A brief history of LNP lies

The LNP would have you believe that society will collapse if The Voice to Parliament succeeds, but it’s just another in a long list of scare campaigns they have run using the same tired old message of hate and division.

In 1993, when Paul Keating introduced Native Title, the LNP started screaming that it would lead to Aboriginal people claiming all of Australia, that farmers would lose their land and people would lose their houses.

The legislation passed the parliament, and in 2023 farmers still own their land, people still own their houses and the results for Australia have been mostly positive.

Then in 2008, Kevin Rudd announced that he would make an Apology to the Aboriginal people and the Stolen Generations. Again, the LNP started screaming that it would lead to demands for reparations that would destroy Australia, and that Australians should not be forced to feel guilt for something that they hadn’t done. Peter Dutton even walked out on the Apology when Kevin Rudd delivered it, to show his contempt for it.

Again, Australia survived, and the results of the Apology were mostly positive for Australia. The economy didn’t collapse, and society wasn’t destroyed, which the LNP were trying to convince people would happen when they tried to turn public sentiment against the Apology.

Then we had the same sex marriage postal survey in 2017. Many in the LNP, siding with the Australian Christian Lobby, said it would lead to the destruction of moral values in Australia, would cause the collapse of our social structure and would be harmful to our children. The legislation eventually passed, and none of these warnings came true.

It is also worth noting that a month prior to the postal survey, polls were showing that only 39% of people were intending to vote in favour of same sex marriage. As it turned out, a month later 61.6% of the population voted in favour.

Sociologists later determined that many of those that stated in the newspaper polls that they were not in support of same sex marriage did so out of fear of repercussions from those against same sex marriage, who had shown a propensity towards violence, harassment and intimidation against anybody who supported the proposed legislation.

Now in 2023, the LNP and the extreme right are again using lies, hate, fear, violence, harassment and intimidation against Yes campaigners, in attempts to create division in society. They are again using the same tired old arguments that it will lead to Aboriginal people seeking reparations and that it will destroy the social fabric of the country.

These are the same fears they tried to instil in people with Native Title, The Apology and Same Sex Marriage. On every occassion in the past, it is the LNP and the extreme right who have created division in society, not the Aboriginal people or any of the other minority groups that the LNP like to target.

As in the same sex marriage media polls, many sociologists believe that large numbers of people are publicly saying they will vote no to The Voice, while privately planning to vote yes. This is to avoid repercussions from the extreme right who, as stated before, have a propensity towards violence, harassment and intimidation against those who don’t support their No Campaign.

The LNP and extreme right “warnings” cannot be taken seriously. They have issued exactly the same warnings repeatedly in the past, on just about everything they oppose, and those warnings have proven to be baseless.

There is to be no major change to The Constitution. The right of the Federal Parliament to create laws pertaining specifically to Aboriginal people was introduced in 1967, approved by over 90% of the Australian population in a referendum. The LNP insistence that this is what the 2023 referendum is about is an out and out lie.

All the Voice does is allow Aboriginal people to simply advise what those laws should be. In the past, advisory bodies set up by mostly non-Indigenous people have tried to advise what the laws pertaining to Aboriginal people should be, and most of those advisory bodies have failed.

The way it has worked in the past is that Labor creates an advisory body for Aboriginal people through legislation, and then the LNP rescinds the legislation to abolish that advisory body.

The Voice to Parliament would simply put a stop to the LNP rescinding legislation by embedding the advisory body in the Constitution, so it can’t be abolished by a future LNP government.

The Australian people should reject the LNP’s campaign of hate and division against The Voice, and vote with their hearts about what they know is the right thing to do. We have never been a country that succumbs to threats and intimidation, and we should not do so now.

Craig Hill is a Brisbane-based Social Justice Campaigner, Writer, Teacher and Business Consultant. He has campaigned for social justice in Australia, promoted human rights in China and worked with the homeless in Honolulu. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Business, a Graduate Certificate in Education and a degree in Management. He is also the General Manager of The Australian Business and Leadership School.

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