“It was Queenslander Kevin Rudd who initiated the Apology to the Stolen Generations; and it was Dutton who walked out of the House when he did so,” writes “The Gadfly” columnist ROBERT MACKLIN. 

IT is now clear that Peter Dutton has joined the Nats’ leader, the eponymous David Littleproud, in a de facto campaign against the referendum for an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament. It is no coincidence that they both hail from Queensland.

I say this as a born-and-bred Queenslander. Indeed, I jackarooed on a property in Littleproud’s Maranoa electorate. There was even a moment as press secretary to his predecessor, John “Black Jack” McEwen, when the idea of a political career in that very region passed its way through the juvenile cerebellum. 

It took me as far as forming a Canberra branch of the Young Country Party and recruiting Peter Nixon (McEwen’s preferred successor) and the Boss himself to address a meeting of the group at the Party’s Barton headquarters. And I still recall the drug-like thrill of applause from a (smallish) group of enthusiasts at a Harden Branch meeting. Thankfully, with the help of my much more sensible wife, I kicked the drug before an addiction took root.

The Queensland upbringing has its compensations. Every State of Origin match for the last 20 years sees my two sons and I hook up our mobiles wherever we are in the world and cheer home the Maroons (or blame the ref). And my first novel, “The Queenslander” has been optioned three times for a TV series, which the latest American producers have hopefully billed, “The ‘Thorn Birds’ of the 21st Century”. This doesn’t mean it will ever get made, and I hated “The Thorn Birds” with a passion, but when things look crook – as they occasionally do in a writer’s life – it’s nice to fantasise about that moment at the Golden Globes awards: “And the winner is…” 

But Thomas Aquinas certainly knew something when he said: “Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man”. 

The myths of childhood and the formative years seem almost baked into the young brain; and it takes hard work, emotional grit and the kind of courage that all addicts bring to their struggle to beat the gloating Aquinas boast. 

Many don’t make it. Littleproud and Dutton are sad examples. They must know deep down that Queensland was the site of the most – and some of the worst – massacres of the Aboriginal people. But because they know there is a “base” within their parties that remains deliberately ignorant, they pretend otherwise: Queensland is “Godzone country” and can do no wrong; and if there was some unpleasantness with the great “pioneers”, it was generations ago and things were different then.

Well, they got that almost right. In truth, things are now more different than they realise. It was Queensland that produced Eddie Mabo and Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton; Queensland that welcomed the first Aboriginal Senior Counsel, Tony McAvoy, now central to the negotiations for a treaty. More recently it’s given us Ash Barty, Johnathan Thurston, Arti Beetson; and it was Queensland that last year elected its first three Greens to seats in the House and a second Senator. 

Indeed, it was another Queenslander, Kevin Rudd, who initiated the Apology to the Stolen Generations; and it was Dutton who walked out of the House when he did so. His latest demand for the Voice’s modus operandi is simply a pinch from the Howard playbook to defeat the 1999 referendum on the Head of State: confuse the argument with the fine detail to be decided once the principle has been secured. 

It’s either pathetic or childish – but either way it’s another win for wise old Tom Aquinas. 

robert@robertmacklin.com