http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/we-are-all-matilda-betrayed-by-tony-abbo...
In the movie, the words go:
''Listen, you little wiseacre: I'm smart, you're dumb; I'm big, you're little; I'm right, you're wrong; and there's nothing you can do about it.''
Absolutely heartbreaking. Here is this person who is meant to be protecting little Matilda, and all he does is demean her, belittle her.
She is the underdog, despite her many talents, yet she is not protected by the person who should be her foremost defender.
Which is how we should all be feeling right now.
We have a government which isn't standing up for us. It's standing with the overdog. It's using the excuse of red tape and overlegislation. It's removing protections of all kinds. And it's not as if we can individually stand up for ourselves. You can't fight big by yourself - you need governments to stand between innocent citizens and greed machines.
Case 1: Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, on Monday in a speech at ANU, said the federal Attorney-General wanted to make amendments to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. In other words, if you hate being called a boong or a yid or a spic on the streets, you better stop caring. Any changes to 18C will unleash a barrage of race hate.
This is mainly to appease the Coalition's biggest fan, Andrew Bolt. I can imagine he did not enjoy one bit being told in 2011 to pay money to the lawyers for the people he described as ''professional'' Aborigines. The changes to 18C would allow people to say whatever the hell they please.
Tim squeezed in a couple of minutes to speak to me before he gave his lecture. He said: ''If you remove 18C, you are removing one practical way ordinary Australians can speak up against racial harassment.
''Imagine if you worked for a big multinational and your boss was racially abusing you - or maybe you are a customer who has been abused, this way you have the means to get your abusers into a room to make them hear the harm they've caused you. It gives ordinary Australians the power to hold others accountable.''
The rest of us understand exactly how devastating it can be to be belittled in that way. Not Andrew Bolt, though. His response on the day the court found against him was: ''This is a terrible day for freedom of speech in this country.''
As opposed to a great day for getting people to think before they open their mouths and insult others based on race.
