehoods, completely unchecked, in a desperate attempt to flim-flam Australians into voting Yes.
Here’s the Peta Credlin fact-check of some of the Prime Minister’s statements last Wednesday.
He said “the idea for a Voice came from the people”. Wrong. It emerged from a select process involving hand-picked Aboriginal activists, culminating in the Uluru Statement that falsely implied to be made on behalf of all Aboriginal people.
He said the Voice was “supported by more than 80 per cent of Indigenous Australians”. Wrong.
Polling associated with Message Stick, a pro-Voice organisation, showed 30 per cent Yes, 25 per cent No and 45 per cent “don’t know”. He said “the parliament and government… will still be responsible for decisions and laws and funding”.
Misleading. The High Court will almost certainly sit in judgment on whether the government has adequately considered the Voice’s representations, given the High Court makes the final say on interpreting the Constitution, not any elected politician.
Mr Albanese said “giving locals a say… means that we save money too”. Misleading in so many ways.
First, the idea that a committee of 24 people in Canberra is “giving locals a say” is ludicrous, as is the inference that no Aboriginal person gets a say now, given the record number of Aboriginal MPs.
Second, the idea that creating a new (and heavily resourced) body to advocate on Aboriginal people’s behalf will save money is absurd, because it will inevitably double down on victimhood and demands for yet more funding.
He said “voting No means nothing changes… (and) closes the door on this opportunity to move forward”.
Rubbish. Voting No is a chance to make a fresh start, ending the separatism that has been at the heart of Indigenous policy these past five decades, and is the root cause of Aboriginal disadvantage. How can Aboriginal people ever become part of the Australian mainstream, with all its benefits, as long as it’s official policy to treat them separately and to encourage them to live differently to all other Australians?
The PM’s Yes pitch was essentially that all governments, all faith groups, all sports codes, all business groups and unions have endorsed it, so what could possibly go wrong?
He must think that Australians are impressed by authority. As if! Instead, the more they are hectored and lectured on this issue, the more sceptical they have become, as they should be.
The real heroes of this campaign are the Indigenous people who DON’T want special privileges based on their race and who are ready to oppose their noisy and much-acclaimed peers, in particular, Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine.
Now it is your turn to decide what sort of Australia you want. One that implores us to judge people by their character and not the colour of their skin, or one that divides us by race, and centuries-old grievances.
Please Australia, choose wisely.
ENERGY TRANSITION HEADS FOR DISASTER WITH BLOWOUT
Almost lost last week was the official announcement that Malcolm Turnbull’s way to tackle climate change while keeping the lights on – the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project – will now cost at least six times the original forecast.
In a rare bust of candour, Energy Minister Chris Bowen made the admission that its cost has blown out from $2bn to $12bn, probably because this is a disaster that could be blamed on someone else. Bowen still maintains we can move from having two-thirds of our electricity supplied by coal now, to having only 10 per cent of it from coal within just seven years. As even the emissions-obsessed energy market regulators now warn, it’s simply impossible to make this transition and to maintain the 24/7 power that modern life needs.
Meanwhile, the giant Eraring power station that currently supplies 25 per cent of NSW’s power is still due to shut in just two years. Yallourn, which is almost as big in Victoria, will shut just two years later, even though there are no reliable alternatives and extra renewable power is also years behind schedule. Energy policy has long been a slow-motion train wreck but it’s now starting to cripple family living standards and to cost local jobs.
Also largely unnoticed, China has effectively abandoned its Paris commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060, 10 years after most other countries including Australia. In late July, President Xi Jinping declared the “path, method, pace and intensity” of achieving emissions goals “must be determined by ourselves and will never be influenced by others”.
What madness is it for Australia to pursue a costly green dream, when nothing we do can make any difference to the quantum of atmospheric CO2?
Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm
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