John Roskam from the Institute of Public Affairs highlights the failures of the fourth estate to hold our politicians (and other institutions) to account.
Like many other Australians I attended a local Anzac Day dawn service to remember the sacrifice that so many have made during our nation’s history.
It’s a day that always inspires but the major service in South Australia was marred by a ‘welcome to country’ that was unnecessary and totally inappropriate.
The Aboriginal ‘elder’ employed to welcome us to our own country, Katrina Power, decided to welcome everyone to “stolen Kaurna land”. She doubled down by rewriting the 23rd Psalm to say “Yea though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of invasion.”
Both political statements were totally inappropriate, rude and unnecessary. It’s a shameful indictment on those organising committee members who knew of her intentions prior to the event and still allowed her to proceed. I wonder how much she charged taxpayers for her insensitivity.
We could say the same about Muslim activist (or perhaps that should be apologist) Yassmin Abdel-Magied. She’s the one who claims Islam is the religion of feminism whilst doing taxpayer funded book tours of some of the most misogynistic lands on the planet, including Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Qatar.
She also boasts on her CV that she was on a Centenary of Anzac committee but showed her lack of respect on one of our great national days of unity by putting on Facebook “Lest we forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine).”
Once again, an unnecessary and disrespectful message from a two-bit taxpayer funded celebrity Muslim. I can only presume she’s happy for us to forget it’s actually the Islamists who are responsible for Anzac terror concerns.
But these two events are indicative of what our country is facing. Whilst conservatives are seeking to unify the country and have everyone treated equally according to the rule of law, the leftists are seeking to divide us according to race, creed and colour.
A country of tribes cannot prosper. A nation is built around shared values, the rule of law and one unifying culture.
We need to end the division and recoiled national unity. That doesn’t mean that people like Yassmin Abdul-Mageid and Katrina Power can’t have their say but it’s up to the rest of us to let them know just how wrong they are.
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
