The Bumper Sticker Resistance

Readers may be aware that for the past six months we have been distributing bumper stickers to support the No vote in the coming referendum. Thus far we’ve sent more than 5600 stickers across the country. We do this not to make a profit, but because it is one of the few ways we can fight back against this appalling Voice proposal. We are powered by rage! Demand for our stickers increases for often unrelated reasons. Think Anzac Day, King Charles’ coronation, State of Origin, Ed Sheeran, the Olympic Committee and the antics of Lidia Thorpe and Justice Ian Harrison.

Joanna Hackett appears in our Voice online-only edition.
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As we move closer to the referendum vote, the ugly words and intimidation by the Yes luvvies are increasing. No reasoned debate here, just aggressive threats accompanied by the usual poor-me and you-nasty-white-racist-colonials nonsense. Noel Pearson has lost the plot and Stan Grant is deservedly in the brown stuff for his inappropriate comments during the coronation. He’s been around the sheltered wokeshop of the ABC for so long he’s forgotten that he who casts more than his fair share of stones ends up getting mud on his face.

We are seeing pressure being put on big business and big names to publicly support the Yes vote. Woe betide any that come out for the No side, for boycotts are a reality. People whose jobs have nothing whatsoever to do with Aboriginal matters jostle to be the first in line to have their Aboriginal credentials made public. “Look at me! Look at me!” they squawk, like flocks of demented seagulls on a feeding frenzy. Sporting teams of all persuasions, our trade unions and universities are joining the rush to be the most craven in this unseemly grovelling to win the award for loving Aborigines the most. Even Bob Hawke’s widow has joined the squawkers to inform us that Hawkie would have definitely voted Yes if he hadn’t inconveniently passed away four years ago. Poor little Albo must be really desperate to be relying on the vibes of the long-dead to get his racist, divisive referendum past the post.

It’s so irresistibly Monty Pythonish. Imagine the town crier, bell ringing loudly, shouting, “Oyez, oyez! Bring out your dead! Albo’s special government-subsidised corpse collection is here to help! Dead Yes voters over there, please. Line them up neatly now, so we can count them. Good, good. We’ll give you 100 bucks each. Chuck the dead No voters in that wheelbarrow. We’ll charge you a couple of bucks to get rid of them, just as a public service. After all, nobody wants a No voter in the house, particularly a dead one. What’s that you say? There’s no dead No voters? Not one? You mean I brought the wheelbarrow for nothing?”

But back to more serious matters! The Australian Olympic Committee is a recent addition to the squawkers. This despite the fact that in 2020, the AOC put in place new guidelines which stated that “sport is neutral and must be separate from political, religious or any other type of interference”. The policy added precision to a long-standing rule in the Olympic Charter that states, “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” The words couldn’t be clearer. There is no wriggle room here to justify their disgraceful, duplicitous behaviour.

The AOC’s decision to support the Yes vote was guided by its Indigenous Advisory Committee, wouldn’t you know. Has anyone asked the AOC why it is disregarding its charter to push a certain political stance? Or indeed why it needs an Indigenous Advisory Committee at all? Maybe I blinked and missed not-my-ABC’s in-depth criticism of the AOC. Or maybe ABC staff were too busy marching about waving “I’m with Stan” placards.

Just in case you were misguided enough to believe the AOC was colourblind in promoting sporting excellence, and that your taxes were doing great things for all aspiring Australian sports people, you might wish to reconsider. The Indigenous Advisory Committee to the AOC has enduring representation on the AOC Athletes Commission. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artwork is incorporated in Olympic apparel and the services of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have been integrated into all Games operations.

The AOC is not unusual in having its special in-house Aboriginal advisory group and clothing designer. Far from it. Such advisory groups are a make-work con employing Aborigines to tell workers how to be culturally sensitive, whatever that might mean. They appear in almost every workplace, from banks to building sites, earning kudos for the grovelling seagull bosses and running compulsory courses on Aboriginal right-think. Nobody dares to question why Aborigines need special treatment in the workplace (that would be racist) or why Indian or Chinese workers, for example, do not equally deserve special consideration. And it would be a brave employee who dared suggest that traditional Aboriginal culture offers very little of relevance to today’s workplace, or indeed that most of it is best consigned to the history books.

Rio Tinto’s $2 million donation to the Yes side shows a haughty disregard for its own policies regarding involvement in political matters. This mob is even more cavalier than the AOC, for here we have a multinational corporation breaking its rules in an attempt to influence an Australian referendum. Perhaps Rio officials didn’t abase themselves enough, or pay enough after the disaster of the strangely legal-but-wrong Juukan Gorge affair.

Two disturbing additions to the Yes grovellers are Beyond Blue and the Cancer Council. The former is a community-based organisation committed to enhancing Australia’s mental health. If you find Beyond Blue’s move from mental health to politics inappropriate, you may wish to add your expressions of disgust to the many already on their website. That the once-respected Cancer Council has also joined the grovellers is equally disheartening. Who will be next, I wonder—the Guide Dogs?

The Law Institute of Victoria is publicly supporting the Voice and the New South Wales and Victorian Bar Associations also, despite objections from many members and in the media that such legal bodies should remain independent from politics. New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Harrison’s outrageous attack on Nationals MP Pat Conaghan has also raised concerns about the separation of powers between the workings of parliament and the judiciary. Justice Harrison equated voting No with being a racist, with being niggardly, cruel and mean-spirited.

Actors and musicians have joined the Yes love-in. Foreigners such as the popular Ed Sheeran thought it was just fine to prance about on an Australian stage trailing the Aboriginal flag and wearing a T-shirt with an Aboriginal flag. Looked a real wanker.

Beyond Blue and the Cancer Council’s comments are part of the continuing thinly veiled threat to No voters. Our actions and unkind words will apparently bring poor health, heartache, despair and possible suicides to Aboriginal people. The federal government has committed an extra $10 million to support the mental health of Aborigines during the referendum period, and mental health organisations say they are bracing for increased reports of racism and psychological distress. How insulting to presume that Aborigines are like toddlers who have tantrums and fall apart when they don’t get what they want. How insulting to presume that No voters are cruel racists out to cause pain and distress.

We are warned there may be rioting in the streets, and that other countries will think poorly of us if the No voters succeed. All the usual scaremongering tactics of those who don’t have a logical argument are being dragged out. Those Goody Two-Shoes Yes voters, on the other hand, will be supporting social and emotional wellbeing, closing that nasty gap, reducing the horrors of colonisation and intergenerational trauma and a myriad of other nebulous fluffy issues.

In this country, nobody has the right to pressure others to vote in a particular way. This is a most un-Australian form of coercion and one likely to result in a backlash. We are not some tinpot African country where votes are bought and sold and citizens are bribed to vote this way or that. Nobody in Australia is obliged to tell anyone how they intend to vote, not their boss, their fans, their spouse or even their dear old Mum. If you are working for a company, a business, no matter how small or large, and your employer publicly announces that his business—your workplace—supports the Voice, then you have a right to be offended, particularly if you wish to vote No. Who you vote for is nobody’s business but your own and your boss is overstepping his authority when he arrogantly assumes he speaks for all his employees. He needs to keep out of what is a private and personal decision. This applies whether you work for giants like Qantas, Rio Tinto and Wesfarmers or the little coffee shop on the corner.

In this great democracy we are lucky to still have one card up our sleeves to beat these virtue-signalling grovellers. We have a secret ballot, and three hearty British cheers for that! If your boss is publicly seeking brownie points for voting Yes, you know you can ignore him with a mental two-finger salute as you pop your No vote into the box on referendum day.

The welcome-to-country ceremonies forced on Anzac crowds enraged many, and the flying of the two cuckoo flags on that special day was seen as particularly inappropriate and offensive. My sticker sales increased markedly as a result of this public disapproval. Our RSL leaders appear to be in the thrall of the Aboriginal industry and have forgotten what they actually exist to do. One veteran who wrote a letter of complaint to his local RSL regarding welcome-to-country ceremonies received an insulting reply dripping with condescension. Another furious Aussie wrote, “We will not be welcomed to our own country and we will not tolerate anyone welcoming the memories and souls of our service men and women to their homeland. This was an insulting rude intrusion into the memories of our heroes.”

And all the while, the demand for No stickers increases because Australians don’t care for politics poking its nose into our private business, or threatening us, or messing with our special days such as Anzac Day, Australia Day and Remembrance Day. My most popular sticker remains “Don’t Welcome Me to My Own Country” and I distributed even more than usual after that State of Origin match in Adelaide.

The long-suffering public has had enough of this stomping about in nappies puffing smoke and blowing didgeridoos. The latter costs extra, by the way. Didge blowers don’t come cheap. Don’t think for a minute that the performers are donning those dress-ups and stomping about out of the goodness of their hearts. Oh no! Welcome-to-country is a lucrative business. The Broken Hill Council has given up on welcome-to-country as they can’t afford it. The Gold Coast Council has also stopped welcome-to-country because it’s a waste of councillors’ time, and all praise to them.

The ads for the Yes vote are now hitting our screens and what a lot of smarmy, smiley, simpering bunch of sycophants they show us. How they bore the pants off us with the old poor-me whinge. If the blatant lies in some of these ads arouses your ire, complain. Then complain again. Complain all the way to the top because I reckon it’s time for truth-telling.

Every movie ever made depicting the evils of the white man and the corresponding wonderfulness/nobility of the black man is being dredged up to be part of the pre-referendum softening up procedure. Money is being thrown at new and ever-more-creative “documentaries”. We suffered the excruciating exaggeration and outright lies of The Australian Wars. Now we’re being overwhelmed with a plethora of propaganda documentaries which have only the faintest whiff of reality. Consider The First Inventors, which is about the amazing, almost unbelievable inventions of Aboriginal people.

“Oh my gosh,” I thought, more than a little puzzled. “That will surely be the shortest documentary ever made.” But no, it’s a four-part series from NITV which “not only explores the past but questions whether this ancient knowledge might hold answers to humanity’s most pressing modern challenges”. And just who is paying for this tripe? Why we are, of course, via the National Indigenous Australians Agency, Tourism Australia, Screen NSW and Screen Territory. And the icing on this crapcake is that the series will be subtitled in Arabic and Simplified Chinese. How good is that!

That creepy Peter Weir film The Last Wave has had a recent airing just in case we’d forgotten how amazingly spiritual and prescient Aborigines are. The Tracker too has graced our screens of late, and is similarly didactic. The so-called stolen generation is getting yet another bash at our equanimity, with a repeat of Servant or Slave. Apparently, and I quote, “thousands upon thousands” of Aboriginal children were stolen from their happy homes and forced to work as domestics for whites. No mention of the rape, murder and violence meted out to (particularly) half-caste children in their communities at the time. No mention of the fact that many of these young people ended up better educated than Aboriginal children are now.

NITV is also dedicating its current affairs program The Point to teaching us all about the referendum. Titled Referendum Road Trip, the series intends to foster essential debate and provide profound analysis. One might ask why this research wasn’t done years ago, when the referendum proposal was in its infancy. At present, many Aborigines have never heard of the Voice, and some who have say they don’t want it as it’s nothing to do with them, it’s for city activists. However, I have no doubt that NITV will hustle up a goodly mob of token outback Aborigines to support the Voice and smile and wave at the cameras.

Indoctrination of children continues across the country, whether the parents want it or not. A newsagent at Brisbane Airport has a large colourful display to sort out any unfortunate littlies who’ve missed their schools’ brainwashing programs. It’s titled Come Together: Things Every Aussie Kid Should Know About the First Peoples (sic). A careful selection of jolly little kiddies’ books accompanies this. Kiddies from Victoria don’t need these as their brains are well washed already. Some outback schools are even returning to teaching children in Aboriginal languages because it makes them feel positive about their Aboriginality. This silly idea was thrown out years ago when teachers realised that if Australians can’t speak English, the language of this country, before any other languages, they will be forever marginalised.

Certain items in museums and libraries are now not easily accessible to non-Aboriginal Australians. Certain books are being permanently removed from school library shelves and replaced with those that tell the approved First Nations (sic) story. What comes next? Burning books? Some of us are old enough to remember where that leads.

Our art galleries and theatres are now taken over with Aboriginal-centric subjects, and if you tick the right box, you’re likely to do really well in competitions. Quality is less important than the colour of the creator. You can apply for jobs, housing and scholarships available only to your race, and some of you won’t even have to pay back your HECS debt. No wonder the number of Australians choosing to be Aboriginal is rapidly increasing.

And now, dear readers, prepare for a nasty shock. According to Advance Australia, Australian taxpayers spend $100 million every single day on direct government support for indigenous communities. That’s $39.5 billion a year in 2023. That’s more than we spend on the NDIS ($35.5 billion), Medicare ($31.3 billion) or Defence ($38 billion). It’s about the same as the federal government’s entire expenditure on schools and universities ($39.7 billion). When considering these eye-watering figures, remember that Aboriginal people number just over 3 per cent of the population. Where is the money going? Nobody seems to know. And surely welfare should be based on need, not race?

Another worrying figure is this: only 24.2 per cent of Australian land remains untouched by Aboriginal rights, claims or agreements. Non-Aboriginal people are now prevented from visiting many parts of their own country, or must pay fees to do so and employ an approved guide. Be afraid, for sacred sites are magically springing up all over the place and even more lock-outs are lurking at national parks and beaches near you. Perfectly fine place names are being changed to Aboriginal names at not insignificant expense. The irritating use of Aboriginal country names is now ubiquitous and we slide seamlessly from one special Aboriginal event to another. I think we’re up to Reconciliation Week or maybe it’s the Anniversary of the National Apology Day (not to be confused with Sorry Day) or Close the Gap Day or maybe the Garma Festival or the Barunga Festival, or NAIDOC Week. Whatever. Any excuse to put on the nappies and stomp about. And during these special events our defenceless school children are dressed up in costumes and indoctrinated in the wonders of Aboriginal culture and the evils of the white man.

We live in a dangerous age, because every time a book disappears or a statue is pulled down or a lie goes unchecked, we edge closer to Orwell’s 1984: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.”

If this is not what you want for your country, stand up and be counted. Call out the liars, the grovellers and the self-servers. Turn your back or walk out at welcomes to country. Support those fighting against the Voice, financially if you can, for big corporate money is going to the Yes side to add extra value to the squawkers’ credentials. By big money, I mean $5 million from the Paul Ramsay Foundation and of course $350 million from our very own Labor government. At the very least, discuss the subject with family and friends and display a sticker for the No side.

Nobody in their right mind would vote Yes for a Voice model that will be determined after the referendum. Don’t bother asking the First Nations Referendum Working Group for dreary operational details such as costings or employment numbers because they don’t know, but gosh, they’ve developed some nicely decorated design principles to impress us. As well, they can send you the newly developed community toolkit (always wanted one of those) which includes a large range of resources, such as posters, templates, social media posts and more. We lucky Aussies can share these resources with our communities and networks. And who’s paying for this? Why it’s us, the generous Australian taxpayer yet again. What suckers we are! Check out the Australian government site (voice.gov.au) and despair.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this black sludge oozing into every corner of our lives is happenstance. It is part of a carefully-thought-out plan long in the making. We are being reeled in, gulled and gutted as our place in this wonderful country and our contribution to it are questioned at every turn.

It’s not all gloom and doom though. Some fine politicians, political parties and well-known personalities are coming out firmly for the No vote, and certain journalists have always been staunch No voters. Several websites now exist for the thinkers and the reasoned amongst us to share views. The Australian still gives us more balanced reporting than most and of course Quadrant has long argued against the Voice. Sweeping new cultural and heritage laws recently passed in Western Australia are so onerous, so impractical and unreasonable that they will turn many against the insatiable Aboriginal industry for ever. Remind yourself, when your rage keeps you awake at night, that you are not alone.

Good for a chortle is a Booktopia advertisement for First Knowledges Law: The Way of the Ancestors, a new book by Marcia Langton and Aaron Corn. We are told that this book “challenges readers to consider how Indigenous law can inspire new ways forward for us all in the face of global crises”. I suspect that the more ridiculous the claim, like this gem, the more the lefties latch onto it. That would help to explain the continuing success of Australia’s arch-charlatan, the white man Bruce Pascoe.

The claims of Professor Kerrie Doyle (Assistant Dean of Aboriginal Health at Western Sydney University) are equally incredible, for she says she has in her possession a recording of the warrior Pemulwuy singing a welcome-to-country song. Pemulwuy died fifty-eight years before the first recording of the human voice. If Doyle weren’t a (self-appointed) member of the untouchable Aboriginal industry, she would have been laughed out of town ages ago.

Equally amusing were the words of the inaugural First Nations (sic) ambassador to the UN. We are reminded that First Nations (sic) people were—wait for it—this land’s first diplomats! Wow! The ambassador said, “I am excited about the opportunities ahead to embed First Nations voices and knowledge into Australia’s foreign policies and trade.” He said this with a straight face, which must have been difficult. There is no Aboriginal nation now and there never was an Aboriginal nation. So why do they have a representative at the United Nations? This is the ultimate BS and we are getting rolled.

The word is at last getting out about the lies behind the Uluru Statement. Both Warren Mundine and Jacinta Price have stated unequivocally that the words were never the result of extensive, open research. A carefully stacked group of agreeable Australians was chosen to take part in the process—so the game was rotten right from the start. Some of these signatories now say they were surprised to see their names on the document, and unhappy, as this implies their approval of the Voice. One might reasonably presume that this was yet another example of city activists manipulating outback Aborigines for their own political purposes. And now this dodgy Statement hangs in classrooms and our school children are learning to parrot the words as if it’s some wondrous sacred mantra instead of a con job on a par with Pascoe’s Dark Emu.

We are told repeatedly that if the referendum wording were to be changed, most Australians would vote for Aborigines to be recognised in the Constitution. I am not convinced that this is the case. The message I am getting is that our Constitution should not be changed. It should be left alone. Under it, we are all equal and we all have one vote, for this is a democracy and that’s how it works. If some Aborigines are seeking reconciliation, maybe they should stop wallowing in the past, and cease demanding an ever-increasing share of the goodies. As for recognition, well, we are all recognised already. We are all Australians. No one race should ever get a special mention in our Constitution. If Aborigines feel they deserve an extra voice, consider this. Australia has more Aboriginal politicians percentage-wise than we have Aborigines in the population, and they also have a Minister for Aboriginal Affairs to look after their interests.

Are you cranky? Are you mad? Are you absolutely fed up with all the BS being thrown at us? At Albo supporting one side and not the other in a referendum that affects all Australians? Then buy a bumper sticker and don’t be afraid to display it. Stand up for what you believe in your heart. Give this dodgy Voice the short shrift and don’t ever vote to become a despised group in your own country. I used to think it was melodramatic to suggest that we’re facing the destruction of Australian democracy. Not any more.

One question keeps circling in my head. How will the Voice help those who need help? Nobody has yet answered me. All I hear is the wind blowing in the bullshit trees.

Joanna Hackett’s story “Saving Australia, One Bumper Sticker at a Time” appeared in the October 2022 issue. She can be contacted at jbhackett@bigpond.com for sticker information.