Taking offence at royal name for new hospital is just ridiculous

Co-chair of the Victorian First Peoples Assembly. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

I read in this paper this week: “Indigenous groups and the Greens have attacked the Andrews government for naming a new Melbourne hospital after Queen Elizabeth II, claiming the move will make Aboriginal Victorians feel ‘culturally unsafe’.”

Maybe someone needs to conduct research, at the taxpayers’ expense of course, to see if Aboriginal people in my home state of Queensland feel safe at the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Hospital at Coopers Plains in Brisbane.

While we are at it, we could check how Aboriginal people in Queensland feel about the Prince Charles Hospital at Chermside. I know my father, a prominent Indigenous Australian and Queensland Senior Australian of the Year, had no issues with cultural safety there when he was a patient.

So, the Greens and some Indigenous groups have decided Aborig­inal Australians will feel culturally unsafe at this new hospital in Melbourne. How lucky are Aboriginal people in Victoria to have these caring gatekeepers who know exactly how they all feel about the name of a hospital?

The Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Hospital in Coopers Plains.

Maybe these gatekeepers could use their voices to advise parliament on matters affecting Aboriginal Australians in the future? Oops, I seem to recall that someone has already thought of that idea and Anthony Albanese is backing it. Are these the sort of issues the Indigenous voice to parliament would focus on?

But let’s not make this discussion about the voice, as what I discuss here, I think, is going to continue whether or not the voice gets up.

I cannot help but think such a display of virtue signalling communicates to Aboriginal Australians that they are so fragile that a name such as Queen Elizabeth II for a hospital is threatening.

And might it possibly produce some reactionary guilt in non-Aboriginal Australians simply because they are not Aboriginal and not affected by the naming of a hospital?

Before colonisation, Aboriginal Australians were able to live under harsh conditions that few of us could endure for more than three or four days. They were tough people. It would seem that for some of today’s Aboriginal people, their strength, like their ancestry, is greatly diluted. Yes, I am expecting the offendarati (a term coined by the great cartoonist Bill Leak) to come after me for that last sentence, possibly because I have violated their cultural safety.

Before colonisation, Aboriginal Australians were able to live under harsh conditions that few of us could endure for more than three or four days. Photo: Cordell Richardson

If it is true that some Aboriginal Australians may feel unsafe because the name of the new hospital refers to the late Queen, do these same Aboriginal Australians feel unsafe when handling currency that has the Queen’s image on it? Where will this ridiculousness end?

Of course, this is just the latest example where it is assumed Aboriginal people are fragile and need protection from names, national holidays, anthems, brand names and cartoons. I have seen academics tripping over themselves to ensure there is cultural safety for Aboriginal students and staff. Interestingly, I don’t see similar concerns for students and staff of other cultures.

While many of us will just shake our heads and even have a chuckle, there is a serious consequence to this virtue signalling. I believe that by continually sending a group of people a message they are weak, some members of that group will start to believe it, or believe their group membership depends on acting as if they believe it.

Hospitals, as imperfect as they are, are places where many lives are saved and quality of life improved. This is true for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. It is sad that, as we emerge from the Covid era and start to gain a sense of normality and stability, Aboriginal people may be deterred from going to hospital for health matters because of a name.

The real problems facing Aboriginal Australians are unclean and unsafe living environments, violence, poor health and unemployment.

To maintain their relevance, culture vultures, professional race baiters and some Greens will likely see the naming of the new hospital as some form of institutional racism. Like so many other claims of assumed racism in its various forms, they all serve a common purpose – to distract us from the urgent problems facing too many Aboriginal Australians: unclean and unsafe living environments, violence, poor health, unemployment and so on.

I and others have spoken about these problems before. We know the solutions, and we know that if we are to see results we must remain focused and not be distracted by trivial nonsense such as naming a hospital after Queen Elizabeth II.

Rather than investing energy in fussing over the name of a hospital, how about we invest that energy in ensuring Aboriginal people and other Australians who may require the services of this new hospital, have ready access to it and that they receive the best possible service?

Anthony Dillon is a postdoctoral fellow, faculty of health sciences, at Australian Catholic University.