Sing the Anthem, or Don't Play

Don’t tell me Australia is a racist, illegitimate nation while running around in its jumper

You’ve gotta laugh at sportsman who are so angry about colonisation that they won’t sing the national anthem, but not quite so angry that they won’t play for Australia.

Give me a break.

If you really think Australia is an unjust nation, don’t represent it.

‘Australia is illegitimate, and so I refuse to play for it,’ is misguided, but at least principled.

But to say …

‘Australia is illegitimate, and so I refuse to sing its song … before running around in its uniform, receiving huge accolades - not to mention enormous sums of money - for representing it …’

… well, that’s just silly.

Several Australian rugby league players, including Selwyn Cobbo pictured above, appeared to stand in silence as the anthem was sung before the Kangaroos played Samoa in Townsville on Saturday.

Star player Latrell Mitchell has stood up for his teammates, hitting back at comments made by former Australian captain Max Krilich who insisted they should sing the national anthem because “one-in, all-in”.

Mitchell wrote on Instagram …

“One in all in, he says?”

“Well, make a song that includes Indigenous people.

“Maybe change the date (of Australia Day)? Or, I don’t know even a voice to be heard?”

Weren’t we told that a single word in the anthem needed to be changed in order to ensure the song was truly representative?

Didn’t we change the lyric “we are young and free” because we were told it denied the existence of Indigenous people prior to colonisation?

We gladly amended the lyric to “we are one and free” which, we were assured, would put an end to any offence and ensure Indigenous people felt included.

Now Indigenous activists find yet more reasons not to sing the song.

Spare me.

But it’s not just the anthem.

It’s the national holiday.

And it’s not just the anthem and the national holiday, it’s the referendum result.

And, you can be sure, it’ll be lack of treaty, and then it will be not enough reparations resulting from a treaty, and then it will be the lack of an independent Indigenous State, and then it will be something else, and something else, and something else.

When you make grievance your identity you cannot afford to be satisfied, no matter how good you have it.

So guys like Mitchell will claim oppression even while playing for Australia.

Australian anthem bad, Australian money good. It’s less a principled stance than a funny kind of dance.

It’s not that they are hard done by, it’s that they cannot ever afford to ever admit that they are not hard done by.

This, by the way, is exactly the reason Australians took zero notice of athletes lecturing us on how we should vote at the referendum.

Don’t tell me Australia is a racist, illegitimate nation while running around in its jumper.

Sing the song, or show your conviction by sitting in the grand stand.