Why Are Elites So Quick to Sprout Anti-Democratic Nonsense?

Ruby Rose flies in to weigh in on the Voice

Today I bring you reason number 342,303,453 we should not seek celebrity opinions on political issues …

Actor Ruby Rose, back in Australia for a stage play, was interviewed in The Australian at the weekend.

The Tattooed One didn’t hesitate to give her thoughts on the upcoming referendum.

But first she opined on energy policy …

“There is no place like home, no place like Australia. Having said that … Why are we taxing electric cars? That’s kooky.”

“Kooky” is a celebrity flying in to offer advice on electric cars. The hypocracy and tone deafness of our elite class continues to stagger. 

But Ruby Rose was just warming up …

“One thing that has sadly not changed in the 10 years I’ve been away is our inability to appreciate, let alone treat our Indigenous community fairly. Or even acceptably. It is such a crime, deep shame and missed opportunity for connection, healing and change.

“There is still potential for us to have one of the most meaningful relationships of our existence and to correct thousands of wrongs in the process and yet here we are once again spending a ridiculous amount of money to hold a vote where a majority is voting on a minority’s rights.

“This is worse than when we held the referendum to allow gay people to get married. Sure, having straight people vote on who you love is brutal, but somehow it’s 2023 and we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to see what white people think about what the Indigenous folk need. No ma’am. That’s messed up.”

Where to start?

First of all, the vote on gay marriage was not a referendum, it was a plebiscite. They are two completely different things.

Moreover, the plebiscite was not about “straight people voting on who you love”. It was a vote - of the entire population - on whether or not the institution of marriage ought be redefined.

Everyone - even straight people - have a stake in what we call marriage since, among other things, it represents a compound right to have children.

Second, the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament is not a vote to determine “what white people think about what the Indigenous folk need”.

The government could create a body to tell them what Indigenous people need this afternoon if they so wished.

The government, instead, wants Australians to vote on whether or not a new bureaucracy, open only to Indigenous people, should be created within the Constitution.

Rose thinks the $364m being spent on the referendum is “a ridiculous amount of money”.

Considering the government could legislate such a body without a referendum, I agree.

But if Ruby Rose wants to complain about “a ridiculous amount of money” she might like to start with the more than $30 billion Australian taxpayers spend every year funding various Indigenous programs.

The “crime, deep shame and missed opportunity” is that much of this money has been wasted, lost or stolen by grifters while little difference has been made to lives of disadvantaged Indigenous Australians.

As for the referendum being a chance to “correct thousands of wrongs”, it’s immoral to ask people who have committed no wrongs to make amends to people who have not suffered wrongs in order to somehow change the past.

The past cannot be changed. We can make sure, however, that we learn from the past and don’t repeat the mistakes of previous generations.

On that note, we have spent decades telling Indigenous people that they are disadvantaged and that they need support, help and handouts. It has not worked. How odd that intergenerational welfare fails to bring prosperity. Who knew! (Insert enormous eye roll here)

Fourth, Ruby Rose laments that “a majority is voting on the rights of a minority”.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The vote is not to determine whether Indigenous people should have “rights” but whether they should have special rights over and above the rest of the population.

Is Ruby Rose seriously complaining that “a majority is voting on the rights of a minority” Does she think minorities should be able to vote special rights for themselves within the Australian Constitution? Let’s think about the logic of that for a millisecond. She clearly didn’t!

And it’s not “messed up” that all Australians - even “white people” - get a say in what happens to the Australian Constitution. It’s really not.

What’s messed up is elites flying home to sprout anti-democratic, inaccurate nonsense as if they were oracles.

I can only dream of one day being so wealthy and so privileged that I can be so irresponsible, so populist and so ignorant.