Allan’s Victoria Falling Apart at the Seams

Following the cancellation of the opening of Myer’s Christmas Windows in Melbourne amid threats of protest activity by Pro-Palestinian group Disrupt Wars, Premier Jacinta Allan had these words to say. Of course, she started with the obligatory land acknowledgement, which I won’t repeat here, as I’ve pretty much heard it so much over the last few months that I can’t handle it anymore. In the words of Bill Maher, either give the land back, or shut up! She said, “We may all be from different backgrounds and faiths, but we are united. We are united Victorians. We are united against division and hate. We are united for multiculturalism and safety and harmony, and we come with a very clear message today. To anyone who wants to spread hate and division, there is no place for you. There is no place for this behaviour. People have the right to demonstrate. We’re a proud, strong democratic community. No one has the right to divide, and no one has the right to ruin someone else’s tradition.”

It’s a bit rich, don’t you think? This coming from a Premier who supported the introduction of a Rainbow Libraries Toolkit that among other things, promotes inclusive events such as Drag Queen Story Time. I’m sorry, that’s not an inclusive event, that’s an inherently divisive event, and they know it. Many families do not agree with overly sexualised Drag Queens reading to young children. This is the Premier that is pushing through Aboriginal treaty negotiations despite the fact that the majority of Victorians voted No in the defeated Voice Referendum. Just in the news last week, she’s warning against ‘American-style division’ with regards to the Indigenous treaty negotiations. The fact she mentions “division”, means she knows it’s a divisive process. It’s inherently divisive to pit one group of Victorians against another. But she’s doing it anyway. Not to mention her mission to rename over 6,000 places across Victoria in honour of multicultural leaders. No, that won’t cause any division, will it? The place name you’ve grown up with suddenly changes name to somebody you’ve never heard of. That will go down well, won’t it? Look, I’m not against naming a new park or a new road after a multicultural leader, but renaming old ones is a recipe for division.

So as I said, it’s a bit rich her telling us that “No one has the right to divide…”, when that’s what she does. Look, I’m not saying it’s easy to run a state, but a lot of what she does is dividing the population. When she said, “We are united Victorians. We are united against division and hate. We are united for multiculturalism and safety and harmony.” That’s not a statement of fact. That’s a wish list. She’s acting like it’s fact, but it clearly isn’t. The ongoing Palestinian protests. The violence and the burning that we’ve seen. The vandalism of businesses who are just trying to survive like everybody else. The vandalism and threats against sitting MPs. Pro-Palestinian protesters storming the Victorian Labor State Conference, pushing past security guards to get up to the main conference room, banging on doors, with security guards bracing against the entryway with Labor members locked inside. Climate protesters blocking roads stopping motorists from getting to work. Yeah, this will win them a lot of support, won’t it? Pissing people off!

And now the good Premier wants to introduce social cohesion laws. If the state was so united, would such laws be required? And how would such laws work? “You must get on, or else!” The Premier tweeted, “We must come out of it united, not divided. There are different ways to get there. One of them is a strong new set of social cohesion laws – to wind-back this culture of division and put an end to vilification and hate. And I can tell you now that we will introduce them to Parliament this month. I will not let the constant violence, division and vilification we see overseas creep into Victoria.” I quite like Dave’s response, “These proposed laws will target those who oppose the government & will lead to societal ruin, just like every other socialist state.”

Despite what the good Premier said, Victoria is not a united state… It is a divided state.

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn