Tony Abbott invoked the words of Bob Hawke and Martin Luther King when he delivered a passionate speech against Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
The former prime minister addressed a Event of the Institute of Public Affairs in Perth on Wednesday night, where he outlined the reasons why he would vote ‘No’.
During the speech, which received a standing ovation, Abbott declared that he had had enough of the victimhood that he says has taken root in Australia.
“The past is not perfect, but our responsibility is to make the present and the future as good as we humanly can,” he told the audience.
Abbott also echoed the words of liberal legend John Howard, saying that although Australia was colonized, it could have been worse.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott made a scathing speech against the Indigenous Voice before Parliament at an Institute of Public Affairs event in Perth on Wednesday night.
Mr Abbott said that by voting Yes, Australians would enshrine a sense of victimhood in the constitution forever.
Using those who came before him as fuel, Mr. Abbott opened the speech with a sense of familiarity for those in attendance.
“To quote… the wonderful words of Bob Hawke on Australia Day in 1988, “we are a country without a hierarchy of descent. We are a country without privilege of origin,” said Abbott.
Quoting the immortal words of Martin Luther King from a previous generation, “I want to live in a country where my four children are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
‘My absolute wish is that we can move forward as equal people and that is why I will vote no. Because I absolutely reject any suggestion that there is something fundamentally wrong with this great country, Australia.
If the Yes for Voice campaign were to succeed, “it would entrench victimhood in our constitution forever,” according to Abbott.
“The past is not perfect, but our responsibility is to make the present and the future as good as we humanly can,” he said.
‘This generation of migrants and the descendants of migrants are not oppressors. This generation of indigenous people are not victims.’
Despite these blemishes and previous failed attempts at reconciliation that “didn’t always work out”, the former prime minister said Australia still fared better than other colonized nations.
Specifically, Abbott cast a shadow over nations like Argentina, Brazil, and the Congo, which were invaded by the Spanish, Portuguese, and Belgians, respectively.
Voting No was also an opportunity to counter “some of the crazy things that have been happening in our country,” Abbott continued.
“I’m going to vote no on some things,” he said.
“I’ll vote no on voice, sure, but I’ll vote no on the climate cult, I’ll vote no on… the virus hysteria, I’ll vote no on the gender fluidity crisis, I’ll vote no on the ‘magic pudding’ economy.”
The phrase ‘Magic Pudding’ economics refers to the 1918 Australian children’s book of the same name, where a pudding magically replenishes itself after eating it.
Abbott used the words of MLK (pictured): “I want to live in a country where my four children are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
He also used the words of Labor legend Bob Hawkes (pictured) to justify his cause: “We are a country without a hierarchy of descent. We are a country without privilege of origin’
Abbot closed his list of reasons to vote no by returning to his point about self-hatred and why it shouldn’t be enshrined as a way of life.
“And I will vote no on this crazy cultural self-contempt that afflicts this country along with so many other countries in the English-speaking world, who should know better,” he said.
This speech in Perth came days after Western Australia’s Premier Roger Cook announced that the state would scrap its Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.
The law had been in place for just over a month before the furore it caused among farmers led to its demise.
Landowners were outraged by the additional layers of bureaucracy it had created, requiring obtaining permits from local indigenous mobs for any cultivation near culturally significant sites.
Cook apologized for the stress and confusion he caused the state when he announced he was dropping the law.
“It has been done based on the best legal advice and after detailed discussion and analysis of many options,” he said.
“Simply put, the laws went too far. They were too prescriptive, too complicated and placed unnecessary burdens on Western Australian homeowners.
Mr Abbott lamented that the Voice would be like the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act ‘on steroids’ during his speech.
“If you really read the lengthy documents that are part of and behind the one-page Uluru declaration, they are permeated with a sense of anger, grievance, entitlement and sovereignty,” he said.
“The essential thesis of the people who drafted the Uluru declaration, and are pushing so hard for this voice, is that what happened in 1788 and afterward was essentially unlawful, unjust, unjust and, to the extent humanly possible, should be atoned for and backwards.
The speech came days after WA Premier Roger Cook (pictured) scrapped the state’s Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, which Abbott claimed Voice would emulate but “on steroids”.
