A Tick-The-Box Initiative - Free Medicines
Readers are frequently sending us information about real examples that illustrate that Australia is on the road to a version of Apartheid. This neo-Apartheid is where Australians are being separated, and being treated differently in an economic or political sense, because of their race or ethnicity.
The following example concerns the ‘concept-creep’ of the political notion of the so-called ‘First Nations’ polity. Increasingly, Australians of Aboriginal descent are being described in government policy and legislation as ‘First Nations’ people. This suggests an acceptance that Aboriginal people are now formally separate from the ‘Australian Nation’ people. Our citizenry are being divided along racial lines. This is becoming an entrenched view within government, as the Commonwealth Health Department video below illustratrates.
The video, by a pharmacist who claims to be a Tasmanian Aborigine, describes how anyone who has ‘ticked-the-box’ and claimed to be a First Nations person can recieve all their PBS medicines at reduced rates if they are a general medicare-card Australian, or free, if they are ‘First Nations’ concession card holding Australian (Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 1 - Normal pricing and concessions for ‘Australian Nations’ claimants. Source
Figure 2 - Cheaper or free medicines for ‘tick-the-box’ ‘First Nations’ claimants under the Closing the Gap initiatives. Source
It is very important to assist sick Australians who require PBS medicine to receive them cost effectively, but it is very dangerous to use ‘race’ rather than ‘need’ in the pricing decisions.
Apartheid did not work in South Africa, and neo-Apartheid will not work Australia either. These government policies are putting Australia on a road to a very dark place.
Figure 3 - The neo-Apartheid policies of the Australian Commonwealth Government. Source
