LAST week both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten betrayed the interests of every hard working, decent, concerned Australian mum and dad by playing the "race card". No, I don't mean the race card that the Left love to accuse Peter Dutton or Pauline Hanson of every time they pop up on TV. I mean the other race card. The one where politicians say we Australians aren't permitted to think for ourselves and question aspects of our nationhood because that makes us "racists".
Shorten was the first to play the race card when last week he claimed: "Systemic racism is still far too prevalent â€¦ The insidious nature of stubborn racism is still a reality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals - regardless of the status and stature they achieve in our society." This is pure baloney, but I'll get back to why in a moment. Although Shorten qualified his statements with a teensy little asterisk that "not all Australians are racist", the damage was done. 
The race card was well and truly played. Terrified of being out-luvvied on his left flank, Turnbull reached into his top pocket and quick as a flash also played his own version of the race card. "If you talk about Australia as a whole, are we free entirely from racism? Clearly not," he said, in what is a supreme example of Turnbull's waffly Rudd-style question-and-answer double negative approach to communicating an idea without actually committing to it. Again, the implication - that we are indeed a nation full of racists - is pure rubbish devoid of any supporting evidence but designed to pander to the self-loathing wallowed in by the Labor Party, the Greens and, sadly, increasing numbers of Liberals. (Luckily for Queenslanders, the Nationals have yet to succumb to this chronic disease.) Readers of this column will be familiar with my distrust of what Paul Keating's speechwriter, Don Watson, labelled "weasel words". My pet ones are "fair" and "inappropriate"; terms bandied about with gay abandon that strip any intelligent discussion of logic, reason and evidence and replace them with teenage-style emotions and faux-compassion.
"Racism" is another. It has been so overused and misused that it ceases to have any serious meaning beyond "nasty" or "yucky". Shorten may as well have said "systemic yuckiness is still prevalent" and made just as much sense. Racism must be contextually defined to have any meaning. Are we talking legislated, institutional, cultural, societal, or individual racism? The US pre-civil rights and South African apartheid are examples of legislated racism.
Cultural and societal racism exists to greater or lesser degrees in all countries across the globe, but is most notable in Islamic countries where Christians, Jews and other minorities are routinely persecuted and often murdered.
Many indigenous Australians argue that white Australia practises cultural racism against Aborigines.
This is true historically but is nonsense as regards modern Australia, as is evidenced by the number of indigenous Australians (often the ones doing the complaining, by the way) who have reached great heights, career success and national acclaim due to their personal talents, hard work and good luck - which is precisely how all successful Australians of whatever colour or creed get to the top.
The reasons for the tragic conditions of indigenous communities are manifold, but if you are looking for one single word to explain the misery, poverty and lack of engagement of indigenous communities it would be "socialism", not "racism".
The great disaster for modern Aborigines lies back in the post-war period when it was decided to deny property rights to individual Aborigines in favour of legislating quasi-socialist communities, like Aurukun, that have denied individuals any hope of a bright future of their own making.
Finally, "individual" racism. This is where the race card is most insidiously played by the Left. Labelling individuals "racist" because they question either Islam or immigration quotas is not only false, it is dangerous.
The "race" riots in Melbourne on the weekend are the inevitable result of squashing free debate on Islam, and of our leaders smearing anybody who dares question the cultural components of our future immigration intake as "racists".
Free speech demands we be allowed to debate such issues as long as we don't incite hatred. We have the irrefutable evidence from Europe of what could occur here eventually should we allow uncontrolled immigration from Islamic countries. Every concerned Australian parent has a right to question the volume of Islamic immigrants into this country and demographically what the future holds. This is not "racism". It is reality.Twitter @rowandean