Shit List: Zip ties, Sam Kerr and Police at Mardi Gras

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Maz Weaver

Yes, it’s time for another Shit List, where really crap behaviour and bad-faith actions get called out. This week it’s all about double standards.

 

First up, the double standard surrounding the case of a Broome man  who used zip-ties to restrain three children who were swimming in a pool that didn’t belong to them. The man, who was at the property in his capacity as a tradesperson, apparently decided that it was his responsibility to make a so-called “citizen’s arrest”, after which he called the police. When police arrived, they found a tall, large man standing over two frightened children aged 6 and 7 years old, who were huddled against the garage door, crying, their hands tightly bound. The third child, aged 8, was able to escape.

The man has been charged with aggravated assault. 

These children were under 10 years old. Legally, they lack the capacity to be criminally responsible. A “citizen’s arrest” can only be carried out under very particular circumstances, and then only reasonable force can be applied. Zip-tying two small kids hardly qualifies as reasonable. 

Naturally, there was an immediate outcry. The images, splashed all over both mainstream and social media, were appalling, and condemnation of the man’s actions was widespread. What particularly incensed many commenters was the fact that the children are Indigenous, and the man who terrorised them is white. It seemed as clear a case of racist prejudice in action as could be found.

But then came the marching hordes armed with their what-aboutism and accusations of hypocrisy and double standards. Oh, and let’s not forget accusing another Indigenous person of failing to discipline her children properly. Here are a few examples from X, names redacted:

Post on X: "A gang of Africans literally murdered a White granddaughter in front of her granddaughter so that they could steal her purse last month. The level of comfort those men felt doing that shows the level of anti-White racism pervasive in our community."Post on X: "Racism is most pervasive towards white. You don't remember 6 black girls almost lynching a an autistic white girl to death and filming it."Post on X: "You remained comfortably silent after three black girls viciously beat up an autistic white girl. Your bigotry is palpable. Hypocrite."

Post on X: "Where were the kids parents? Seems to be a common theme in rural areas that indigenous kids are allowed to roam unsupervised. I don't condone the cable thing but there must be a reason to it."

It’s such a tiresome, favourite tactic of bigots. When confronted by incontrovertible evidence of wrongdoing with racist overtones (or sexist, or queerphobic), their immediate response is to pull up a random example, often not even a real one, as some kind of “gotcha” moment. (Take the alleged assault against an “autistic white girl”, that features in two of the above tweets. Not only is it described as two different crime, the number of perpetrators is different.) See? See? You lefties didn’t say anything when this person of colour committed an appalling crime, you’re the real racists! Why aren’t you condemning them?! 

This kind of attack has only one aim – to put someone on the back foot and try to force them into either defending the indefensible, or leaving the argument. And, sadly, all too often it works.

Let’s reverse the situation. Let’s say a tall, large Indigenous man saw three white kids swimming in someone else’s pool, and decided to take it upon himself to terrorise and forcibly restrain them. Police turn up, free the children, and charge the man with aggravated assault. How long before these same people who cried “anti-white racism!” take to their keyboards to condemn that Indigenous man? How long before Sky News uses the incident to decry “violence against white people in Indigenous communities”? How long before the Murdoch tabloids go on a crusade to “protect Indigenous kids from neglectful/abusive parents”?

I’m guessing about as long as it took me to type that last paragraph.

No matter what colour those kids’ skin is, what was done to them was brutal and inexcusable, and no amount of what-aboutism can justify that. The fact that those kids are Indigenous just compounds the offence, given Australia’s shameful history of racism. But for bigots, that doesn’t matter. What matters to them is the opportunity to claim victimhood, as though the mere fact that the alleged perpetrator is white somehow “proves” – in defiance of hundreds of years of proof to the contrary – that white people suffer from unfair treatment.

There’s the real double standard. Not that some random person on X didn’t personally call out a specific situation that may not have even happened, but that some of our biggest media organisations (and the bigots who take their cues from them) have repeatedly showed no compunction in jumping on a bandwagon of condemnation against Indigenous folk even when those folk are the victims. And they deserve their place on the Shit List.

 

While we’re on the subject of what-aboutism, let’s take a look at the accusations surrounding Matildas and Chelsea FC player Sam Kerr, and the all too predictable fall-out. Kerr has been charged in England of committing racially aggravated harassment of a police officer. Allegedly – according to the media, not police – she called him a “stupid white bastard”. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment. All this occurred over a year ago – the delay stems from the prosecution taking an inordinately long time deciding just what charges to bring against her.

There’s no evidence available to the public to support the allegations. Unlike the man in Broome, no video has popped up, and we have only the speculation of Murdoch tabloid The Sun that the words “stupid white bastard” were even used. That has not stopped the Murdoch media machine – and, regrettably, many other media organisations – from reporting it as fact. Predictably, it’s sparked a whole new outrage from gleeful white victimhood champions, who jumped at the chance to target a person of colour. Look, look, here’s a clear case of racism against a white person, we were right all along! Cancel her! Cancel her football club! Lock her up and throw away the key!

 

Post on X address to Chelsea Football Club: "I will be boycott all Chelsea sponsors until you take action against Sam Kerr, and I will be letting them know why I won't support their products. You supporting a vile racist is unacceptable. I would have thought with Chelsea's history of racism, you would stamp this out."

If these allegations are true, Kerr may have a case to answer. It’s debatable, mind you, that what was said would qualify as “aggravated”. But that’s not the point here. The point is that Kerr has already been convicted in the eyes of the Murdoch media and its readership, and that other organisations are doing nothing to challenge that. And – surprise, surprise – that they don’t apply those standards across the board.

Let’s take a quick trip back to 2015 for a moment. A young person hurled a racial slur at Indigenous AFL player Adam Goodes, and was made to leave the game by security officers. Goodes refused to press charges, and asked the media not to vilify her. That didn’t stop mainstream and social media unleashing a barrage of hate and harassment against him. Their consensus was that he should stop being such a sook, accept that he was going to be racially abused when he played, and just get on with the game. Former star AFL player Jason Akermanis even said that Goodes should “stop trying to play the victim.”

Just to make the point again: Goodes refused to press charges, accepted the young person’s apology, and called on the media not to vilify her. None of that mattered to the outrage merchants, because Goodes is an AFL player, and therefore should “expect” to be abused. 

If we apply that standard to the Sam Kerr situation, then surely that police officer should also stop being such a sook, accept that he’s going to be racially abused on the job, and just get on with it?

Apparently not. And why? Because Adam Goodes is Indigenous, and that police officer is white. Oh look, there’s that double standard at work again – and what a coincidence, it’s being driven by Murdoch media and their racist followers. One might almost suspect there’s an agenda here. Maybe they should have a permanent place on the Shit List.

 

Finally, there’s the New South Wales Police, and this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras parade. 

Australia’s queer community was rocked by the recent murders of gay couple Luke Davies and Jesse Baird. And then came the shocking revelation that the alleged murderer is a serving member of the NSW police. On the heels of that, members of the queer community called for police not to march as part of the upcoming Mardi Gras parade. Initially, the Mardi Gras committee “uninvited” police, then later agreed that they could march, just not in uniform.

The outraged mob turned out in droves about this. Media commentators, celebrities, and politicians all rushed to give their opinion that wanting the police excluded from marching in Mardi Gras was at best an overreaction, at worst an egregious example of  unfairness and – wait for it – homophobia. Those marching police are queer! The man accused of murdering that couple is queer! How dare you deny the police their “right” to march just because one cop killed two gay men? You’re the real bigots! 

Can we just hold the fuck up for a second.

Let’s start with the fact that most of the people pointing the finger to cry “J’accuse!” have never given one tiny little shit about being fair to queer folk. Some of those championing the police’s “right” to march are the same ones who complain every year about Pride Month, Mardi Gras, and love to dress up their transphobia as concern for children. I’m looking at you, Liberal Party, Craig Kelly, Senator Ralph Babet, and Senator Malcolm Roberts, and, of course, Sky News – just for a start. 

Secondly, the call for police not to march as an organisation is not new. Since the first time police marched under their banner in 1998, members of the queer community have protested their presence. This isn’t out of some nebulous unfairness – it’s because the NSW police have a truly horrendous history of harassing, abusing, assaulting, and even killing queer folk that continues to this day. A report released late last year found no less than 32 suspected murders at the hands of police. That report’s recommendations are yet to be accepted by NSW police.

The murders of Luke and Jesse were simply the last straw. Years and years and years of maltreatment and a report that wasn’t being taken seriously by its perpetrators all coalesced around this latest, horrific act. Add to that the way police spoke of the murders, insisting that there was no possibility of a hate crime, and repeatedly characterising it as “domestic violence”, in spite of the fact that there was no relationship whatsoever between the alleged killer and either of the two murdered men. With all of that, how could anyone not see the reasonableness of asking the police to please not rub salt into the wound?

As for the accusations of homophobia … well, I mean, honestly. No one said that queer members of the police force shouldn’t be able to take part in the Mardi Gras parade. What was asked was for the event celebrating queer folk to be free of representation of an organisation that represented decades of horrendous behaviour against the very people being celebrated. 

The people screaming loudest about unfairness to the police are the same people who accuse queer folk of wanting “special treatment”. According to them, asking an employer to respect someone’s gender identity or sexuality is absolutely unacceptable. Why should “they” be protected when honest god-fearin’ folk can’t even call a gay person a f****t and get away with it? Suggest that an organisation with a history of violence against queer folk sit out a parade for one year, though? Outrageous! The queer community should just forgive the police and move on, otherwise they’re not inclusive at all. 

This is the rankest sort of hypocrisy.

The NSW police had no “right” to march, nor are they entitled to expect one. They were invited by the Mardi Gras committee, despite their violent history, and it’s well within that committee’s rights to uninvite them as a result of their ongoing behaviour. The stipulation to not march in uniform is a very small thing to ask of the police, particularly when they were still being permitted to represent their organisation in the parade. But no, the champions of police victimhood thought that was unfair, too. 

In the event, police did not – strictly speaking – march in uniform. They did, however, march behind the sign proclaiming their organisation, and they all wore polo shirts clearly identifying them as NSW police officers. They were also flanked by officers in uniform and bearing guns. It was a slap in the face to the Mardi Gras committee and the queer community at large, and they got away with it because those media and politicians who regularly pour hate on queer folk and champion discrimination suddenly decided that police were a marginalised group being victimised.

So, NSW police, welcome to the Shit List. You can sit over there with your media and political champions. Enjoy your stay.

 

This week’s entry in the Shit List Hall of Fame is Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.

In the lead-up to the Dunkley by-election, the Liberal Party decided that the best way to win that seat was to stir up a scare campaign against former immigration detainees. Imagine their joy when on February 27th, police arrested one of those detainees on suspicion of committing sexual assault! So what if the assault had happened right across town from Dunkley and the man hadn’t even been charged yet? What a gift!

Sussan Ley was quick off the mark to capitalise on this, posting this tweet two days later on February 29th:

Post by Sussan Ley on X dated 29/2/24: "If you live in Frankston and you've got a problem with Victorian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor. If you do not want to see Australian women assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor. Send Labor a message."

Post retrieved from X on 7/3/24

She backed it up with comments in interviews and press conferences about how outrageous it was to have convicted foreign criminals – who had served their terms – walking around free.

There was just one tiny little problem, though. In what The Age described as a “colossal bungle”, the police arrested the wrong man.  Within a matter of hours, they had dropped the charges, apologised, and issued a public correction. That fact was pointed out to Sussan by multiple people who replied to her tweet, as well as being mentioned repeatedly by every major news outlet. Apparently, she doesn’t care, because that tweet is still on her timeline at the time of writing. 

White men rape. White immigrant men rape. Convicted sex offenders sometimes re-offend. It’s an incontrovertible fact. Yet not once has Ley called for extraordinary measures to be taken against them. Only against a man who had served his sentence, and was being held illegally for an entirely different reason. And only for political purposes. For that double standard, and for refusing to admit that she was not only racist and inflammatory, but flat-out wrong, Ley can join her boss in the Hall of Fame.

 

Over to you, readers. Do you have a nomination for the Shit List? Let me know in the comments.

 

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Rest in Perfection, Nex Benedict

Posted on February 20, 2024 by Maz Weaver
photo of Nex Benedict, smiling at the camera and making a peace sign with their fingers

Nex Benedict

Nex Benedict was 16 years old. They loved their cat, Zeus. They were a straight-A student who enjoyed watching “The Walking Dead”, drawing, reading, and playing Ark and Minecrafts. They enjoyed making up their own recipes. And they were nonbinary.

Nex was brutally beaten at their school. Even after a teacher intervened, Nex was unable to walk, but staff neither assisted them nor called an ambulance. Suffering head injuries, they had to take the bus home, and their grandmother took them to hospital. That hospital released them the same night. The next morning, they were taken back to the hospital, where they died.

Local media reported Nex’s death a week later. Not only did it misgender and deadname them, it also referred to the death as “unexpected”. At the time of writing, there is no indication that the people who murdered Nex will face any consequences.

All this took place in Oklahoma, in a school district repeatedly targeted for the spreading of anti-trans hate. In 2022, teacher Tyler Wrynn was pressured to resign following a hate campaign that targeted him because he was an outspoken ally. This campaign was spear-headed by self-described stochastic terrorist Chaya Raichik, who goes by the username “Libs of Tiktok” and uses her nationwide reach to whip up hate against trans folk and our allies. It has led to multiple bomb threats across the US, many aimed at schools or children’s hospitals. In Oklahoma, she has secured herself a seat on the state’s Department of Education’s Library Media Advisory Committee, which concerns itself with banning anything that even hints that LGBTQIA+ people even exist.

At this point we don’t know how far Raichik’s poison influenced those who killed Nex Benedict. What we do know is that there has been a concerted effort to erase Nex as a nonbinary young person, and to suppress the truth of their murder.

Say Nex’s name.

Celebrate their life.

Never forget.

Rest in perfection, Nex. You are loved.

 

UPDATE: Nex’s family have said they will conduct their own independent investigation into their child’s death, after police released a statement claiming that the assault – which they downplayed – did not lead to Nex’s death.

That statement conveniently ignored witness reports, and seems just a little too self-serving, particularly in light of this video from Eli, a trans person who graduated from the same school last year. In the video, they reveal a culture of bullying that has led to the suicide of at least one other student, and they bravely relate their own story of being sexually assaulted by a cis male student who said he would “cure” them. When they reported it to the school, they were told to keep it quiet so that it didn’t “ruin” their attacker’s life.

There is no doubt that a toxic culture of bullying, with an extremely nasty transphobic streak, exists at that school – one that is fed by hateful rabble-rousing from internet celebrity bigots, and enabled by the local police. There are probably other students like Eli, like Nex, like the student took their own life after their plight was repeatedly ignored by the school. These are kids. They should be protected and celebrated.

 

 

 

 

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Introducing the Shit List

Posted on February 16, 2024 by Maz Weaver

Welcome to the Shit List. This is the first of a semi-regular series, in which I highlight those politicians, public figures, organisations, and groups whose actions smack of hypocrisy, dirty dealing, double standards, and/or general disregard for others in the community. The name is inspired by L7’s grunge anthem:

Let’s start with Senator Matt Canavan, lover of coal and intermittent embarrassment to the National Party.

This week, Victoria was hit by extremely high temperatures, high winds, lightning strikes, and storms. Electricity transmission towers collapsed due to convective downbursts, which in turn caused the coal-fired power plant at Loy Yang to trip, and take all four generators offline. Yallourn W, the other coal-fired plant, was operating at half capacity due to ongoing repair works trying to prop up its decaying infrastructure. In the scramble that followed, the state was forced to “load shed” (institute planned rolling black-outs in order to protect the network from damage or even wider loss of power). Wholesale electricity prices skyrocketed to a whopping $16,600 per megawatt hour – by comparison, Queensland’s price was $29.61. And nearly 100,000 people were left without power, forcing many businesses to close for the day.

It was pretty clear what happened. Our reliance on ageing infrastructure kept in service long after its use-by date, coupled with our inexcusable lack of large-scale investment into alternative energy sources, shut us down.

That didn’t stop Matt Canavan tweeting that same day: 

Matt Canavan asks how electric vehicles can be charged during a blackout.

He also posted this hilariously stupid statement: 

Matt Canavan tweets that "coal keeps the lights on"

People immediately pointed out to him the real circumstances of the blackout. Undeterred, Canavan doubled down on his insistence that the situation was due to a failure of “renewables”, even though he asserted that only 5% of Victoria’s energy generation came from renewable energy sources. Never one to let the facts get in the way of political points-scoring, he went on to castigate Chris Bowen, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy. 

Matt Canavan tweets a false allegation that the Victorian black-out was due to a failure of renewable energy generation.

Victorian businesses were hard-hit by this power outage (and some are still without power as I write this). We were shown an unmistakable illustration of the dangers of our reliance on a single source of energy and our reluctance to climate-proof our transmission infrastructure, but none of that mattered to Matt Canavan. In blatant defiance of the facts, he chose to use the authority of his position as a Senator to lie about what happened and push his anti-renewable agenda. For that reason, he makes the Shit List. 

 

Next up we have the Canberra Lake Dwellers. This is a tiny group of conspiracy theorists (also known as ‘cookers’) who have set up camp in a carpark at Black Mountain Peninsula near Lake Burley Griffin, across the water from the Governor-General’s residence. They’ve squatted there for (by their count) 739 days so far, after being forced to move from their initial camp right outside the Governor-General’s gates. Every morning, they trudge down the lakeside, wheeling their PA system and bearing the Red Ensign, Eureka, and Russian flags. Once there, they launch into their script. It starts with some cursory genuflection towards Australian soldiers killed in war, which is all very solemn. Once that scripted piece is over and done with, however, they let loose, and it’s all aimed at the Governor-General.

The festivities usually kick off with a vicious, screaming rant that perpetuates a cooker myth about a list naming 28 alleged, high public profile, paedophiles which has been suppressed by the government. Who is actually on this list varies from day to day, from a former Prime Minister to the Governor-General himself. The cookers demand that this list be released unredacted immediately. To emphasise the apparent urgency of this demand, they go into loud, offensive detail about exactly what these alleged paedophiles have done. It’s not unusual to hear them shouting about (forgive me, but this is the least of what they scream) “little babies being raped”. It’s all done in a self-righteous tone worthy of an American televangelist who denounces homosexuality while being a frequent flyer – or should I say, cruiser – at the local gay beat.

It shouldn’t have to be said that this list, of course, doesn’t exist.

When that’s over, they play a truly terrible rap song celebrating anti-vax cookers who defied lockdowns, and sing ‘Jesus loves the little children’, an old hymn long retired for its racist content. Their point made, they trudge back to the carpark and sit around in chairs congratulating themselves. Unless one of them is due in court that day for trespassing or harassment or unpaid fines, which happens more often than you’d think.

The group averages about 9 members, and in 739 days have managed to accomplish exactly nothing. So why are they on the Shit List? To start with, they seem to think they own the lakeshore. When locals try to walk their dogs, the cookers object to their “interference”. Their belligerence – along with the graphic nature of their rants – has caused many locals (particularly those with children) to begin avoiding the area entirely. 

Then there’s the damage to the local area. They’ve cut the fence to give them a direct route from the carpark to the lakeshore. The trail they walk every morning has caused the native grasses to die off, and the earth around the lakeshore has become compacted. They insist on disrupting the possums of the area, who nest in boxes high up in the trees. Every day, at least one cooker climbs up and shines a light into the box, talking loudly while filming, and scares the hell out of the joeys. Most disgusting of all, they seem to regard the area as their personal toilet. One cooker even recently defended the group’s habit of defecating near the lakeshore as “good for the soil”. They literally deserve their place on the Shit List.

All this in the name of “freedom” and “the children”. It’s the single most ineffectual protest imaginable, and there is real harm being done by their presence. So why don’t the ACT police clear them out so that the area can recover and become a place for locals to visit again? Good question. Perhaps the person who made the decision to just wait them out should be on the List, too.

UPDATE: This morning (Sunday 18th of February), the cookers decided to widen their field of targets. They railed against – wait for it – local residents who use the area for “orienteering, cycling, and bloody rowing” (in the words of their most vicious speaker, Joanne). It seems they don’t like locals telling them off for the damage they’re causing, or making complaints about their aggressive attitude towards anyone who gets anywhere near them while they’re conducting their performative outrage. And that includes the boats that row past out on the lake.

The entitlement is real.

 

Finally, we have someone who I’m sure is going to be a regular visitor to the Shit List. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

I was spoilt for choice when it came to deciding which of his recent actions to feature, but in the end, the sheer hypocrisy of this one gave it the edge. 

In November last year, the High Court ruled that an asylum seeker held in indefinite detention must be released – along with anyone else in a similar situation. The man in question had been convicted of sexually assaulting a child, and, understandably, the news of his release caused an uproar. 

Dutton was right there in the vanguard thundering about the “Government’s failure” – as though Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had some kind of power to direct how the High Court makes its rulings. He leaned heavily on the idea that the presence of these former detainees in the community threw us all into imminent danger. To hear Dutton tell it, we were all about to be murdered in our beds. Now, to be sure, some of these detainees had been convicted of very serious offences, but here’s the one thing that Dutton always failed to mention – those detainees had already served their sentences. 

The moral outrage caused the Government to rush through legislation to enforce reporting and monitoring of the detainees, and – apart from the occasional mention from Dutton when he was fresh out of new talking points – hard largely died down. That is, until we learned this week that, while Home Affairs Minister, Dutton had personally intervened to grant a visa to a person who not only failed the character test, but had also failed to submit police clearances, supplied only unconfirmed information about their marital status, and had “numerous offshore criminal convictions”. He described this as “a discretionary and humanitarian act”, in “the interest of Australia as a humane and generous society”.

We don’t know exactly what offences this person committed, but by any standards, their subsequent actions in applying for an extension of their visa (after previously failing three times) suggest that they were at the very least deliberately attempting to deceive immigration officials in order to stay in Australia. By Dutton’s avowed standards, they should have been immediately detained prior to deportation, and if a suitable destination country could not be found, they should have been kept in indefinite detention. Instead, the man who used his Ministerial power to help two of his mates get their au pairs into Australia against Border Security advice, decided to overrule his Department once again.

The hypocrisy of Dutton’s actions is staggering, but, sadly, it’s entirely in keeping with how the Opposition Leader has conducted himself throughout his political career. So, welcome to the Shit List, Peter. Get comfy – you’ll be here a while.

 

Over to you, dear readers. Do you have a nomination for the next Shit List? Let me know in the comments.

 

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Pink underwear and rainbow cupcakes

Posted on February 11, 2024 by Maz Weaver

It’s that time of year again. You know, when corporations suddenly remember that LGBTQIA+ people exist and there is money to be made out of showing support for them. And when bigots and cookers make a point of seeking out anything that might be vaguely rainbow-themed so they can whinge and lie and grandstand about it. Yes, it’s Pride month.

World Pride’s not in Australia this year, so the hysteria about queer folk taking over isn’t quite as loud. Last year, as I wrote at Something for Cate, self-important cookers took it upon themselves to terrorise volunteers at a NSW surf life-saving club and to vandalise church steps in Sydney. A group of peaceful protesters was violently attacked by a mob for daring to stand on the other side of the road from a building in which Mark Latham was spewing hateful lies about trans folk. And police high-fived Nazis and gave them an escort when they decided to directly provoke queer and ally counter-protesters right outside Victoria’s Parliament.

So far, this year hasn’t been as violent. There was an ugly incident at the Midsumma Pride March where a bigot who’d taken it upon himself to attend the parade in order to shout hate decided to assault a photographer. That bigot’s arrest was the only one that day. At the same march, a small group of protesters who objected to the presence of police marching with them were subjected to chokeholds, punches and abuse by those same police. Their mates who were actually on duty that day joined in, and then proceeded to tell the country that they were the victims.

It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when we can say that this was a ‘good’ result compared to last year.

The hate hasn’t stopped there, though. For a small but vocal part of the population, the mere thought of acknowledging queerness (let alone supporting or – heaven forfend – celebrating it) is enough to get the blood boiling.

Take Bonds unGENderwear, for example. The iconic underwear manufacturer has an entire line of products designed to be worn by people of any gender. Not that you’d know if you looked at any of these pieces – they look just like every other singlet or underpants or tracksuit. The difference is largely in the marketing. UnGENderwear has been on sale since 2022, and – strangely – Australia has not collapsed into a dystopian hellscape. So what’s the problem here?

The “problem” is that this year, Bonds decided to ramp up the marketing for Pride, and hire Mikey Sakinofsky, a model who identifies as nonbinary to be photographed wearing their products. This, apparently, was a Step Too Far for bigots.

Mikey Safinosky, modelling Bonds unGENderwear

Mikey Safinosky (image source: Bonds)

Cue the backlash. Bigots fell all over themselves to get to their social media accounts to scream about how terrible this was. It was “woke”! It was “disgusting”! It was “men encroaching on women’s spaces!” (No, don’t ask me to explain that one. It just doesn’t make sense.) To their credit, Bonds doubled down on their commitment to inclusion, and Safinosky put out their own video explaining a few inconvenient facts about the real, devastating consequences of hate.

Moana Bikini adopted the same tactic after Jake Young (who identifies as male) modelled one of their products. They responded to a barrage of accusations that this was somehow disempowering women with with this: “If Jake in our bikini upsets you that much, we feel as though this may be a you problem.”

Jake Young modelling Moana Bikini swimwear

Jake Young modelling Moana Bikini swimwear (image source: Moana Bikini)

Sadly, the same can’t be said for Rip Curl, who pulled an advertising campaign featuring professional longboarder Sasha Lowerson after a hate campaign from transphobes. Idiotically, some of those objecting to Sasha’s existence decided to demonstrate their anger by buying Rip Curl products and filming themselves destroying them. Worse, Rip Curl actually apologised to those same transphobes for not considering that their precious feelings might have been hurt by seeing a transwoman, and reassured bigots that Sasha wasn’t part of their surfing team.

Sasha Lowerson, surfer

Sasha Lowerson (image source: YouTube)

Lest I leave you with the impression that this is all about fashion, however, consider this latest source of outrage: rainbow cupcakes.

A package of Woolworth's vanilla cupcakes, Pride theme

Cupcakes, apparently, can make you gay (Image source: Woolworths)

Right about now I imagine many of you are facepalming as hard as I did when I first saw people complaining on social media about these. The inevitable accusation of “wokeness” featured prominently, of course, but these cupcakes were not only woke, they were – wait for it – grooming children. Yeah, you read that right. And why? Because of a label informing customers that a percentage of sales would be donated to Minus18, an excellent charity dedicated to supporting queer young people and providing education on inclusion and diversity for schools and workplaces.

And so, out come the cookers. The language they’re using on social media is so disgusting that I won’t repeat it here – suffice it to say that their objections are rife with accusations that Woolworths was “sexualising” children and promoting child abuse. One post, since mocked into oblivion, even suggested that eating the cupcakes would cause people to have “gay sex”. Then there are the videos Like the “hero” who bought the cupcakes and then declared he was “saving the kids” by asking the poor checkout operator to throw them in the bin for him.

A Woolworths checkout operator harassed over the existence of rainbow cupcakes

Checkout operators have to put up with so much.

Apparently it didn’t occur to him that, by buying the cupcakes, he’d just donated money to the very cause he was opposing.

In all these examples, the people who objected made it very clear that they were personally hurt by what they were seeing. They were distressed and disgusted. They metaphorically wrung their hands and lamented the loss of “the Australian way of life”. One person said she’d cried when she saw the Moana ad. Middle-aged men on TikTok foamed at the mouth and gave vent to expletive-laden rants as they burned their Rip Curl board shorts. And more than one person complained that Pride had “ruined the rainbow” for them.

I have a question for those people: how, exactly, does it hurt you to walk past a box of cupcakes decorated with Pride hearts? What damage is done to you by clicking on a link and seeing a nonbinary model with gorgeous hair modelling a pink crop top and undies? What part of your world is destroyed when an organisation refers to a trans woman as a woman?

What’s that? You’re saving the kids? From what? Oh, right – from your imaginary worldwide conspiracy that claims kids are being forcibly transitioned without their parents’ consent in order to – (checks notes) – provide victims for a shadowy paedophile industry. Except that everything about that idea is a proven lie. Children cannot undergo gender-affirming surgery in Australia, nor can they be prescribed puberty blockers or hormone treatments without parental or guardians’ consent. As for the idea that affirming a young person’s gender identity makes them vulnerable to sexual abuse, that’s been so thoroughly debunked that I’m not going to spend any more time on it.

What’s that? You’re protecting women? Really? You really think that cis women are so fragile that the mere sight of one man in a swimsuit will destroy decades of effort striving for equality? That calling a trans woman a woman might undo women’s empowerment? If that was the case, surely by now the mere presence of Caitlin Jenner in the world would have seen women banished back to the kitchen.

What’s that? Non-binary is not real? Even if you believe that (which, frankly, beggars belief these days), how are you harmed by Mikey Safinosky (or Rhys Nicholson or Montaigne or Ruby Rose) identifying outside an artificially constructed gender binary?

Not one of the people objecting to these ad campaigns or Pride marketing have ever produced any evidence that shows how they’re hurt by them. Because they’re not. All this anger and distress and flimsy reasoning has one aim – to rationalise their bigotry and excuse themselves for acting in hateful, appalling ways. They are, in fact, the only ones causing harm, with their vicious rhetoric and their threats of violence. Of course, they’ll never admit that, but that’s the cold, hard truth, and deep down, they know it and don’t care.

As queer folk, we’re often advised to just ignore the hate, or laugh about how absurd it is to freak out about a cupcake or gender-neutral underwear. We shouldn’t “let” ourselves be bothered by it. That’s a very easy thing to say. It’s a lot harder to do. There’s only so many times we can hit the block button before we start having difficulty seeing the funny side. When we’ve just had to go through your social media notifications yet again in order to clear out the hate and the threats, we don’t tend to be in the mood to crack jokes. When we’ve been subjected to relentless cyber-bullying for daring to put a trans flag or pronouns in our bios, when we’ve been the victim of whispering campaigns in the workplace for just existing as queer folk, when we see ourselves smeared and accused of horrific crimes day after day after day, we can’t just shake it off.

We’re also told that we have to “take some responsibility”. We choose to put our pronouns in our bios, we choose to repost articles celebrating diversity. We stan Elliot Page and chat excitedly about going to our queer formals. We cheer when we see queer representation in movies and praise those few politicians that are real allies. We watch Drag Race, for goodness’ sake! Why are we doing this if we’re not prepared to attract negative attention? Maybe we like the attention?

Look at what’s happening here. Queer folk are, yet again, being told that it’s up to us to fix the situation. It’s not the fault of those who threaten us, it’s our fault for being visible. If we “really” don’t want people bullying and threatening us, we should change our behaviour. Oh, and lighten up, already. People have a “right” to their opinions.

Don’t like queer people? That’s fine. Your loss. But that doesn’t grant you the right to insist that the rest of the world obeys your prejudices.

All this confected outrage about underwear and cupcakes is just plain absurd, but it’s a mistake to think that it’s harmless. At its heart, it’s no different from the call for bathroom bans – an objection to the mere idea of queerness, and an insistence that the world pretends that queer folk don’t exist. It’s not socially acceptable in Australia anymore to bash someone who “looks gay” or “acts queer”. The abusive practice of so-called “conversion therapy” is in the process of being banned across the board, and finding out a TV personality is queer is no longer a career death knell. What’s a poor oppressed bigot to do, in such dire circumstances, but shriek hysterically about a nonbinary model in pink underwear in the hopes that they can strike a blow against queer representation?

And too often, they are getting what they want. Big W removed the book Welcome to Sex< from its shelves after bigots objected to its chapters on queer identities. Rip Curl apologised to bigots for featuring a trans woman on its Instagram page. In the US, Budweiser hurriedly replaced Dylan Mulvaney with an ad dripping with 1970s nostalgia, and said they “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people”. Libraries around Australia have cancelled Rainbow Story Time after bigots threatened the families of their staff, and last year’s Rainbow Ball in Wangaratta was delayed for the same reasons.

Every time this happens, it’s not “keeping the peace”. It’s sending a message that harassment and threats work, and that only emboldens bigots. It’s also sending a message that, for all their protestations of allyship and celebrating diversity, companies and organisations would rather pander to an abusive minority than show any real support.

If you’re really an ally, don’t pull your advertising campaigns as soon as someone whines that their straight-person peace of mind is threatened by the sight of a nonbinary person. And don’t apologise to bigots as though you did something wrong by acknowledging that trans people exist. Stand your ground. Affirm your commitment to diversity and inclusion. You won’t go broke if you “go woke”, despite what bigots want you to believe. (https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/woke-companies-broke-profits-1234710724/) Oh, and pro-tip? Allyship doesn’t end when Pride month does.

And those out there who are fainting at the idea of queer representation of any kind? Those cupcakes aren’t going to make you have gay sex. That pink underwear isn’t plotting to take away your rights. And I promise you that nothing terrible will happen if, next time you’re at the beach, you see someone who might be a cis man wearing a bikini. After all, if I have to put up with budgie smugglers and socks-with-sandals, you can put up with someone who has a beard wearing a fabulous skirt.

You might not like it, but guess what – it’s not about you.

UPDATE: The ABC has now joined the ranks of organisations caving in to pressure from bigots, announcing that it has cancelled a Drag Story Time event that had been planned to be recorded and broadcast as part of Mardi Gras coverage. At the time of writing, there are no arrangements to hold the event elsewhere, although an ABC spokesperson said the broadcaster was “considering how we can safely host it”.

Having announced this capitulation to bullies, the spokesperson had the gall to remind people that the ABC was the official Mardi Gras broadcaster, and said “the ABC showcases the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community”.

Apparently all it takes to change that are some angry emails from hateful people who choose to spout lies. If you really have our back, ABC, re-schedule the event and, this time, actually hold it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bathroom bans can’t work and protect no one

Posted on February 2, 2024 by Maz Weaver

Transphobia is very popular these days.

Oh, they don’t call it transphobia. Of course not. Perish the thought. They call it “protecting women’s spaces” or “ensuring fairness in women’s sport”. They hold forth passionately with incoherent screeds that assume all trans folk are trans women, and therefore men, and therefore inherently dangerous to “real” women. This, they claim, is why governments must pass laws forbidding trans folk from using women’s toilets, and sports organisations must ban trans folk from participating in women’s sport. To protect the womenfolk. As God intended.

You can’t argue with this, they assert. If you do, you’re a sexist. You’re a misogynist. You are colluding with “men” to undo women’s hard-won equality. If you “really” support women, you’ll join them in their self-appointed gatekeeping. After all, you don’t want people to think you are okay with “men dressing up as women” in order to sexually assault “real women” in the toilet, do you? What kind of a monster are you? Why do you hate women and Jesus?

And if you don’t happen to be religious, transphobes are happy to trot out pseudo-science to back up their prejudice. They’ll send you links to internet video rants from people who have no qualifications in any field of science whatsoever – that’ll explain to you why it’s “unfair” to let trans women into any sport (including, if you can believe it, competitive chess).

Of course, this is nothing but an attempt to dress up hate in socially acceptable clothing.1Which, presumably, involves covering up one’s ankles and buttoning one’s shirt so as not to – horrors! – show any skin below the neck. It’s faux feminism and performative piety. And it relies on the idea that you will be so eager to show that you are not some kind of sexist dinosaur that you won’t look too closely at what they’re alleging, and the “solutions” they’re proposing. That you’ll just go along with the idea that there should be a law against trans folk using a public toilet that corresponds to their gender, and you’ll agree it’s “reasonable” to ban trans women from taking part in women’s sports.

There’s something that transphobes don’t talk about when they’re calling for these laws, though. How on earth they could be enforced – particularly their proposed bathroom bans.

Perhaps every public toilet can be manned – or should I say, “real-womanned” – by a police officer ready to strip-search people to see if they have the “right” genitals. Presumably said officer will be trained to recognise the signs of vaginoplasty. Oh wait, you can’t do that without an invasive internal examination. Guess we’ll have to train them to use a speculum. Oh, but we’d need to build a special foyer in all public toilets with an examination table and good lighting as well. Probably not doable.

Maybe we should appoint doorkeepers armed with handy-dandy instant chromosome testing kits. What’s that, you say? Such kits don’t exist? Well, let’s just say they do, and hope someone invents one quick smart. Oh, wait. What happens when someone’s chromosomal assay comes back with a result that isn’t XX or XY? It’s more common than you’d think, and science has long realised that these particular chromosomes are not the be all and end all of sex identification. 2As this 2018 article in Scientific American explains. Guess that idea’s out, too.

Well, then, shall we have 24/7 bathroom guardians whose job it is to subject everyone who wants to use the loo to an on-the-spot gender assessment? You know, measure jawlines, boob size, watch how someone walks. Decide if they’re attractive enough to be a “real” woman. (This one is particularly disgusting. One of the favoured forms of bullying against trans women is to tell them they’re ugly.) If they pass the test, they can go in. If not – well, I guess the bathroom guardians can make a citizen’s arrest and call the police?

Or maybe we should just let the good citizens of Transphobia make those decisions. Let them appoint themselves the bathroom police. That way, they can swing into action when they happen to need the toilet at the same time as a suspected trans woman, or see someone walking into the bathroom in the food court who might be trans. Nothing could go wrong with that, surely. After all, we know how to spot someone who isn’t a “real” woman, don’t we?

Here’s the thing: we don’t. Because the “real” woman that transphobes say they’re protecting doesn’t exist.

Transphobes will tell you they can spot the difference between trans and cis women easily. Cis women are shorter and slighter of build. Their hips are wider. Their “Adam’s apple” doesn’t protrude, they don’t have much body hair, and their breasts are “normal”. The hair on their head is also a “normal” colour. They’ll probably wear dresses, or at least jeans that don’t look too “mannish”. And don’t forget the voice. A “real” woman has a higher voice. See? Easy?

I feel fairly confident in saying that by the time you read that paragraph, you already thought of half a dozen cis women who would fail that test. And several trans women who would pass it.

Take these two images, for instance. One is of a trans woman. The other is of a cis woman. Which one would be more likely to fail the test?

Photo of Korean actor Kim Seo-hyungPhoto of Dylan Mulvaney

Cis women come in all shapes and sizes, and so do trans women. 3And, contrary to popular transphobe belief, not all trans folk have blue hair. How, then, could anyone ever presume to know which is which?

This might come as a shock to transphobes, but all of us see people every day who are trans. We could be sitting near you on the train, or running the cash register at your local supermarket. We could be your hairdresser, your cleaner, the person who delivers your mail or drives the Uber you booked to take you home from the club last Saturday. We might have been dancing mere inches away at said club.

We’re your work colleagues, and we’re those friends-of-friends you see at parties occasionally. We’re picking up our kids from school, too, and you might even have given us a smile and nod as we both tried to wrangle those kids into our respective cars. We passed you that magazine when we were both waiting for our doctor’s appointments. We’ve sat in the next cubicle to you in a public toilet, and washed our hands in adjacent sinks.

Do you understand? We are part of your everyday community, and always have been.

I’m sure there’s someone out there saying, “Aha! But I recognised Dylan Mulvaney in that photo, and therefore that is the trans one!” Yes, but how do we know that? Because someone measured her proportions against some concocted standard? Because she was subjected to invasive procedures to inspect her body? Because someone analysed her blood and spotted a Y chromosome? No.

Because she told us so herself.

And that’s what these proposed bathroom bans depend on, really – the idea that we, as trans folk, will police ourselves. The only possible way these bans could be enforced is if every trans woman chooses to obey them. It’s an impossible choice. Risk getting caught, or risk using a men’s toilet.

Transphobes like to claim that cis women are in danger of being sexually assaulted by trans women, but the truth is that trans women – particularly those of colour – are far, far more likely to suffer sexual assault, at the hands of cis men. The statistics are there. Look them up. A trans woman entering a public men’s toilet, even at a school, puts herself at risk.

If she decides to ignore the ban, and someone else decides that their civic duty is to report her, then she faces the humiliation of being forced to answer questions that violate her right to privacy, whether they’re posed by shopping centre security or police. Even if she then agrees not to enter the bathroom, transphobes insist that prosecution would be necessary under their ban, and so the woman faces the prospect of paying a fine for the “crime” of being trans, or – worst case – being forced to justify her existence in court.

Think it couldn’t happen? Think again. Even before this latest round of bathroom hysteria, transphobes were taking it upon themselves to police who entered women’s bathrooms. There are also numerous recorded cases of cis women being harassed for “looking trans”, by both other cis women and by men. In one case, a cis man barged into a women’s toilet because he thought the cis woman he saw going in “dressed like a man”. In another, a cis woman with short hair was subject to an aggressive, transphobic rant from another cis woman who had concluded “that’s a boy”.

Clearly, then, transphobes cannot tell who is cis and who is trans – and they appear to be of the opinion that it’s better to apologise later than to take the risk a trans woman might fool them. This isn’t just completely unacceptable behaviour – it’s exactly the kind of sexism transphobes say they are fighting against. They want the right to say who is and isn’t allowed to be in the “real women” club, and if you don’t conform to clearly sexist criteria, then you won’t get given even the most basic courtesy of being allowed to go to the bathroom in peace. That’s what happens to cis women; think about what happens when the woman subjected to this harassment really is trans.

Bathroom bans protect no one. Not even cis women. The threat of sexual assault from cis men who attack women in public toilets is a terrible reality, and banning trans women from those spaces will not make cis women any safer. Transphobes know this. They have always known this. Any claim of concern for women’s safety is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to make their hatred of trans folk seem justified.

What, then, is a trans woman supposed to do? Have herself fitted with a urinary catheter? Cross her legs and hold it until she gets home? Not leave home in the first place?

Transphobes don’t care. Just like they don’t acknowledge that they can’t possibly enforce their proposed bans, they don’t care how badly trans women are hurt. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that is what they want.

In the transphobes’ perfect world, trans folk wouldn’t exist at all. Unfortunately for them, we do – and so transphobes dream up increasingly vicious ways to make our lives as miserable as possible. All in the name of their baseless prejudice. And if their bullying and harassment and violence kills some of us, or makes us take our own lives out of despair? That’s a win for them, because it means there are less trans folk in the world.

Next time someone tells you that it’s important to “protect women’s spaces” by banning trans women, ask them how they think such a ban would work. Ask them how’d they feel if someone harassed them, their daughters, their sisters, or their friends. Ask them how they like the idea that they might have to reassure a complete stranger or an open court that their genitals conform to some imaginary idea of “normal”. Ask them to demonstrate how banning trans women will make cis men stop attacking cis women.

Ask the questions that transphobes don’t want you to ask. Don’t let them hide behind their faux feminism and performative piety. Expose this for what it is – just another attempt to co-opt reasonable people into supporting their prejudices.

 

 

 

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We Were Warned

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Maz Weaver

Remember these slogans from the months leading up to October 14, 2023?

“Don’t vote for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament – it’s racist!”

“Vote No on the Voice because it divides Australians!”

“Vote No on the Voice because we should have a treaty first!”

“Vote No because we can always go back later and do it better!”

Every one of those slogans was based on a lie, or at least a wilful twisting of the facts almost to breaking point. Over at Something for Cate, I wrote back then that the No case amounted to baseless fear-mongering, bad faith arguments, appeals to our worst selves, and outright lies. The objections to the Voice were thoroughly debunked, over and over again, by Yes campaigners who faced a barrage of hate and threats delivered to them via social media, their phones, and even face-to-face confrontations. Those campaigners warned of the dangers of rejecting the Voice, how it would send a message to racists that bigotry was back on the menu, boys. Nonetheless, Australians overwhelmingly voted to deny our Indigenous people the right to have even as much representation to Parliament as multi-million dollar evangelical church groups and crazy conspiracy theorists.

It was a shameful moment for us. But hey, not to worry, said the big movers and shakers from the No campaign as they merrily moved on to their next cause. It’s not a slippery slope or anything. There won’t be any knock-on effects, the status quo prevails, so we should all just chill out a bit and think about the “really” important things in life. You know, crucial issues such as why the Labor government must keep the former Coalition government’s promise to reward rich people for being rich by giving them massive tax cuts, or why it’s really important to pander to hateful bigots who want to erase queer people, especially trans folk, from existence.

And – shamefully – we did move on. Whether we voted Yes or No, we either expressed regret or celebrated, and then we let it fade into the background. Oh, we commiserated with Indigenous people who expressed their utter heartbreak, if we happened to see them giving an interview. We made vague noises about how we had to do something to help. We swore to ourselves and to each other that we’d continue to support Indigenous people. But, for the most part, we let ourselves be comforted by the notion that the status quo was – if not acceptable, at least endurable. After all, we could always do something about it later, right? It won’t get any worse.

Well, here we are in 2024, and it’s already worse.

Even before the dust had settled on the Voice referendum, organisations started doing away with Acknowledgement of Country speeches. (Some, like the Presbyterian Church of Australia, apparently saw the writing on the Referendum wall and acted to do this pre-emptively.) South Australia’s Northern Areas Council was one of these, not only doing away with the speech but also removing any mention of it from official correspondence templates. Then came the City of Playford, and Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly. They haven’t quite managed it yet in the West Australian Shire of Harvey, or New South Wales’ City of Cumberland, but they’re certainly giving it a red hot go.

And why? According to Cumberland City Councillor Steve Christou, Acknowledgement of Country is … wait for it … divisive. It’s pandering to a “minority”. “Its (sic) time to stop dividing the community in order to represent a minority of 3 per cent.”

Does that sound familiar? It should. Christou is following the No campaign playbook, designed to give people the idea that if Indigenous people are acknowledged as the traditional inhabitants of Australia, it might in some way hurt “us”. And by “us”, the No campaign meant the people who have enjoyed systemic advantage since the moment our ancestors tramped up onto the beach at Port Jackson and said to the people who’d lived there for tens of thousands of years, “This is ours now, you lot can piss off.”

There’s also a new pushback against the idea of renaming things (or restoring their Indigenous names). When Moreland Council voted to change its name to Merri-bek, there was a predictable uproar- because, hey, who wouldn’t want to be part of a local government named after a slave plantation? The ABC was accused of going “woke” when it referred to capital cities by Indigenous names. Of course, this started before the Voice Referendum was even officially called, but No campaigners were quick to jump on the idea that Australian history was being “erased”, and claim that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Never mind that this was fact-checked into oblivion: it’s still popping up on social media every time someone brings up the idea of having an Indigenous name.1Here’s a fun exercise – try to work out how many councils, streets, and suburbs already bear Indigenous names, and have done so without anyone objecting. It’s more than you think.

Then there’s the ridiculous, confected furor about whether a supermarket should be compelled to stock Australia Day merchandise. How dare Woolworths – a private company – make commercial decisions, thundered the outrage merchants in the Murdoch news organisation. It’s “woke”! It’s un-Australian! They must not be allowed to do such an un-patriotic thing! Why, these people should be forced to stock paper cups with Australian flag designs printed on them!

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton – no doubt just itching to get his teeth into a new way to display some truly hateful behaviour – was quick to jump on that bandwagon. He called for Australians to boycott Woolworths, because how dare they not sell Australia Day flip-flops? Their business is not to tell us whether we believe in Australia Day or not,” he told sympathetic ear Kyle Sandilands. Woolworths are planning to sell merchandise for Chinese New Year and Diwali, he said, so of course they should also sell Australia Day stuff.

Never one to shirk an opportunity to swerve to the right of the Liberal Party, One Nation MP Pauline Hanson said that Woolworths should “pay a price”, not only for not stocking cheap flag-and-kangaroo-branded future landfill items, but also for – you guessed it – backing the Yes campaign for an Indigenous Voice. She also took a swipe at Bunnings, claiming the hardware company had instructed its employees not to wear any Australia Day items in case a customer got offended.

This isn’t just some hard right let’s-own-the-left nonsense, mind you. When you get right down to it, all these objections revolve around the idea that Australia Day is a precious and wonderful patriotic thing and always has been. Who cares if, for an increasing number of Australians, January 26th is a day emblematic not of patriotism, but of invasion and sustained, brutal oppression? That’s in the past, and besides, colonialism was good for Indigenous people. We taught them that their way of living was wrong, that their spirituality was false, that they were less than human because of the colour of their skins – and we showed them how to live “properly”. Why, they should be grateful that we took away their families and their culture and turned them into outcasts and servants with the stroke of a pen or the firing of a gun!

You won’t hear Peter Dutton or Pauline Hanson acknowledge that Australia Day is a recent invention. You won’t see the Murdoch media publish stories about how the first time it was celebrated – on July 30th – it was as a fundraiser for the WWI Australian war effort. You’ll likely never read about the fact that, as far back as 1938, Indigenous people declared January 26th a Day of Mourning. Facts? Who needs facts?

Indigenous Australians gather in protest on January 26th, 1938, in front of a blackboard proclaiming a National Day of Mourning. Source: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

And, just yesterday, the Victorian Liberal party formally withdrew its support for a treaty with Indigenous people. Back in 2022, the party had voted in favour of establishing a treaty, and talks with the First Peoples Assembly are due to begin later this year. It’s one hell of a backflip, so they must have good reasons for it, right?

Wrong.

The major reason being thrown around to justify this is that state laws requiring that development sites be assessed for cultural and heritage content (including, but not limited to, sites of Indigenous significance) are just too darn cumbersome. People shouldn’t have to care about whether they’re destroying history or desecrating sacred ground, according to the Victorian Liberals. The Shadow Aboriginal Affairs Minister Peter Walsh (who, in news that I’m sure will astonish you, isn’t Indigenous) wants to stand up for those poor oppressed developers who are faced with terrible bureaucracy and delays. They should be allowed to just build, baby, build!

Let’s just leave aside for the moment the utterly facile implication that a treaty would somehow make organisational problems within cultural heritage assessments worse. Walsh offered nothing to show this would be the case; we’re supposed to just take his word for it. And what he’s not saying is that much of the delay problem in cultural heritage assessment stems from under-resourcing, not the process itself. First Peoples Assembly co-chair and Gunditjmara man Reuben Berg even pointed out that a treaty could actually help address this situation.

That’s all beside the point, though, because what’s really going on here has nothing to do with “costs and delays”.

Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto spilled the beans. You see, according to him, Victorians don’t want a treaty. How does he know? Simple. The Voice Referendum failed, and – obviously – that means that treaty is off the table. Besides, a treaty – like the Voice – would “make people feel divided”.

Gosh, who saw that coming?

What we’re seeing is exactly what Yes campaigners warned us about. Sustained, hateful attacks all justified by hand-on-heart “restore the real Australia” rhetoric. A call to bring back that whitewashed, colonial paradise where men were men, women were in the kitchen, and dark-skinned people knew their place. A paradise that doesn’t allow anyone to bring up uncomfortable, unpleasant truths, or point out how our privilege is gained at the expense of others’ suffering. A fairy story in which we – the “real” Australians – took up the white man’s burden and brought civilisation to the savages, so strike up the band, salute the flag, and let’s all pretend that history is what we say it is.

And to do that, the Liberal Party and One Nation and all those racists disguised as “concerned citizens” have to make sure that Australians don’t hear the truth. They utter vague threats about “divisiveness” in the hope that we will react without thinking and rush to assure each other that we’re all equal. They remove what little acknowledgement of Indigenous history we have permitted to be shown and justify it by saying “let’s not make migrants feel unwelcome”. They tut-tut about government buildings flying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags alongside the blue ensign. They ask plaintively why we can’t all just get along and forget about those pesky invasions and massacres – which never happened anyway, they hasten to add. They hide behind completely fabricated nonsense to provide excuses for turning their backs on Indigenous people.

This is the definition of the slippery slope. From the moment the Voice Referendum looked like becoming a reality, racists – both in and outside our Parliaments – started marshalling their misinformation and vitriol. Every time someone spoke up to counter them, they lied, changed the goalposts, and engaged in disgusting personal attacks. They appealed to the basest, most selfish parts of ourselves, and they won. Australia told Indigenous folk they couldn’t have a Voice to Parliament, and that was the boot that sent us all careering downwards.

Oh, it’s just a few names, some might say. It’s just a speech here and there. It’s just a flag. It’s far, far more than that. What we’re seeing is a sustained attack on Indigenous Australians, dressed up in pretty words like “unity” and “equality”. Bit by bit, racists are going after Indigenous representation and Indigenous visibility in Australian society. And, for the most part, we are letting them do it.

It won’t stop with this. The idea of a Victorian treaty will be undermined and lied about, just like the Voice was. Should the idea of a national treaty ever become more than a vague “real soon now” promise, it will come under fire, too. If they fail, forget about truth-telling and reconciliation. And once that’s gone, it will be much harder for people to champion a school curriculum already under fire for daring to teach that Australia didn’t begin when the white saviours arrived. Indigenous folks, already marginalised and systemically disadvantaged, can look forward to living in a society that doesn’t want to acknowledge they exist.

The Yes campaign tried to tell us that this would happen. We didn’t listen, and now we’re just beginning to see the consequences. There is still time to stop our slide, but the longer we wait, the harder it’s going to be to climb back up.

What’s happening now is our second warning. I don’t think there’ll be a third.

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