After pointing out for a number of years that January 26th isn’t just the anniversary of Captain Arthur Phillip’s landing, but it’s also the anniversary of the Rum Rebellion when a group of people launched an insurrection and arrested the Governor. Surely, I’ve argued, this is something that we can all celebrate… with the possible exception of David Hurley, who, thanks to the publicity surrounding Scotty’s secret ministries, more than a dozen people will have heard of.
Yes, I am aware that some people argue that celebrating Australia Day on January 26th has a history going back several Prime Ministers… but then so does Dan Andrews and if I suggested that we have a Dan Andrews Day a lot of people would refuse to participate.
And yes, I am aware that a lot of people say things like who cares about what happened to our First Nations people two hundred years ago, the important thing is what we do now and that means that we need to ensure that there’s practical reconciliation which doesn’t include a Voice to Parliament because one thing about Australia that we should be celebrating is what the British brought to this country in 1788: Freedom and democracy.
Of course, a pendant might point out that what the British brought in 1788 is a lot of people in chains and an unelected governor, so it seems strange that anybody regards that as freedom and democracy but there’s a lot of things that confuse me, like the fact that some Labor supporters are complaining that the ABC are giving Dutton a lot more air time than they ever gave Albanese when he was leader of the opposition. Personally, if I wanted to destroy the Coalition’s chances next election, I’d have Dutton and Littleproud and Joyce on as much as possible.
Anyway, I decided to institute my own Rum Rebellion Awards and last year I gave it to Amy Remekis and Ronni Salt.
This year after careful consideration the winner is: Monique Ryan.
This is not because she ousted Josh Frydenberg from his very own seat of Kooyong. It was his seat and it was the Liberal’s seat. I know this because I heard it so many times in the media. And here we had this interloper stealing the seat, which is almost the same sort of mutiny as the original Rum Rebellion.
However, my award goes to the person who helps promote democracy in Australia and Monique Ryan took action to ensure that anyone who tested positive to Covid after the cut-off for postal votes. still got a chance to vote.
Thanks to this, the AEC backed down and allowed a telephone vote for anyone needing to isolate.
Well done, Monique.
On a side note, I notice that Sky News and various other Murdoch commentators are most upset because K-Mart aren’t selling Australia Day paraphernalia. Apparently nothing says that you respect your flag more than standing on thongs emblazoned with it, wiping the dishes with a flag tea towel or getting your own skid marks on your Aussie flag undies. It upset them so much that they abandoned all their principles on cancel culture and called for a boycott on K-Mart. But I expect that they’ll be back to normal complaining about cancel culture if K-Mart decides to cancel advertising in the Murdoch papers.
Happy Rum Rebellion Day!
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