Right wing columnist Andrew Bolt’s claim to be “indigenous”

Bolt also plays mischief-maker, claiming to be an Indigenous Australian.

Andrew Bolt, Indigenous Australian? Come off it Michael Mansell theguardian.com, Friday 31 January 2014 I support Bolt’s right to participate in the constitutional recognition debate, but he should avoid inflaming prejudice against Aboriginal people while doing so

Right wing commentator Andrew Bolt is at it again, this time arguing the sky will fall in if there is any constitutional recognition of the fact of Aboriginal people being here before whites arrived. Everyone knows Indigenous people were here, so what’s the great fuss? Bolt’s view is an attempt to revive the Terra nullius doctrine which, for 200 years, fictionalised that the British came to an empty land and settled peacefully. That myth was discredited by the high court of Australia with its Mabo ruling 22 years ago, but people like Bolt are still yet to catch on.

Bolt also plays mischief-maker, claiming to be an Indigenous Australian. Like Pauline Hanson did in her maiden speech to the parliament in 1996, Bolt makes his claim based on a technical view that everyone born in Australia is legally, but not socially, an Indigenous Australian. His mischief is to ignore common sense and community normality which distinguishes between Indigenous Australians on the one hand, and white Australians like Bolt on the other. Bolt wants to lead his followers through the chaos he ferments.

As part of the scare-mongering tone of his article, Bolt gets it wrong about the aim of the Aboriginal provisional government(APG), claiming it is a separatist movement. The APG wants an Aboriginal assembly of elected Aboriginal people with legislative power, returned land and a budget – in the same way different states do. And this aim is within the federation of Australia. How is that separatism?……..http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/31/andrew-bolt-indigenous-australian-come-off-it