Rita Panahi: Peter FitzSimons lecturing Jacinta Price on race is sheer arrogance

If you need proof the Left don’t play by their own rules just listen to a white man lecture an Indigenous woman on race.

It’s hard to fathom the sheer arrogance of a privileged multi-millionaire lecturing an Indigenous woman on race relations. And, Peter FitzSimons did not just lecture Senator Jacinta Price over her position on the race-based referendum and Australia Day, but he also scolded her for daring to deviate from Leftist orthodoxy.

What ugly paternalism from a man in his 60s towards a woman who has worked tirelessly for the most vulnerable and voiceless members of her community; women and children suffering severe disadvantage due to abuse and neglect.

The Left cannot even play by their own stupid rules. Here we have a white man of mediocre talent who has nevertheless accumulated enormous wealth tell a black woman who has survived terrible physical and emotional abuse how she should feel and how she should advocate on Indigenous issues.

Peter FitzSimons scolded Jacinta Price for daring to deviate from Leftist orthodoxy. Picture: Mark Wilson

The clash between Price and FitzSimons erupted when the senator accused the Fairfax columnist of being rude and confrontational during a phone interview.

It was rather generous of Price to grant the interview given FitzSimons’ earlier commentary on her work. Last month he wrote: “The Coalition’s noisiest voice — no pun intended — on this subject is the Indigenous senator from the Northern Territory, Jacinta Price, who keeps hammering away that there are more important things to accomplish that could help Indigenous people than a merely symbolic voice”.

Senator Price has long advocated for consequential issues that save and transform lives. She is not interested in cheap tokenism to make the inner-city activist class of the FitzSimons variety feel good about themselves.

Senator Jacinta Price took to Facebook over the weekend to complain about the conduct of Nine newspaper columnist Peter FitzSimons. Picture: Chris Pavlic

It is Senator Price, not FitzSimons, who highlights the plight of Indigenous women who are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised due to domestic violence than other Australian women.

FitzSimons is outraged that Price is critical of his conduct during the interview and has threatened legal action.

He has also bombarded her with texts demanding she alter her account.

But Price is not one to be silenced. “I will always stand up for myself … Indigenous women’s voices have been silenced long enough,” she said.

Sadly, “progressives” only celebrate minorities who know their place and dutifully parrot the Left’s talking points.

If a woman or man of colour dares to think for themselves, or challenges the victimhood narratives assigned to them, they are immediately dismissed and disparaged.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist