Dear Mr Abbott,
On this day in particular, when more than 85,000 Australians took to the streets to protest your government’s lack of fair representation and appropriate action on what matters to them, and which you appear to wish to ignore, I dream a dream that you will have an awakening of conscience, and think on it again. When your government ministers come from such a narrow demographic, and field of experiences it’s impossible for them to be representative of, and take into consideration the interests of an entire nation. Failure to have a representative body means the processes that beget our laws, and social programs are completely uninformed by the reality of a vast number of people’s lives. Don’t tell me that a bunch of middle aged, elitist white guys hell bent on destroying vulnerable people’s mental health, sense of security, and the environment for profit represents the interests of the entire nation.
If you’ve never felt the anxiety of fearing for the financial, psychological, or physical security of your family it’s perfectly acceptable that you don’t ‘get it’. It doesn’t excuse you from informing yourself on who these people are that do, how they got there, and what to do about it however. You have a duty to do so if you wish to preserve even a pretence of continuing the work of building an Australia for all Australians.
The disinformation fed to us by the power brokers of Australia, mostly older white men that the loss of absolute power is falsely attributed as being akin to persecution, or ‘interference’ as the recent Liberal Party rhetoric presents it, has been the same attitude that has held back progress on issues of race, gender, social status, and sexual orientation based equality issues all over the world since time immemorial. It’s not a hinderance to your freedom to have discrimination, and prejudice based demonisation and actions legislated against, and vulnerable people cared for. It’s a reflection of a fair society where everyone has the right to the freedoms, education, access to wealth, employment, healthcare, and safety you take for granted every day. It’s a reflection of a society where you don’t get to feel superior as your birthright, and you are forced to rely on the content of your character in order to feel secure, and worthy.
It would appear that you have missed the memo on equality, or need it re-explained to you. It is not, to paraphrase George Orwell, ‘all people are equal, but some people are more equal than others’. The true purpose of subjugation lies in promoting unequal access to the benefits of civilised society in your favour, and is rooted in the belief that there isn’t enough to share. It’s the big kid that divides the biscuit in two for himself and his little brother and takes ‘the big half’ because he feels a) entitled to more, and b) the innate security and narcissistic supply to his ego he garners from the inequality of strength means his brother isn’t big enough to fight him for a fair deal. c) the combination of a and b makes him feel powerful and secure.
That is why securing the rights, and freedoms of marginalised, and persecuted groups in our culture is so low on your list of priorities. It’s an exercise in assuaging your fears by feeding your own power agenda. An agenda made necessary only because of your own insecure self image, and that is neither our problem, nor should it be our focus in creating, nurturing positive change in, and maintaining a society we can all be proud of.
It is maddening to hear you and your cronies bang on with unfounded, aggrandising references to your supposed ‘mandate’, or the completely misleading misinformation about achieving a sizable majority vote. In fact the Liberal Party achieved victory through deliberate manipulation of preferences, and a coalition with other parties. The Liberal Party actually received LESS votes than Labor when you look at the raw data. The only mandate you have is to govern the nation in such a way that takes into account not just the fiscal bottom line, but the checks, balances, and vast ethical and spiritual debt incurred by this government with it’s policies designed to motivate by cruelty. Our ethical account is in default, but not beyond redemption, and you’d better be prepared for any Australian with a heart, and a conscience to fight you for it. We will not be ignored.
A Bird in the Hand 