An increasingly influential rallying point for lefties in Australia is the group blog Larvatus Prodeo. I drop in there from time to time because some of the writers are quite sensible. It also provides a useful barometer of leftist thinking — an aggregator of whatever narrative is sweeping the collective mind of inner suburbanites in Sydney and Melbourne.
And I use the word “narrative” advisedly. Just as journalists tend to write stories that fit into an unofficial narrative, lefties in Australia tend to arrive at fairly predictable narratives for any issue. An example of just such an experience is this cheerful little ditty from Larvatus Prodeo regular tigtog. It’s a links post which ties together a number of stories related to the NT intervention. Notice that while the narrative of “racism & colonialism” can mention NT MLA Marion Scrymgour speaking passionately against the intervention, any mention of fellow NT MLA Allison Anderson speaking passionately in favour is ignored.
Overall this is an example of policy set by people who are far away. A similar example is confronting Malcolm Turnbull in the seat of Wentworth. Dissatisfied with the legal and legitimate decisions of the people of Tasmania, activists in Sydney figure they know best and are trying to change policy far away by threatening a minister in his own seat. I know that Malcolm threw a embarrassing little foot-stamping tanty over the matter, but he was right: he has to make decisions according to law. “Sucking up to lefties in Wentworth” is not a requirement of the relevant Act.
The Northern Territory has suffered from the curse of the Faraways for as long as I can remember; indeed history records that we’ve copped it in the neck since Federation. For example, land rights reform is held up in the NT because Territorians cannot do it through their own Legislative Assembly. Hanging over our head is the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, which has done more harm to aboriginal people in the last 30 years than I care to mention. But it’s popular with the Faraways — the narrative is that we’re all racist in the NT and that it’s For Our Own Good that the Act is kept out of NT control.
And so the NT is doomed to be governed by noisy lefties who’ve never been here except on a holiday to Kakadu. After spending a few days in Darwin and a day oohing and aahing at Nourlangie Rock they feel qualified to tell Territorians how they can behave. If indeed there is colonialism happening in the NT, it is not the intervention. It is the colonialism now more than 100 years old, a dictatorship of talking heads and chattering imbeciles thousands of kilometres away. It is the Tyranny of the Faraways.
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I totally understand what you are saying. Especially regarding the Pulp Mill, as the LDP candidate for Bass I find it ironic that there are far more people protesting the Pulp Mill in Wentworth than there are in Bass. Even within Bass the Tyranny of the Faraways is trying to impose itself, as people in Launceston vote against a Pulp Mill at the other end of the Tamar River.
The Pulp Mill is based in George Town and the effects of it will be felt almost exclusively in the George Town area. In a recent online poll by the George Town Journal (08/06/07) 64% of people voted in favour of the Pulp Mill- and that was online where usually a left-Green bias is present! Why would people in Wentworth, or even people in Launceston get a say over something that affects the George Town locals more than anyone else?
People in Wentworth probably think of Tasmania as a beautiful little island that can’t be tarnished by nasty old industry. But the fact is Comalco is already based in Bell Bay and George Town itself it quite an industrialised town. It’s not as if the Pulp Mill is being built in the South West World Heritage Area! People don’t go to George Town for the scenery, in fact Launceston residents usually only go to George Town because it’s the most local beach, it has no particular fame as a bastion of nature within Tassie.
Originally I was opposed to the intervention of ideological grounds, but if the people on the ground are saying that it is effective and if the communities affected by it are in favour of it then there’s no reason to be opposed. I don’t like Howard’s motivation, I don’t think it was for the right reasons, but if the intervention is providing a positive outcome then it is best it is seen through.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_Wilderness should have been the link, rather. My bad.
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[...] topic I wrote about is what I called the Tyranny of the Faraways — the dominance of the politics of Sydney and Melbourne in the affairs of other parts of the [...]