David Marler
Latest posts by David Marler (see all)
- Bates In Contempt - 18 September 2024
- Crisafulli To Silence Truth-Telling - 17 September 2024
- Use Of Force – Nuclear Resistance Is Futile - 22 June 2024
At his inaugural press conference yesterday, new opposition leader Peter Dutton pitched his policies to the ‘forgotten Australians’. The term caused confusion as to whom this group might be.
Did he mean the ‘forgotten people’, a reference to his predecessor, Liberal Party founder and former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies? The ‘forgotten Australians’ is a term used in a 2004 senate in an inquiry into children who experienced institutional care.
The two terms were applied interchangeably in the media reports today. The Australian went with ‘Australians’ in a heading on its front page but ‘people’ online. The Age had ‘people’ on its front page & ‘Australians’ online.
Duttton’s ‘forgottens’ don’t exist yet but it was his prediction that they would by 2025.
From his speech, they are “in the suburbs, across regional Australia, the families and small businesses“. People like his father who he blames former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating for the near loss of his business.
Recently on ABC The Drum, former Labor Trade Minister Dr Craig Emerson opined that Dutton’s politics would continue to be that of division.
