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The unhinged political undertow that exists in Queensland was on show for all over the weekend, as cities and towns across the Sunshine State joined in on the nationwide march in support for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Queenslanders, although often written off as rednecks by the Southern Elites, are known for having the most disruptive and unpredicabtle voting patterns of any other demographic in Australia.
Namely, their decision to elect three Greens MPs in the 2022 Federal Election, quadrupling the number of the minor party’s elected representatives in Parliament – who up until that point had only been from Melbourne.
Or the bizarre communist history of North Queensland that saw Townsville union officials frequently making trips to Russia in the 1940s and 1950s, around the time that the people of Mackay and Prosperpine became the first and only voters in Australian history to elect a member of the Communist Party.
On top of this, you’ve got the phenomena that is the Katter Family, a conservative rural political dynasty of paid up CFMEU members that openly advocate for renationalising Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank, and fight tooth and nail to close down Juvenile Correctional Centres and put youth offenders on a horse and send them off to chase cattle as relocation sentencing.
So it’s no surprise that Queensland’s approach to supporting The Indigenous Voice to Parliament would be a little more brash than the rest of the more cosmopolitan southern states.
A rally outside Brisbane’s QPAC theatre in South Bank over the weekend, saw some random Labor weirdos shouting ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie!’ Before urging the crowd to chant back ‘Yes Yes Yes’ – in an effort to ramp up momentum for the Indigenous Voice campaign.
This inherent Queensland urge to turn even the most gentle and inclusive public demonstration of solidarity into some sort of nationalistic display of hooliganism has been relayed right across the country on social media this week.
Speaking to The Betoota Advocate from a sun bed on the coast of Southern Italy, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says ‘what can ya do?’
“They have their own way of showing support”
“Sure it’s a little bit staunch. And even cringeworthy at times, but at least they aren’t sitting in a room in Adelaide laughing at Welcome To Country jokes”
Other chants included ‘Hey Hey, Ho, Ho, That Crooked Cop Dutton Has To Go!’ – as well as generic State Of Origin singalongs that ranged from the ‘Yay Yay Yipi Yipi Yay’ victory song, to the standard Billy Moore style ‘QUEEENSLANDER’.
However, Palaszczuk says this is just their way of helping out, and they don’t really know any better.
“That march was stacked with union heavies. Why the hell do you think I sat this one out on holidays?”
“Do you wanna tell them to rein it in?”
“I can’t even do that and I’m a Labor Premier”
