Rita Panahi: Why are taxpayers funding divisive Invasion Day, ‘modest fashion’ nonsense?
NEXT time you hear nonsense spouted by ill-informed protesters, ask yourself: are my tax dollars funding this idiocy? Because chances are, your hard-earned is supporting the activism of these agitators, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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NEXT time you hear obtuse nonsense spouted by ill-informed protesters, ask yourself: are my tax dollars funding this idiocy?
Chances are, directly or indirectly, your hard-earned is supporting the activism of agitators pushing agendas that most in the community find reckless, pointless or just bloody abhorrent.
Australia is choc-full of rent-seekers who do little else but cause division and damage the reputation of the country that has given them so much.
The Left’s “long march through the institutions” has seen fringe-dwelling activists not only infiltrate but dominate public institutions, including many government bodies, academia and the media.
There is a multitude of organisations, including multicultural bodies, that promote destructive victimhood among new Australians and unfairly malign a welcoming country as xenophobic and hostile.
No other issue unites the publicly funded malcontents more than Australia Day, where multiple grievances combine for one almighty outrage orgy.
Never mind that according to independent polling carried out last year only six per cent of us feel negatively towards the day. The narrative from much of the media, particularly taxpayer funded ABC and SBS, is that the day is deeply divisive.
If you’re one of the 25,000 (that’s the ABC’s estimate, the Guardian went with 40,000 to 60,000) who spent the national holiday marching in the “invasion day” protest in Melbourne, then it’s time to reassess your life choices.
For the rally organisers, Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance it’s never been about the date; it’s clear they don’t want an Australia Day at all and don’t believe this country has anything to celebrate.
Tarneen Onus-Williams, part of the government-funded Koorie Youth Council that has received close to $2 million from taxpayers since 2012, took to the stage to declare: “We have not organised this to change the date. We have organised this to abolish Australia Day because f--- Australia. F--- Australia, I hope it f---ing burns to the ground.”
MELBOURNE CBD SWAMPED FOR AUSTRALIA DAY PROTEST
‘ABOLISH AUSTRALIA’: ACTIVIST GROUP’S VILE POST
Clarifying her comments, Ms Onus- Williams said that she wanted Australia to burn metaphorically rather than literally and wanted “everything, all the governments to fall apart”.
Does that include tearing apart our secular democratic system, the rule of law and welfare programs?
WAR has backed Onus- Williams’ words, posting a statement laced with profanity and hysteria: “F--- your governments, your military and your police. F--- your concentration camps dressed up as correctional facilities and immigration detention centres. F--- your economy, your greed and your cult of the almighty dollar. F--- your poisoning of water, your wholesale destruction of land and your pollution of our atmosphere.
“WAR will not rest until we burn this entire rotten settler colony called Australia … Abolish Australia, not just Australia Day.”
Understandably Ms Onus-Williams’ statement and links to WAR have many questioning her position on the Koorie Youth Council, with former premier Jeff Kennett and indigenous leader Warren Mundine among those calling for her removal.
That has seen a backlash from the usual activists in the media who seem to think that criticism equals censorship.
It’s funny how those on the Left, who support totalitarian limits on free speech including Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, can’t differentiate between free speech and speech that’s free from criticism. Maybe if they valued the former they’d comprehend its meaning.
Ms Onus-Williams can say what she likes and in the past week has appeared on multiple media outlets including 3AW, where she called Neil Mitchell a “racist” for daring to ask simple questions which she refused to answer.
But just because I support her right to say what she feels doesn’t mean I want my tax dollars supporting her type of toxic, divisive activism.
A number of writers for Fairfax, Guardian, ABC and BuzzFeed have rushed to Onus-Williams’ defence, suggesting the criticism of her is motivated by racism. They’re nothing if not predictable.
While Australians were distracted by calls to burn their nation, the diplomatic geniuses at the Department of Foreign Affairs Trade were indulging in a little misogyny in the name of diversity.
DFAT tweeted out a link to their site promoting “modest fashion” and “the rise of the hijabista” with an image of women in hijabs posing in front of the Opera House.
Modesty culture is rooted in misogyny and should never be celebrated or promoted. It’s designed to subjugate women and mark those who don’t observe “modest” dress as unclean, uncovered meat. It is perverse that while women in Iran are risking arrest and worse to protest against Muslim veils forced on them by the regime, DFAT thinks hijabs are a good way to promote diplomacy.
But we shouldn’t be surprised; after all this is the same DFAT that funded Yassmin “Islam is the most feminist religion” Abdel-Magied’s book tour to feminist hotspots like Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Ms Abdel-Magied is another beneficiary of taxpayer largesse who nevertheless continuously slams the country and its people.
Then there are the taxpayer activists on the Australian Human Rights Commission who hounded cartoonist Bill Leak and a group of Queensland students who dared mock segregated computer rooms and those who drew up the “safe schools” program that pushes radical gender theory under the guise of an “anti-bullying” program.
And let’s not forget the public broadcaster, an activist echo chamber, which has recently launched ABC Comedy, formerly ABC2, full of far Left programming that is about as funny as a herniated disc.
Activists who loathe this country continue to be the beneficiaries of funding provided by the very people they deride.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist.
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