Racism and reverse racism.
Misogyny and misandry.
Homophobia and heterophobia.
I have heard a lot of false equivalences touted in my time, yet none quite as stark as the false equivalency the federal government managed to manufacture earlier this week when they decided to censure both Senator Lidia Thorpe and Senator Ralph Babet concurrently for transgressions they claimed warranted such action.
In the case of Thorpe, the censure was in relation to her infamous protest at a reception for King Charles III — an action which, while loud and confronting, was based in truth-telling with regards to both Indigenous sovereignty and the harm that had been committed in the name of the Crown. In the case of Babet, it was due to a tweet in which he used racist, homophobic and ableist slurs in order to dare “woke ass freaks” to come at him. In no way are these actions of equivalence.
Yet when Senator Penny Wong took to the microphone to introduce the censure motions, drawing that false equivalence was exactly what she did. Wong claimed both motions were about the “standards of respect” expected of senators, and that both wayward senators were engaging in actions to create social media storms while offering nothing of substance to improve people’s lives.
While this may have been the case with Babet’s disgusting tweet, perhaps if Wong had stopped and actually considered the substance contained within Thorpe’s protest words, she may have realised that improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples while educating the masses on some realities is exactly why she took that action.
Disappointingly, but predictably, the champions of “free speech” that are the federal opposition appeared to forget this very core value, with the majority of them supporting both censure motions, and Senator Birmingham parroting Wong’s sentiments.
To his credit, Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan was the lone Coalition voice to question the motions and he voted against them — not on the content, but rather on the basis of process. Due to flight delays, neither Thorpe nor Babet were able to be present to hear the motions and defend themselves should they have wished to. They had only been informed that morning they were being censured.
The timing of the vote was not the only problem of process. As Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi rose to express her dissent in relation to the censure against Thorpe, she was repeatedly shut down by Senate President Sue Lines. Why? Because she dared to highlight the racism inherent in the chamber, while pointing out that it did not have the right to dictate to an Aboriginal woman, or indeed any other people of colour, how they should engage in protest. It was a fair point.
Not only did Faruqi remind the chamber of the fact it had failed to censure Pauline Hanson for a racist tweet aimed at her, she also highlighted that this same tweet was later deemed to be racial vilification via court proceedings.
What does Wong actually know about the art of protest? She’s not one to make a stand, even if it means she ends up voting against marriage equality despite being a lesbian woman who wished to marry her partner, and she certainly had no qualms in highlighting her compliance to the party line when, earlier this year, Senator Fatima Payman made a stance of unconditional support for the recognition of a Palestinian state while a genocide has been going on.
Is this lack of discernment, and reinforcement of ignorance, just a given when it comes to accepting the modus operandi of our elected politicians?
What message are the four Indigenous senators who fell in lockstep with their party’s stance sending, not only to the many Indigenous people disenfranchised in this country who are looking for politicians to champion our issues, but also to the broader Australian public?
First, that talking truth to power when it’s right there in front of you is unacceptable and warrants punishment, even though in the case of the federal government, they did commit to “truth-telling” when they promised to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.
Secondly, despite successive governments’ failures to listen to our more polite forms of protest such as petitions, consultative bodies, now-forgotten referendums and peaceful assemblies in parks, these tactics are the only ones we should be utilising.
It’s more sinister than this though. Because truly, via their choice to censure Thorpe and Babet concurrently, while neither of them were there, they are stating there is no difference between an Aboriginal woman skilfully highlighting decades of injustice in the space of a mere minute in a House that was initially built to specifically exclude us, and a man using a bunch of disgusting and outdated slurs on a social media platform to rile progressives for fun.
And so here we are, in the wake of the shambolic referendum process, finding the very issues Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to take to the streets for comparable to a disgusting and deliberately inflammatory tweet.
Have something to say about this article? Write to us at letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
