Opposition leader Peter Dutton isn’t happy about the RBA’s decision to replace the late Queen on the $5 bill with “a new design that honours the culture and history of the First Australians”:
“There’s no question about this that it’s directed by the government and I think the Prime Minister should own up to it,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.
“We know the PM’s not across the detail on many of these issues but in relation to this he would have been central to the decision-making and if it’s a decision they’ve made, own it.
“Just be responsible and put your hand up and say ‘this is the reason we’ve made it’. I think it’s another attack on our systems, on our society and our institutions.”
I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say that the omission of the King on the $5 bill is an “attack”. There’s no legal requirement to have a monarch on Australian banknotes, unlike its coins. The fewer faces of monarchs and politicians on our currency, the better, I say!
But where Dutton really erred is that in attacking this decision he risks undermining his legitimate concerns about the proposed Voice to Parliament. The government will just increase its ‘Dutton is racist and will just oppose anything to do with the Indigenous’ rhetoric, deflecting from the serious lack of details about something that could potentially be an actual attack on our institutions.
We just don’t know – which is why it’s important to push for details before voting it into the constitution.