Dutton shocks us all

I mean… who actually thought Dutton was serious about this? This generation of Liberals has never really been serious about recognising our Indigenous friends. Per Wikipedia, ATSIC delivered a report about the urgency of constitutional reform in 1995. John Howard finally agreed to a referendum on the subject in 2007. A mere twelve years later, and probably because he knew Labor was likely to win that election so he wouldn’t have to actually do it. Then Kevin Rudd didn’t do much about it, Julia Gillard at least did a bit more towards getting a referendum up but Tone Abet took power in 2013 before that could happen, then Malcolm Turnbull rejected most of the proposals of the Referendum Council in 2017, then Scunt finally agreed to a referendum during his second term but noticeably failed to deliver. Whatever else you might say about Albo, at least he kept his promise to hold the referendum and did so without years of dicking about and forestalling unlike SOME people.

So Dutton’s promise that, if the Voice referendum failed, he would hold a referendum on Constitutional recognition when he gets into power was not only a horrific vision of a future in which he’s the Prime Minister, it should also have been obvious to anyone paying attention that he was lying. The Liberal party has no particular interest in recognising Indigenous folks, cos it’s had years to do that and never have, and I feel like someone who was a Queensland cop for ten years in the 1990s would probably have even less interest than most. Anyone who actually believed he was sincere about this should be beaten with sticks, much like Dutton himself.