The General’s offensive

From John Roskam’s latest newsletter to IPA members:

… David Morrison has talked about Australia as a racist and bigoted country. I don’t think we are. Certainly there are many issues we’ve got to face and racism and bigotry does exist but I believe that Australia is an overwhelmingly welcoming and tolerant country. And if we are going to continue to make Australia and even better place to live we should do so by first acknowledging our strengths and all that’s positive about our country. I think David Morrison is out of touch and reflects a particular mindset of the Australian left. So for example a few days ago, Tim Soutphommasane, wrote about how ‘there are times when this love of country takes on a menacing edge.’ Pardon? Of all the challenges Australia faces I don’t think love of country is one of them. Some people are just looking for things about Australia to criticise.

There are two other things about David Morrison’s award of ‘Australian of the Year’ that concern me.

The first is his commitment to ‘diversity’. I think there’s something more important than ‘diversity’ and that’s ‘fairness’. Fairness ensures that people should not be judged on the colour of their skin, or their gender, or race, or religion or anything else. ‘Diversity’ elevates someone’s personal characteristics above all else. ‘Diversity’ puts people into categories and keeps them there. I don’t want to be judged on the fact that I’m a white male from a non-English speaking background. If I am going to be judged it should on what I do, say and believe. The great irony of ‘diversity’ is of course that for centuries the political left fought for the idea that everyone should be treated the same. Now they want to reverse this principle and treat people differently according to their skin colour. We’ll get diversity when we treat people fairly.

The second thing that I’m uneasy about is the way Morrison has said he’ll use the platform of ‘Australian of the Year’ to campaign for a republic. He, and any other Australian must be free to argue for (or against) a republic – but he shouldn’t use his position to lobby on a political issue …

More from Roskam via the link below

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