A Northern Territory Supreme Court Judge claims that a “cult of anti-racism” is obstructing a much needed open dialogue on the “epidemic of violent domestic abuse” in Aboriginal communities.
The remarks were delivered by Justice Judith Kelly, 68, in a sharp rebuttal to Indigenous justice campaigner Leanne Liddle, who attributed Aboriginal people’s high rates of poverty and incarceration to “institutional racism.”
Australians are prevented from “talking honestly about the issues that exist and fostering honest and open public discourse,” according to Justice Kelly, because they are afraid of being accused of racism.
Senator Jacinta Price of the Aboriginal Coalition concurred with the attitude she expressed to female attorneys at a drinks event last week, telling Daily Mail Australia that people are essentially “gagged” from talking about Indigenous domestic abuse.
Speaking honestly necessitates “not self-censoring for fear of being labelled a racist by the ideologues of the new “anti-racism” religion,” according to Justice Kelly, who was nominated to the NT Supreme Court in 2009 and has dealt with a number of domestic violence cases in her tenure.
The fundamental presumption of this philosophy, she said, “appears to be that Aboriginal people must always be victims, which is a very racist presumption.”
An equal number of Aboriginal women visit hospitals and morgues as there are Aboriginal males entering jail.
Attorney Kelly
Justice Kelly forewarned that certain left-wing campaigners would rather level “racist” charges than provide any proposals for resolving issues in Aboriginal communities.
Labeling someone or anything racist seems to be an aim in itself for many adherents of this ideology, she said, rather than a precursor to corrective action.
Unless there is evidence that institutions like the court system “systematically treat Aboriginal people less favourably on the basis of their race,” according to Justice Kelly, it is inappropriate to label them as racist.
As vital as it is to call out racism when it happens, she said, “it is necessary to call out false claims of individual racism and false claims of systemic racism.”
“Seeing victimisation where it doesn’t exist is not helpful.” In addition to everything else, it hinders the pursuit of solutions.
The ability to vote for Indigenous people in Australia was not granted until 1962, Justice Kelly recognised, but he added that “just because certain current issues have their roots in racism from the past does not indicate that racism is the source of them now.”
She said that there are many more direct variables influencing the high incidence of domestic violence against Aboriginal people than systemic racism.
The following are some of them: “unemployment and passive welfare dependency; lack of access to adequate education, health, and mental health services; lack of adequate housing and subsequent overcrowding; substance abuse; dispossession and loss of culture… and the “rivers of grog” that run through our communities.”
Bringing domestic violence to the public’s attention, in her opinion, is one way to assist.
Everyone is eager to discuss the over-representation of Aboriginal males in jail, but a continuous torrent of Aboriginal women are also being transported to hospitals and morgues, she said.
Justice Kelly added that “there was a traditional cultural aspect to the violence” in response to charges that she had been racist.
She explained, “I didn’t say that to disparage Aboriginal culture; I said it because it’s true.
She mentioned North East Arnhem Land’s Yolgnu customary law in her address, which mentions “being battered by her spouse” as one of the usual penalties for “marital difficulties.”
Similar remarks were made by Senator Price last month in an interview with Daily Mail Australia regarding what the judge described as a cult of anti-racism.
She said that since the underlying issues are ignored, a “activist class” of left-leaning Australians actually undermines attempts to address the country’s high imprisonment rates.
You hear the activist students lament the humiliation of high imprisonment rates, and they want to implement policies that lessen the likelihood that an Aboriginal person would be imprisoned, she added.
But we must keep in mind that acts of violence are the main reason we are arrested at such a high rate.
Usually, the people we are meant to love, support, and defend are the targets of this violence.
We may be able to overcome some of these difficulties if we genuinely start to see things more honestly.
“If we eliminate the violence, we cut jail rates considerably,” noted Senator Price.
“But no one wants to look at it from this perspective because we look at it through the lens of Aboriginal people being oppressed by white Australia and “White Australia is the cause of all our problems and is therefore responsible for all our problems” when we need to take that responsibility on our own to solve all of our problems.
We need more polite, forceful discussion in this area, which regular Australians have been forbidden from having, she said.
“You can say these things Jacinta because you’re Aboriginal, but we can’t because we are labelled racist,” is a common refrain I hear.
“Well, that foolishness has to end,’ I said. In the end, we’re all Australians, therefore we should all take part in the discussion.