Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The definition of 'reconciliation' is 'a situation in which two people or groups of people reconcile'. The leftist activist class have used this term for years when discussing Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations in Australia. The term 'reconciliation' assumes not only responsibility for wrongdoing but forgiveness on the part of the party that was wronged. It's become clear, however, that the activists, as far as they're concerned, have no actual will for forgiveness. Quite why Australians in 2024 need to be forgiven for what their ancestors may or may not have done is a question best left for the merchants of this complaint industry. But the activists haven't forgiven. As far as they're concerned, historical grievance is their bread and butter. It's their livelihood. It's what makes them seem important and virtuous.

Labor and the Greens perpetually fan the flames of historical grievance so they can be thought of as sympathetic. They think Indigenous Australians can't succeed without the welfare state because they are, ultimately, organs of the welfare state, but we know they can, and that's the difference between us. The tragic irony is that the constant virtue signalling—the acknowledgements of country, the renaming of well-known places, the activism in the education system—all that those things have actually done is fuel the tension, and we may actually have gone backwards rather than forwards. The Voice referendum signalled that Aussies want us all to be together, regardless of race. It signalled the defeat of the perpetual victimhood narrative. As my colleague Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said in her excellent first speech in 2022, we need to focus on nation building, not nation burning.