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Andrew Bolt: These ‘voices’ are what is keeping us apart

Those who talk most about “reconciliation” must ask themselves if they are bringing us together or driving a wedge between us, writes Andrew Bolt.

Uluru climbing ban now in place

The ABC again called firebrand Labor Senator Pat Dodson our “Father of Reconciliation” this week. But what reconciliation? Where?

Consider the past week.

Dodson, this “Father of Reconciliation”, accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of “shallowness” for not being at a ceremony to mark a permanent ban on Australians climbing Ayers Rock, or Uluru.

He also accused Morrison of trying to “hoodwink” Aborigines over a “voice to parliament”, a racist plan Dodson backs to create an Aboriginal-only advisory parliament.

Pat Dodson. Picture: Ben Houston
Pat Dodson. Picture: Ben Houston

Er, but isn’t Dodson, an MP who identifies as Aboriginal, proof that Aborigines already have a “voice to parliament”, just like every other Australian citizen?

Isn’t that the “reconciliation” we want? Where we’re all equal?

Or is “reconciliation” in fact meant to divide us permanently into hostile racial camps?

Back to the news. Last week’s ban on climbing Uluru, based on what seems a newly-invented religious taboo, has been followed by calls by Sunshine Coast indigenous elders for a similar ban on climbing the highest of the Glasshouse Mountains.

Somehow, “reconciliation” involves locking out non-Aborigines from places tourists love. Climbing in many parts of Victoria’s Grampians National Park was banned this year after unverified claims climbers were damaging Aboriginal heritage, and non-Aborigines have been banned from visiting popular beaches north of Broome.

Is this “reconciliation” about bringing us together or driving us apart? Judge by those we’re told are our guides.

Yesterday federal Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt announced he’d asked Professor Marcia Langton to help design an Aboriginal-only “voice to government”.

Last week’s ban on climbing Uluru is based on what seems a newly invented religious taboo. Picture: Emma Murray
Last week’s ban on climbing Uluru is based on what seems a newly invented religious taboo. Picture: Emma Murray

This is already crazy. Here is a minister asking one of Melbourne University’s Redmond Barry Distinguished Professors to design a “voice to government”, despite both identifying as Aboriginal, thus showing Aborigines have that voice already.

Crazier still was to choose Langton to help design our “reconciliation”.

Langton? A reconciler? This is the hate-tweeter who last week called a veterinary nurse who’d climbed Uluru “a big-busted dumbass blonde” who “white men” should marry for a “complete feeling of white supremacy”.

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Langton has also accused many Australians of racism, from former prime minister John Howard to feminist icon Germaine Greer and global warming extremist Tim Flannery.

When Labor lawyer Josh Bornstein defended Flannery, Langton sneered: “Doodums. Did the nig nog speak back?”

I ask again: where’s this “reconciliation” of which Senator Dodson is the “father”?

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Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-these-voices-are-what-keeps-us-apart/news-story/e629272257dae697614ab3f74356da51