Most of us have heard of two-tiered policing and two-tiered justice systems, where certain groups – especially minority groups and immigrants – get preferential treatment while the rest of us peons do not. We can now add to this two-tiered health care, at least in the woke wonderland known as Victoria, Australia.
Our hard-core left Labor government has fully sought to defend apparent racism and discrimination being shown to patients at St. Vincent’s hospital in Melbourne. As one news report states: “All First Nations patients at St Vincent’s hospitals have now been assigned ‘Category Three’ status, which expedites medical assessment and treatment within 30 minutes of arrival in the emergency department.”
Waiting times at hospital emergency departments are already at breaking point, and ambulance ramping, where paramedics just sit there and wait to unload sick and injured patients, is getting worse by the day. But if you are indigenous, it seems you get special breaks and special exemptions.
Like just about everything else in Melbourne, the Victorian health care system is in a shambles, while our loony left government prioritises things like pushing gender fluidity nonsense on our children. The only thing more reprehensible than this government is the fact that so many Victorians keep voting it back into power. (Of course the absence of a strong and robust Opposition does not really help matters.)
Thankfully there are voices speaking out against the two-tiered health practices. Indigenous leader Nyunggai Warren Mundine said this: “We aren’t asking for that, we’re asking to be treated like everyone else. I’m just horrified. It should be about needs, it should be about emergencies. This is where (governments) try and do nice things and you wind up with idiot policies.”
Opposition health minister Georgie Crozier said this:
Triage is about risk assessment and having a look at the issues surrounding that patient and you don’t judge it based on the colour of your skin or race. It’s going to cause a bit of chaos in terms of determining who’s Indigenous. How can you actually qualify that if everybody decides that (in order to be prioritised) they’ll just say, ‘I’m Indigenous’. I think it’s not only dividing our health system, but it’s setting it up to cause absolute chaos within the health system and causing more problems around those wait times.
Yes quite right. With five-year-old boys being encouraged by this government to identify as girls, why can’t non-indigenous folks just identify as indigenous to get that preferential treatment at hospitals? If Premier Jacinta Allan is quite happy with the former, she should be just fine with the latter.
As to the practice of triage, that is indeed nothing at all like what this government is now doing. In emergency situations, such as in times war or some major disaster in which patients are aplenty while medical staff and supplies are few, triage refers to sorting patients into various categories, ranging from those needing urgent medical attention to those with less severe injuries to those who are on death’s doorstep.
But here we simply decide who gets preferential treatment based on the colour of one’s skin. That used to be known as racism. Leftist Labor leaders are always complaining about racism, but now it seems they are actively pursuing racist policies!
Biblical thoughts
The believer knows that we are to love all people equally, because all of us are made in God’s image. Yes, the Bible does often speak of helping the poor and needy. But overwhelmingly that injunction is given to God’s people, not to some impersonal bureaucrats in a welfare state. See more on this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2023/09/13/social-decline-family-breakdown-and-the-welfare-state/
Yes, there is a place for state aid to the poor, for safety nets, and so on, but to violate fundamental principles of justice in doing so is not the way to proceed. Scripture speaks to this reality as well. Consider just a few passages:
“Do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.” -Exodus 23:3
“Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” -Leviticus 19:15
“Unequal weights and unequal measures
are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” -Proverbs 20:10
“To show partiality is not good.” -Proverbs 28:21
“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers” -James 2:8-9
Remember, justice is blind – or at least it is supposed to be. When you see a Lady Justice statue, she wears a blindfold. This represents the basic judicial principle of impartiality, of fairness, and of not showing favouritism. Treating people equally regardless of their race or ethnicity is the way the justice system is supposed to work.
Many people in the past – Christians included – worked against things like apartheid. But it seems many do not mind the fact that Allan is reviving it here in Melbourne. Australians overwhelmingly rejected the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum back in 2023.
But Allan is seeking to ram through her ‘Treaty with First Peoples,’ whether we like it or not. What is now happening at some of our hospitals tells us all we need to know about where this will be taking us. Racism seems to be alive and well here.
A similar reference to St Vincent’s Hospital occurred late yesterday in Victorian Parliament. An Opposition member told Parliament about the special treatment at that hospital for a favoured minority, namely them indigenous minority.
That remark arose in the context of a long debate on the treaty between Victoria and its aboriginal minority. Of course, we weren’t told anything about its details until quite recently. That treaty is currently in the upper house. This might give you something to write about very soon.
Many thanks Bill.
Maybe everyone who presents at St Vincent’s emergency department should say they are Aboriginal, then they would all be treated according to need. Otherwise, there might be a situation where a non-Aboriginal is having a heart attack and an Aboriginal with a sore finger is prioritised, which would be ridiculous.
Come to think of it, St Vincent’s policy is ridiculous and they must revoke it.
Quite so Pam.
Being a doctor I am wondering where Victoria’s medical societies are in this. Also if lawsuits are brought against the hospital or doctors.
Good questions John.
When I need medical care I’m going dressed wearing my new t-shirt, Treaty for Victoria.
Our current crop of leaders are complete fools this idea is unworkable, wait till a politician or family member needs medical attention and has skin with little amounts of melanin.
A similar reference to St Vincent’s Hospital occurred late yesterday in Victorian Parliament. An Opposition member told Parliament about the special treatment at that hospital for a favoured minority, namely them indigenous minority.
That remark arose in the context of a long debate on the treaty between Victoria and its aboriginal minority. Of course, we weren’t told anything about its details until quite recently. That treaty is currently in the upper house. This might give you something to write about very soon.
Many thanks Bill.
Maybe everyone who presents at St Vincent’s emergency department should say they are Aboriginal, then they would all be treated according to need. Otherwise, there might be a situation where a non-Aboriginal is having a heart attack and an Aboriginal with a sore finger is prioritised, which would be ridiculous.
Come to think of it, St Vincent’s policy is ridiculous and they must revoke it.
Quite so Pam.
Being a doctor I am wondering where Victoria’s medical societies are in this. Also if lawsuits are brought against the hospital or doctors.
Good questions John.
When I need medical care I’m going dressed wearing my new t-shirt, Treaty for Victoria.
Our current crop of leaders are complete fools this idea is unworkable, wait till a politician or family member needs medical attention and has skin with little amounts of melanin.
Exactly Dallas.