Only this month former independent MP for New England Tony Windsor was in a philosophical but melancholic mood. “Sadly Richard,” he tweeted to ABC presenter Richard Glover, “many Australians are racist.”
“Many politicians exploit it,” he continued wistfully. And with his next breath, he could well have been trying to emulate Gillian Triggs, former president of the Australian Human Rights Commission. “Many kitchen tables promote it without even thinking.” What better way to demonstrate your moral superiority than to publicly lament the racism, whether real or imagined, of your fellow citizens?
Sadly Richard many Australians are racist ..many politicians exploit it , many kitchen tables promote it without even thinking...Hanson thrives on it and feeds disadvantage with it . https://t.co/shm5H9hRYg
— Tony Windsor (@TonyHWindsor) November 10, 2017
Former chair of the Australian Government’s Indigenous Advisory Council and Bundjalung man Warren Mundine knows a lot about copping racist jibes, particularly from self-styled progressives. Appearing on the ABC’s Q&A program last Monday, he condemned the benevolent racism of “white activists” who tried to block mining on indigenous land.
“What really gets up my nerve is that Aboriginal people get their land back, through native title, and they’re living at the bottom end of poverty and then these green activists in the cities come out there and say ‘No, you can’t have economic development, you can’t do things on your land, you just stay in poverty forever, and that’s the way it is.’”
“What are you going to do for economic development for Aboriginal people to get them out of poverty,” he asked. His determination to realise indigenous self-sufficiency and to expose the hypocrisy of the left have made him a figure of hate for activists, many of whom publicly question his aboriginality with racist abuse such as ‘coconut’, and ‘Uncle Tom’. On Monday night he copped it again, this time from Windsor himself.
“Sad to watch Warren Mundine raise the issue of token aborigines when he has made himself into a token aborigine as a means of making a living and the media accept him on those terms,” tweeted Windsor. Even when apologising the next day for this slur, Windsor could only do so with weasel words. “I have sent a message to Warren Mundine apologising for a tweet posted by me last night,” he tweeted. If it has offended anyone I apologise. On re-reading the tweet I can understand how it could be taken to offend.”
Does Windsor really expect people to believe he did not know at the time that using a racial slur would cause offence? Incidentally, while The Australian considered this incident newsworthy, neither Fairfax nor the ABC covered it. What do you think the reaction would be had a conservative politician said that?
In addition to being defamatory, Windsor’s remarks could amount to a breach of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which, among other things, makes it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate others on the basis of their race. Ironically, he has long opposed the Coalition’s plans to relax the provisions of 18C. “No one is demanding change to 18C in the community,” he tweeted in March, “only the Leaking loonies.”
Joyce is right , no one is demanding change to 18c in the community ...only the Leaking loonies . https://t.co/zwKgfn1niw
— Tony Windsor (@TonyHWindsor) March 21, 2017
At least Windsor apologised. Not so author and Fairfax columnist Peter FitzSimons, who like Windsor, has long sneered at the attempts to reforms 18C. In November last year, FitzSimons, while on a panel for Sky Sports, referred to a black South African official who manhandled a Channel Nine reporter as a “gorilla”. Realising what he had said, he quickly went into spin mode. “In Australian terminology a gorilla is a security guard,” said.
Australian terminology? Fair dinkum, that is a sad attempt to justify a dumb statement. This was the same FitzSimons who in 2014 castigated talkback host Alan Jones for defending a 13 year old girl who had called Sydney Swans player Adam Goodes an ape. What did FitzSimons say of Jones’s assertion that neither the girl nor he knew it was a term of racial abuse?
“Alan, bring it in tight. If calling a black man a “gorilla” and an “ape” is not racial abuse, what the hell does it take,” thundered FitzSimons self-righteously. “I repeat, Alan, if that is not racism, what DOES it take?
As they say, when you are up to your ears in the proverbial, keep your mouth shut. But no, the bandana raconteur could not help himself, and FitzSimons fulminated when Herald-Sun journalist Andrew Bolt called out his hypocrisy. “My co-panellists, James Bracey, Jim Wilson and Richard Freedman, didn’t blink,” he wrote.
“Familiar with the Australian vernacular, they knew exactly the sense I meant it in, telling me off-camera they thought my addendums unnecessary.” And then the clincher. “The most treasured possession in my house is the signature of Nelson Mandela,” he added. Shall we spell it out to FitzSimons in the format of an open letter that he frequently fills his columns with?
“Fitz, bring it in tight. If calling a black man a “gorilla” is not a breach of the Racial Discrimination Act, what the hell does it take? I repeat, Fitz, if that is not racism, what DOES it take?”
“What’s that you say? You sought reassurance from your fellow panellists — all of whom like you are white — and they told you that you had done nothing wrong? Irrelevant. As the Act stands, whether you have breached the legislation depends on whether black South Africans as a group would likely consider the remark offensive or insulting. The government tried to change that test to what the Australian community as a whole would consider was wrong, but people like Waleed Aly argued it would send the wrong message to minorities. Remember you tweeted that article with approval, saying “And this, friends, is why Waleed is the best in the business.”?”
And this, friends, is why Waleed is the best in the business:
— Peter FitzSimons (@Peter_Fitz) September 1, 2016
18C real agenda: sending a message to minorities https://t.co/D7lHYtx9ha @smh
“Is there anything else you want to say in your defence? You had no intention of causing offence? Sorry, your intention is no defence to 18C action. Do you have anything to say before this court comes to a decision? What — you have an autograph of Nelson Mandela at your house? What do you think that is, a get-out-of-jail-free card? What sort of ridiculous defence is that?”
For the record, I do not hold that either Windsor or FitzSimons is racist. That said, the pair have a Statler and Waldorf persona about them — although without the wit — particularly their tendency to dish it out and laugh uproariously at their own jokes. Both sanctimoniously derided those who attempted to reform 18C, yet both have unwittingly demonstrated the legislation’s pitfalls. Who’s a Muppet then?
Miners change tune on climate change
Peak mining industry body The Minerals Council of Australia has joined the fight on climate.
Easy to point the finger
Demanding we abandon coal for climate is akin to asking NZ to give up love affair with sheep.