Andrew Bolt: National anthem ban backflip welcome but worrying
Rugby bosses may have walked back the decision not to sing the national anthem at State of Origin games, but they still don’t understand where they went wrong, writes Andrew Bolt.
Andrew Bolt
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Fine, the Australian Rugby League has dropped its ban on the national anthem at State of Origin games. But don’t trust it.
Not when it still doesn’t get where it went wrong.
To hear chairman Peter V’Landys describe it, the ARL changed its mind on Thursday when Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave V’landys an earful.
“The Prime Minister eloquently put that what we’ve been through this year with the pandemic and the bushfires, it’s time that we all unite together.”
Hmm. So a different year, a different prime minister … and then no anthem?
I suspect so, because V’landys said something very false in announcing the backflip.
“Our decision not to play the anthem was never about politics,” he claimed.
No, it “was about the rivalry and tribalism associated with the Origin series”. Not a national game, so no national anthem.
But AFL finals games are not international contests, either. Nor are school end-of-year concerts. Yet I still hear our anthem there.
Thing is, V’landys is wrong. How can cancelling the anthem not be political?
What’s more political than a tribalism, pushed by our elite, that attacks the very idea of Australia as racist, along with its anthem and the flag? That says no to us all being equal before the law, regardless of race?
Indeed, the ARL has already had players in the indigenous All Stars team – players picked according to race – say no to the national anthem.
Latrell Mitchell, for instance, claimed it “just brings back so many memories from what’s happened”.
But our anthem does not endorse supposed sins of our past. It just urges us to live up to our ideals, to advance Australia fair.
Yet the ARL dutifully banned it from the All Stars games, and banning it from State of Origin was just the next step.
Thing is, people who attack national anthems are usually so intolerant that they can’t stand the slightest imperfection of a society without wanting to smash the whole.
They don’t understand what work it took to get this far, and don’t realise their own plans could fail far worse.
Either way, building a better Australia needs the unity and shared vision that national anthems build.
So getting rid of the anthem? Nothing more political. If the ARL does not understand that, it will try this stunt again.
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