Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley delivers her Australia Day speech at Noreuil Park in Albury. Photo: BORDER MAIL
Just when we thought we were emerging from the silly season unscathed, along comes a politician to spoil it. Introducing the deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley. And thanks for nothing.
No doubt Ley was trying to communicate a time in history through a modern equivalent, thus rendering it easier to comprehend. But the problem with leading a cheer squad, it is all song and dance and nothing else.
Last Sunday, Australia Day, Ley gave a speech at a church in Albury, NSW, which is part of her electorate of Farrer. She praised British settlement of this continent and then with a quick booster rocket surge of illogic, equated it to the ambitions of Elon Musk to colonise Mars.
Settlement, which began with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, had been a “new experiment”.
“All those years ago those ships did not arrive, as some would have you believe, as invaders,” she said. “In what could be compared to Elon Musk’s Space X’s efforts to build a new colony on Mars, men in boats arrived on the edge of the known world to embark on that new experiment.
“And just like astronauts arriving on Mars those first settlers would be confronted with a different and strange world, full of danger, adventure and potential.“
Where to begin?
It’s true the people who arrived, free men and convicts, would be setting foot on a land utterly alien from whence they had left. But it was not entirely unknown. There is the not so small a matter of James Cook in 1770 having bumped into the east coast of the continent, sailed all the way up it, mapping its coastline and then, without a word of politeness to the original inhabitants, declaring the entire continent for the motherland. Then there is also the not inconsiderable matter of the inhabitants who were brushed aside by the British simply seeing the place as terra nullius. No problem. Philip and his fleet were under orders from London to treat the “natives” with respect. But history has shown how that turned out.
Musk and his astronauts will have it far easier when they eventually land because the planet is literally terra nullius. Not a Martian to be seen or heard. Unless they’re hiding under rocks or in caves that satellite images haven’t detected. They can colonise to their heart’s content without having to worry about massacring anyone or taking away the children.
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Ley also said Australia Day was important for “recognising who we are and where we have come from. Today, as we stand here in a peaceful, prosperous, and free Australia, how can we do anything but celebrate the success of that daring experiment?”
We can ask the victims of that daring experiment. As a nation, we have apologised to the First Nations people, and then with a shrug of the shoulders, and a concentrated snarling campaign successfully silenced their voice to parliament.
Ley, in lockstep with leader Peter Dutton, wants to place the arrival of the First Fleet as the cornerstone of the nation. On one hand, they are absolutely right. You cannot argue with where you now stand. But it is not the whole story, it is not the whole truth. You cannot emphasise one position without diminishing the other. And that is shameful and shameless.
Ley went on to say last Sunday: “Like so many other colonial stories, it could have ended in disaster and collapse. The imperial impulse to extract wealth and rule through naked violence could have been the norm. But that would not be our fate as a nation.”
She called for people to reject “the black arm brigade, who will be marching in the streets of our cities today . . . We need to reject what those mobs are saying today through their loudspeakers and their iPhones.
“The problem with those activists is they are so fixated with projecting themselves as survivors, that they leave no room for us to come together as citizens. And history shows us strong and successful societies are not made up of survivors, they are built and maintained by citizens.”
In one fell swoop, Ley divides cause and effect into survivors and citizens. Indigenous people mark January 26 as either Invasion Day or Survival Day. Dutton has said if elected he will enshrine in legislation January 26 as Australia Day.
How this unites the nation is as much known as what Martians have for breakfast.
