This bonus episode of New Politics was released on the fifth of December twenty twenty five and produced on the lands of the Wongle and Gadigal people.

This is the first part of our review of federal politics in twenty twenty five, and first up we look at the continuing culture wars.

On January the twenty sixth and the introduction of the Treaty in Victoria.

Peter Dutton has put local councils on notice making an Australia Day pitch to sway voters on election day.

Would we reinstate the requirement for councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australi Day.

You bet it'll be done.

The first hundred days every year there are protests declaring it invasion Day.

In twenty twenty two, Anthony Alberzi gave councils leeway to hold events three days either side of Australia Day.

My castle holds them on Australia Day and on Australia Day, I'll be here in Canberra at the national event.

I think we should keep it.

I think we like to have a STRAIGHTBA party at our place every year.

I believe that it should be switched.

I think it's a day of more sadness.

Maybe we should have two days.

Seemed like it was such a long time ago, but the year started off with the usual stuff that we have on January the twenty sixth, Australia down and it's supposed to be a day of reflection celebration for others, but it will be forever known as far as we're concerned as Invasion Day.

And we did end up having less of the dramas that we usually have, but it still ended up being another front in the culture wars, and it was the five star general of this cultural war, Peter Dutton, leading from the front line.

He's actually retired as a five star general now lost in the election, but he was trying to use the day as a wedge and a political tool to inflame division, saying that Astralia Day had turned into a day of shame and trying to make it into something about cancel culture and wokeness and all of that didn't really work, because I think that more people are understanding how inappropriate Australia Day is.

It's not everyone, of course it's thinking this, but I think that more people now feel that it's not the right day anymore to celebrate Australia Day.

It is, of course a very problematic day for Indigenous people.

It was a day in which they become dispossessed almost overnight, and of course takes a wild to spread right across the country.

But the symbolic nature of Philip coming in at seventeen eighty eight and then really by all kinds of means.

Sometimes they were what we might see as legal, if not terribly moral.

Sometimes, of course they were completely immoral and totally illegal means and displacing and repressing and oppressing Indigenous people.

We take little steps forward, of course, and then big steps back.

The apology Kevin Rudd's apology, a little step forward, the voice for a friendum a big step back.

And of course there are those who think that the Indigenous people get everything and they deserve nothing, and why should they get all this attention, which is partly why we should move Australia Day, to get people to understand that if we are the inclusive, welcoming, wonderful nation that we aspire to be, and in some ways let's be fair, ah in some ways taking a vitally important group to the history of the land and showing them that we do onto what they did before and after Europeans came, and that we need to atone for the bad stuff that's happened, and we really do.

And part of that is financial help and educational helping, but part of it is just getting it through the thick heads of some people that indigenous culture is really important, that Indigenous people are great people, that the problems that they have are caused by the European invasion or settlement, or however you want to call it.

It's the same thing.

But before then, indigenous people may have had problems, but they were completely different problems and they were able to be managed in some way by the population.

At the time, we're spinning out of control.

The statistics are heartbreaking, and I've been through them before.

I don't need to go through them again.

Shorter lifespan, higher risk of unemployment, higher risk of incarceration, lower income, longer period of unemployment the whole, higher risk of alcoholism.

And yes, these factors are complicated and multifaceted, but European I'll call it settlement because that's the word I'm grasping towards, even though I think it's much worse than that.

But European settlement causes all of these problems, and so if European people can't fix it, we have to allow Indigenous people to try and fix it, hopefully in a spirit of generosity and genuine help.

If they want help, If the Indigenous community wants help, yes, let's give it.

If they don't want help, let's let them do it, fix it themselves and try not to make it worse for them, which is what happens.

My feeling, David, is that it should be a shared history, the good history and they're not so good history or the bad history that's happened since seventeen eighty eight.

My issue is that there's one side of history that wants to be told on the other side of history that wants to be suppressed.

And Australia loves to tell those stories about the traditions of the flags on Australia Day, the barbecues, the public holiday, and the feel good stuff about matship and all that sort of stuff.

And that's all fine if you want to do that.

I've got no problem with that.

But it's the people like Peter Dutton.

He's exited stage right, you know.

But it's the people like Peter Dutton and that wide range of conservative commentators who want the conversation to stop right there, and they really don't want to talk about reconciliation, and if they do, they want it to be totally on their terms, which is not really reconciliation.

But then the other point that I wanted to make was that when they talk about these issues on Australia Day, then they venture into other issues within these culture wars, debates about men in women's sports, or wanting to talk about gender and transgender issues.

That's wokeness that they go on about, and this is what they bring up every single year.

And the other point is that because they're not in government, I don't think this restoric has got the same influence and it becomes irrelevant.

It's almost either mad uncle raving on about something on Christmas Day or in this case, on Australia Day.

And maybe that's a saving grace within all of this.

The Conservatives are not in office, so they're just not getting traction or as much attraction as they used to be on this particular day.

And privilege, of course hates any change to its status, so you get probably the most ridiculous with Susan Lee criticized Anthony Alberaneasi's new Order shirt.

You know it was a Joy division.

Sorry, a Joy division was named after particular services given given to other German soldiers, et cetera.

But also done in a time where a lot of bands were being controversial like that.

But in another story, it's easy to punch down too, So to bring it back to where we were talking about Peter Dutton and that era of the Liberal Party running a country is hard, Trying to give advice from opposition is hard, and getting traction is hard.

So to say things like trans people are ruining sport, look at all those men running in a race, as if these things haven't been considered by the ruling bodies and rules brought in to make sure that it is as fair as playing ground as can be as can be expected, and.

Also as if it's a big issue that's facing Australia at the moment.

Yeah, I haven't seen the death of cricket or the death of netpal, or the death of rugby league or AFL.

And the other thing, of course, is that trends people have always been with us, but very few of them filtered through and the anti woke brigade also tend to be the I do what I want freedom.

You have the right to do whatever you want.

Oh, but not that.

Do you want to identify as a woman.

Great, I'm not going to tell you who you are or what you did.

But for the anti woke crowds, you can't do that.

You were born this way and that's what you are, and that's supposed to be the freedom to be able to express yourself as you wish.

But the anti woke brigade want the freedom to express exactly how you want to express yourself, provided it fits in with how they see yourself being.

And what it goes down to is getting government trademark copyright out of their lives, big government trademark copyright, all the while shoveling government money to doll lodgers in big companies, people who can afford it, and take it off those who can't.

And that's what the anti woke movement is really about.

They're being conned by billionaires who don't want to pay tax, you don't want to be curtailed by OHNs regulations or business practice regulations, And that's what it gets down to.

Australia's first treaty with First Nations people has passed the Victorian Parliament in an historic step forward for mob who've spent decades advocating for progresses.

It's the very first treaty legislation to pass in any jurisdiction in the country and marks the beginning of what some leaders are calling the Treaty Era.

The primary focus of this legislation will be the creation of going well as a permanent representative body for traditional owners and First people's in Victoria, and.

I really hope that other states and the federal government step up in this space in truth telling and in treaty making into the future.

During the the year, the state government of Victoria did make a treaty arrangement with the Indigenous people of Victoria, and earlier on in the year, the Liberal Party was making a big noise about the idea that canceling Australia Day or changing the day would bring in this big fearful thing called the treaty and that we all had to be worried about it.

Well, Australia is still there, probably will still be there.

In twenty twenty six, Victoria did bring in a treaty and the sky didn't fall in.

And I just had a look outside, David.

The sky is still there.

It hasn't fallen in, although we're in New South Wales, not in Victoria.

But I think that this does pave the way for other states and territories having this treaty arrangement in Victoria.

And I think it also showed Anthony alb and Easy how to do these sort of things.

But the point is that there is a treaty in Victoria.

The cultural attack is from the Liberal Party didn't work.

And once these things are implemented and the electric can see that it's not such a big deal.

Well, I think it just weakens these attacks from the Liberal Party early days on the treaty.

It was only introduced last month in October, I think it was or early November.

But it shows that it can be done.

But using a megaphone to rail against these issues on Australia Day probably is going to work less and less over time because the Liberal Party or all of these senior figures within the Liberal Party, they're just trying to keep finding those battles that most people have already moved on from and left behind.

It's again It's probably more symbolic than actual.

But symbolisms matter, ritual matters, rights matter, rites also, raghts.

But the reason that for centuries we centered around religious practice was because it gave us a sense of meaning and belonging.

And ritual is important.

And again I'm not here to say, oh, this one's right and this one's wrong.

It's whatever ritual you have, and the true as symbols too.

Is a symbol of flag, is the symbol your t shirt, you're earing, your tattoo, what have you?

Symbols are important.

It talks about who we are and what we like, and the types of beliefs and values and tastes we have.

So the treaty probably won't change much materially for Indigenous people, though it may.

It shows that in Victoria, at least, the Indigenous community is seen as a serious and valid group who should have a voice and who we should try and patch things up with.

The rumors are is that they're working on it in New South Wales.

I'll see it when I believe it.

I hope those rumors are true.

The holdout states will most likely be Western Australia because of the mining, and Queensland because of the essentially because of the mining.

But Queensland, there are elements in Queensland that would probably prevent a treaty for decades.

But again Queensland is primarily a labor state anyway.

But I guess the other issue is that once these things are put in place, after they've been railed against by the Conservatives over many years, once they're in place, people realize, oh, look, that wasn't such a big deal.

That's not a big scary thing that we were warned about.

It's been in place, and as I mentioned, the treaty in Victoria has only been there for a couple of months, a month or two.

But once the action of that is in place for over a year or two, people will realize, oh, look, that was not such a big deal.

What was the Liberal Party going on about for all that time?

Yeah?

And the other thing too, the Liberal Party in Victoria is dead.

There's no coming back from it.

They've got what They've had their fourth leader in thirteen months or their third leader in fourteen months or whatever it was, and things aren't going well for the Liberal Party down there.

So again privilege and them having lost the privilege of even being within a Stone's throw of government.

It's flashing out like a wounded animal in a fight, trying to survive, and I don't think they will.

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The rest of the full episode of New Politics will continue tomorrow morning.

Thanks for listening in