‘Politics should be better than this’
'It's not the same, it's vastly less, vastly less noxious, but the Civil Service Act of Germany in 1933 also delineated people's rights on the premise of their race, their belief... It's a very dangerous precedent.'
Labor MP Josh Burns has called Barnaby Joyce’s comparison of the First Nations Voice to Parliament with a law passed in Nazi Germany, “absurd and offensive”.
Joyce made the comparison in a Sky News interview, saying he was concerned about the government wanting to “reinsert racial distinctions” into the constitution.
When asked about his view of the Voice, the former deputy prime minister said he was concerned about “a delineation of people and their rights”.
Joyce said, “It’s not the same, it’s vastly less, vastly less noxious, but the Civil Service Act of Germany in 1933 also delineated people’s rights on the premise of their race, their belief,” adding, “It’s a very dangerous precedent.”
Burns, the federal member for Macnamara has called on Joyce to apologise for his comments but said, “Disappointingly, the Leader of the Opposition has been silent on this matter and the Leader of the Nationals has doubled down defending Mr Joyce.”
Burns wrote to the coalition leader, Peter Dutton, on September 28, saying that Joyce’s “improper and illegitimate” comparison of the Voice to one of the first laws passed after Adolf Hitler took power, is “deeply disappointing”.
Burns also asked Dutton to “counsel” Mr Joyce and “urge him to apologise,” but has received no response.
Leader of the national party David Littleproud defended Joyce’s comments in a radio interview, saying “[Joyce] prefaced it” and “[Sometimes] we can take all this stuff out of context … and try to blow it out of context.”
Burns responded to Littleproud’s comments on Twitter saying it is “really disappointing” to hear him defend Joyce’s comments.
Really disappointing to hear @D_LittleproudMP defend @Barnaby_Joyce's comments comparing the Voice and Nazi Germany.
There is no comparison, period.
Politics should be better than this.#auspol— Josh Burns (@joshburnsmp) October 14, 2022
Burns told The AJN, “We know how damaging inappropriate comparisons to Nazi Germany can be – they trivialise the past and undermine efforts to ensure history is not repeated.
“Politics should be better than this – we should be united against distorting the Holocaust.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said, “Mr Joyce did preface his remarks by saying there was a vast difference between the two, but this begs the question, why bring up Nazi Germany at all?”
“Mr Joyce is entitled to argue against the Voice or to oppose what he considers to be ‘the reinstatement of racial distinctions in the constitution’, but his point is lost when he makes any association between an attempt to elevate the voice of a traditionally oppressed and disadvantaged group and laws that paved the way for genocide.”
Dutton and Joyce were contacted for comment but did not respond by press time.
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