By Situation Theatre 1/9/2018
Black Australia’s special envoy to Tony Abbott has told him to “please fuck off”.
Thanks to his experience as Chief Protector of Aborigines from 1875 to 1954, Tony Abbott has been appointed Indigenous affairs special envoy, whatever that means.
In a way the new appointment makes sense, giving Abbott the chance to bridge the yawning chasm between an amazing array of nations with an incredibly rich history of at least 60,000 years, and his own rich history of paternalist racism.
Abbott will add this special envoy role to his other new titles including Emissions Emissary, Women’s Ambassador, Dignity Diplomat, Futurism Delegate, and ABC Plenipotentiary.
Many white people think because Abbott once saw an Aboriginal person busking in Circular Quay and said “let me take over the didge from here”, he will make a very special envoy.
Aboriginal Australians pretty much all disagree.
Co-chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples said,
“Mr Abbott’s sole accomplishment was robbing our people of our right to self-determination.
"Let's reflect on Mr Abbott's history of supporting harmful, paternalistic policies relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.
“This is the man who systematically dismantled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy tried to mainstream service provision; cut over $500 million from our services; attempted to silence the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples by removing its funding; and handpicked his mates for the Indigenous Advisory Council.”
Senator Patrick Dodson said “Labor is seriously concerned about appointing the ex-self-appointed ‘prime minister for Indigenous affairs’ to the role of ‘envoy,’ given his ignorant, hopeless and frankly offensive track record on Indigenous issues,”
But whitey likey, and that’s all that matters.