CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
As the Federal Opposition backflips on key election policies, and Opposition MPs suddenly stop talking about their wildly unpopular nuclear power plan, it seems that it is once again time to use Indigenous people as a punching bag for cheap political points.
In a desperate effort to not talk about anything that might further upset suburban mums and Chinese-Australians, Peter Dutton will now lean into his strengths and start blowing his favourite dog whistle.
And to do this, he needs to make contact with a woman that many people thought had expended her political usefulness to the Liberal Party.
Jacinta Price.
But Peter Dutton has another job for his loyal Alice Springs senator, and once again, he will require her to join him in demonising and belittling her own people.
With four weeks left of the election campaign, First Nations communities are now bracing for a wave of media reports about how social programs aimed at closing the gap are actually a waste on money for ‘everyday Australians’ whose families haven’t been subjected to generational disadvantage.
In the midst of this messy onslaught of anti-Indigenous attacks, these nasty headlines about departmental waste will contradict the cruel comments from conservative politicians about Indigenous people ‘choosing to raise children in squalor’.
This method served the Liberal Party exceptionally well in 2023, when Peter Dutton decided at the last minute to backflip his position on the Indigenous Voice and spend 6 months undermining a constitutional proposal that multiple members of his party had played crucial roles in pulling together.
While it was enough to ‘win’ them a resounding NO vote in a constitutional referendum, it remains unclear if the Coalition can emulate this success in Federal election, where a lot more issues are at play.
Either way, Peter Dutton needs Jacinta Price singing from the same hymn sheet once again.
“Oh hi Peter!” said an ecstatic Senator Price, after recieiving her first phone call from Peter Dutton since he got what he wanted out of her last time.
“I thought you’d lost my number haha”
Dutton chuckles.
“Oh no. No. Just been a bit busy with more important stuff haha” he says.
“But I’ve got some good news. We have another job for you”
“Pretty similar to last time. We need to audit expenditure in the Indigenous affairs portfolio.”
“Reckon you’ll be able to front daily press conferences for the next 38 days straight?”
