Dear Mr Wyatt,

Firstly Ken, I’d like to congratulate you on the wonderful example that you have set for other Indigenous Australians. You will go down in history as the first indigenous Australian to hold a seat Federal Parliament’s House Of Representatives.

You can hold your head high and join the elite club started by the country’s first Indigenous Australian MP the great Linda Burney, currently Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in NSW.

I would also like to congratulate you on having the good sense to not take a partisan approach, and having the decency and good judgement to thank the Labor Government and in particular Kevin Rudd for the apology to the stolen generation that your parties former leader, John Howard had refused to offer for the previous 13 years. I note Howard’s refusal to do the decent thing was backed by his front bench and caucus, many of whom are still there now, including your party’s leader Tony Abbott, Deputy Leader Julie Bishop, and your parties entire front bench.

It is that decency and good judgement I wish to appeal to now.

I can understand why you joined the Liberal Party back when they were a party with a bit of integrity, not the “Party of slogans aimed at bogans” that they have become now.

Back when you joined the Party I’m sure they were thought of as the financially responsible Party.

Currently they are financially crippled, starting with an estimated $70 Billion black hole before they even really start having to explain costings for policies they have yet to announce. In fact, such a good job is being done that the accounting firm that provided the Parties costings which were audited last election were charged and fined by the industry watchdog.

I believe that it was the first and only time in Australia’s history that someone has been charged and fines handed down for a major political party’s attempts to deceive the public with dodgy figures.

It could be you joined the Party because they were considered the Party who looks after small business. That is a distant memory as it is now all about supporting big business as those on the big end of town crush and absorb small business.

Maybe because you are from Western Australia you support the Party’s stand for the big miners. Not wanting to put a further tax burden on the mining industry.

I guess that would be fair enough, although your Party seems more than happy to up the royalty rates at state level. Add to that your Party’s parental leave policy which will also add 1.5% to the miners company tax rate, representing an increase in tax of 5% for them and it seems your party is intent on a mineral resource tax, just by a different name.

It is however your leader Tony Abbott’s attitudes towards discrimination that I find the most worrying, and I am sure it must have also been a concern for you from time to time.

Firstly I’m sure that when applying for the role of Parliamentary Secretary to a Party’s leader I’m sure there is quite a bit of scrutiny, a lot of questions asked, and a substantial amount of character assessment that goes into any appointment. I know that the Labor Party certainly view it that way.

This calls into question Tony Abbott’s judgement in appointing Cory Bernardi as his former Parliamentary Secretary. Cory Bernardi is a man who although best known for his comments on same-sex marriage leading to bestiality, is also well known as a promoter of racial and religious intolerance. This is the man who was to promote the Australian tour of the European politician Geert Wilders, promoter of hatred and an influential person in the life of Anders Breivik, who massacred 77 people, many of them children, in Norway in 2011.

The excuse that Geert Wilders is an elected politician is a lame one, Adolf Hitler was an elected politician. Would Bernardi and other Liberal Party members feel the same way if it were the leader of Hamas coming to town?

On its own I thought this would raise question marks on Abbott’s judgement and stance on racism. Evidently not…

Then at a Qantas function on 18^th April a fellow by the name of Mark Roberts made the gesture of cutting his throat at Andrew Penfold , Chief Executive of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. Mark Roberts was Tony Abbott’s Policy Director, isn’t that heartening?

The man Tony Abbott hired as his lead policy advisor seems to have as much respect on racial matters as his former Parliamentary Secretary Bernardi.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m starting to detect a pattern…

However what startles me the most is Tony Abbott’s promise to his cheerleader and hate-peddler pal Andrew Bolt to repeal a section of the Racial Discrimination Act should he win this September.

Andrew Bolt as I’m sure you would remember lost his case in Federal Court in September 2011, where it was found that he breached the racial discrimination act. This was due to two articles that he had written that were published in 2009 and caused widespread offense throughout indigenous communities around the country.

It is one thing to have racist friends and appoint them to senior positions within government, it is quite another to actually tamper with the Racial Discrimination Act.

My question to you is why in the light of this why you have not chosen to run as an Independent rather than an endorsed member of the party that looks to set racial harmony back 30 odd years?

If you are unwilling to become an independent, would you consider backing the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus in his call to Tony Abbott not to alter the Racial Discrimination Act?

I hope this much you would consider.

The vast majority of the country supported the apology made on the 13^th Feb 2008 whole-heartedly.

My fear is that after an Abbott led government, the next Federal  Labor Government will have to make another one.

I know you wouldn’t want to be part of the Party responsible for that.

Yours Sincerely

Peter Wicks

 

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