I just want to make sure people understand that if Peter Dutton's decision not to display the Aboriginal flag if he is elected - and the subsequent media coverage - has stirred your emotions, whatever your thoughts are about the status of Indigenous people in this country, your reaction is his goal.
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The Opposition Leader pledged earlier this week that if he is elected prime minister, he would drop Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags from official press conferences.
He said he saw the practice of displaying the flags as "divisive". The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said: "We have flags that represent our entire nation. It's an opportunity to speak about our full history."
But Peter Dutton is not interested in our full history. Peter Dutton is not truly patriotic as he pretends to be. The man was minister, presiding over schemes that cost the taxpayer, he cares as little for the Australian flag as he does about the Aboriginal one. This was the man who walked out on the apology to the stolen generations.
What he's up to now is creating these emotionally charged debates to distract Australians from real issues and I'm confident that these would not pass the pub test.
What do his remarks say to Australians in general about the lack of respect he has for our nation? What does it say to try to dismiss the Aboriginal flag?
It's just a denial of truth about our history - and the Aboriginal flag is a millennia-deep part of our collective story. There are many great achievements in our shared history, and we can celebrate them all at once, as vigorously out as quietly as we choose. But announcing a refusal to stand before the flag is just an intentional stirring of controversy.
When he says we should value and respect our heritage - and we should also speak a lot more about our migrant story - that contradicts what Peter Dutton has said and done before.
He's got a long record of pitting one generation of migrants against another and Aboriginal people against non-Aboriginal people and that's the way he's operated over time.
It's his whole political strategy, to pitch Australians against Australians in any way that he can, no holds barred. No one's really safe from his fear-mongering as long as he can identify enough of a difference that he can exploit.
He sees that as his only path to power. Fear-mongering, division, and lies about who is causing it. The record shows that he's in it for that, anyone under the bus to a prime ministership - power for power's sake.
I don't think he has any true national interest that he's ever really spoken about other than stoking fears. I can't think of anyone in a position of power who has said we shouldnt have an Aboriginal flag flying at any of our events. The Australian, the Aboriginal, the Torres Strait Islander flags all flying together, that's something we've accepted for decades and it's a strong expression of unity.
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As I said earlier, his line of creating controversy, would not - will not - pass the pub test.
Peter Dutton has done this firstly to distract people from what Labor has achieved, which is far more than what the Coalition did in almost a decade in power. He's also doing this to distract from his lemon of a nuclear policy, with no details of costing, reactors or waste, nothing about when the reactors will be built by and who will pay for them.
He has no solutions to offer for the cost-of-living crisis either. I'd wager, in his heart of hearts, he hasn't got the ticker to put up real, costed policies.
If people weren't distracted by issues he creates about minorities, people would realise Dutton is inept, cruel and malevolently ambitious.
- Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander author. He was a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and co-wrote The Voice to Parliament Handbook.
