Frank wrote on Jul 1
st, 2023 at 11:49am:
Inside the Uluru statement, two major accusations are expressed in one pithy sentence: “In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard.” The Aboriginal leaders who met at Uluru believed their kinsfolk were not even deemed worthy of being counted – until the referendum of 1967 raised their political status. Anthony Albanese himself, while understandably basking in his political honeymoon, affirmed this accusation, and continues to do so in parliament. If true, the accusation is a serious blemish on the Australian nation during the past century and a half.
But it is not true....
The Uluru statement is militant. It offers no sentence of respect or gratitude to the Australian people. Yet it is hailed by Albanese as warm hearted and generous. He even announced in a memorial lecture in Adelaide recently that it was an invitation extended “to every single Australian in love and grace and patience”.
A disciple of Bruce Pascoe, Albanese admires his nonsensical Dark Emu theory. Pascoe believes Aboriginal Australia was the first real democracy in the world and for 80,000 years a haven of peace and prosperity. Albanese believes this utopia – in fact, it never existed – can in some ways be honoured if Indigenous people are compensated with special powers and rights.
Parliament in its recent debate did nothing to validate the Uluru accusation that mainstream Australians had refused for generations even to count Aboriginal people.
In fact, these proud people were being counted before any one of us was born.Geoffrey Blainey
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/before-we-vote-on-indigenous-voice-to-... Geoffrey Blainey suggests there are crocodile tears behind the central Uluru statement, “in 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard”, and backs that suggestion up with fact after fact.
Blainey explains that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have been counted in every federal census since 1901, while in state censuses in 1871 in South Australia and Victoria all races were counted. Indeed, the meticulous details subsequently tabled by Victorian statisticians were made possible by 918 officials on horseback and 650 on foot investigating “remote townships, huts and tents”, with four out of every 10 Victorian Aboriginal men saying they were following a paid occupation. We also learn of Aboriginal men voting in the late 1850s, of a man of Aboriginal and convict ancestry who won the rural seat of Young in NSW in 1889, and of Aboriginal women attending polling booths in 1896, with Blainey spot-on to conclude, “these triumphs contradict the Uluru manifesto”.
Forum
Pages: 
