Left-leaning governments tend to adopt a negative approach toward Indigenous issues, which perpetuates a sense of guilt and could hinder Australia’s effort to move forward, says an Indigenous community leader.
The comment comes amid controversy surrounding Greens leader Adam Bandt who had the Australian flag pushed aside but kept the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in the centre in his press conference. Bandt argued on Monday that the flag represented “the lingering pains of colonisation.”
The sentiment was echoed by Victorian Greens senator Lidia Thorpe, an Indigenous woman, who on Wednesday said she would “sacrifice swearing allegiance to the coloniser” to get the media and the parliament to question Australia about its colonial past….