Perrottet Once Wrote A Scathing Op-Ed Against Flying The Aboriginal Flag On Harbour Bridge
"Like changing the date of Australia Day, it's designed to stroke the egos of the inner-city elites that control Labor's agenda."
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says the $25 million price tag of permanently installing the Aboriginal flag atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a “small price to pay” for unity, seemingly having moved on from comments he made back in 2018 in which he said the move was “virtue signalling”.
As part of Tuesday’s state budget, the NSW government has announced costings for the installation of a new flag pole to have the Aboriginal flag permanently flown above the state’s most iconic piece of infrastructure. Perrottet couldn’t clearly explain why the flagpole costs a whopping $25 million when pressed by the media, but Junkee understands it is partially to do with the fact that it’s a 20-metre high pole being erected in a high-wind area.
“I don’t know. But it does, apparently,” said Perrottet at a press conference. “I’m even surprised it takes this long. I mean I made the announcement a while ago and the first brief that came back was that it takes two years to do.
“I’ll go to Bunnings myself and climb up there and put the pole up…But apparently it does, apparently that’s the costing, and I think that it’s an important decision that we’ve made.
“I think it brings unity to our country and I think it’s a small price to pay for that unification.”
This seemingly contradicts comments he made in an opinion piece entitled ‘Luke Foley’s Aboriginal flag proposal a lavish exercise in trendy virtue signalling’, which he shared on Facebook in 2018 — and is still live at the time of publishing.
“I have a great idea for Luke Foley: instead of putting the Aboriginal flag on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, how about just plonking a giant blank screen that can be quickly and easily updated to broadcast Labor’s latest social justice warrior cause?” said Perrottet in an opinion piece for The Daily Telegraph on February 3, 2018.
“We could call it “the NSW Labor Party Virtue Signal”.
“Maybe it could even be programmed to automatically shift with the wind.
“Because that’s all Foley’s proposal is: a lavish exercise in trendy virtue signalling.
“Like changing the date of Australia Day, it’s designed to stroke the egos of the inner-city elites that control Labor’s agenda.”
Perrottet is yet to remove the post from his Facebook page or address his 2018 opinion piece since his announcement that the Aboriginal flag will be flown atop the Harbour Bridge. Junkee has reached out to Perrottet for comment.