Geoffrey Blainey coined the term, "black armband history", which John Howard picked up in his 1996 election and used since as part of the longer campaign in the history wars. Blainey talks about democracy as being Australia's greatest and most difficult achievement, claiming that this majority based system is the defining component of our history. But Blainey is either ignorant, or rhetorically contemptuous in the understanding of minorities and rights in a political system. Modern Australians define themselves in the "Better Country"; failure to respect minorities, and to trample individual rights are directly the fault of our government and public institutions. Australians demand better.
Minorities
The greatest abuse of individual and political rights has been by the hands of government. Usually it is only the politically weak minorities that have copped it, but occasionally minorities do as well. Our politicians are sufficiently cowardly that they only pick on minorities. One area of our history that involved institutional failure to respect the individual, the family and the community was the stolen generations. This started in Western Australia in the 1890s, and ended in the 1950s after receiving sponsorship at the state and federal levels.
As Aboriginal children were kidnapped from their families by government officials and policeman based on the colour of their skin. If the skin colour was half-white and half-black, then the child was stolen from its mother and then fostered out to a white family. This was done for the reason of mono-culture - forcible assimilation of Aboriginal children into the then majority culture which was Anglo-Australian. This was known colloquially as the "fuck them white" policy.
In a 1993 speech, Geoffrey Blainey said;
The multi-cultural folk busily preached their message until they arrived much of Australian history was a disgrace. The past treatment of Aborigines, of Chinese, of Kanakas, of non-British migrants, of women, the very old, the very young and the poor was singled out, sometimes legitimately, sometimes not. These condemnations of Australia's past treatment of various categories of people were so sweeping, that at times close to 80 per cent of the population was on the hit list - a suspiciously high percentage, you must admit, when even this was really one of the world's most vigorous democracies.This assumes that a minority is exclusive and cannot be a member of another minority at the same time. However and Aboriginal Australian can be elderly, female and poor - all at the same time. When America was founded as a Republic in 1787, the writers of the constitution were aware of the problems, not only of the tyranny of absolute rule, but also tyranny of the majority. Blainey is arguing that tyranny of the majority is a valid form of democracy. As long as tyranny against a majority, comes through a democratic system, it is excusable, and cannot be put in the bad ledger of history. In the speech, Blainey mentions that he was raised on the "Three Cheers" view of history. Peter Botsman has called this the "Triumphalism of Federation" history. In that form of history, government wrote the narrative, excusing themselves of any past tyranny, inequity and failure. Yet we know that a Bill of Rights was excluded from the Australian Constitution as the "Bearded Men" wanted to be able to use the power of federal government to willfully discriminate against the Chinese in Australia. The "Three Cheers" history is essentially bankrupt. Until Australian historians focus on the most destructive, and discriminate force in Australia - the federal and state governments, then Australian history will just be competing political agendas for government to write their own history. Howard's attack on the history and culture wars is to excuse the Australian government from past tyranny, so the government, does not have to face how destructive it has been to this country. Australia must align itself with the principles of "The Better Country", where being better is a constant striving to improve; at the individual, family, community, social, economic and political levels. Obviously, the Better Country has no room for inferior politicians and government who would tyrannise their minorities in the name of majority rule. Rights Blainey also has a fundamental mis-undertanding of what constitutes political rights. The same speech in 1993 included;
In fact it [democracy] depends partly on a society which emphasises individual responsibility as much as individual rights. We became a rights-mad society in the 1970s and 1980s, forgetting that there will never be enough rights to go around. A firm right granted to one person or group is often a loss of right to another person or group.The Australian system of responsible government is weak in protecting rights, often our judicial has jumped into this breach and made rulings that protect speech and other rights despite the constitution having no such mention. We get an activist judicial because the writers of the Australian Constitution were incompetent and myopic. It is also often misunderstood that political rights are limitations on what government can do. The feel-good declarations that people have the right to dignity, or health care are not rights, they are opinions or positions of legislative or policy principle. A political right is a limitation on government, without which, a rational individual would not consent to be governed. Political rights are limitations on government's ability to act in an arbitrary manner. They are for the defeat of tyranny. Prosperity Through The Better Country Prosperity is impossible unless individuals are secure in their individual, social, economic and political rights. Otherwise individuals are forced to deal with the uncertainties of arbitrary an tyrannous government - whether democracy or not. Minorities need to be protected from government through a clear constitutional enunciation of rights which place restrictions on government - ensuring that minorities are treated under the law the same as the majority is. Multiculturalism is a natural outgrowth of liberty, where people can live how they choose to, and be who they want to. When government discriminates against minorities, often for political purposes, liberty and prosperity suffer to the detriment for all of us. cam
