…these are just some of the many things I’d expect to be handled by local Australian city councils.

When it comes to the City of Sydney however, for whatever reason they’ve taken it upon themselves to ponder the historical origins of ‘Australia’ as we know it.

And unfortunately in the process have completely rewritten the history books.

Following lengthy discussions and ‘after City of Sydney’s Aboriginal advisory panel threatened to quit‘, the council has decided (for all of Australia) that ‘the arrival of white settlers (to Australia was) an “invasion“.

And just like that, the far reaching implication is thus that, despite being born in Australia I, and every other non-Aboriginal Australian, are therefore ‘invaders‘.

A term I’m sure will be quick to catch on and join the already exhaustive list of insults hurled at people by Aboriginals still pretending like what happened over 200 years ago somehow directly affects them today.

Despite the insulting nature of one city council altering an entire nation’s history, why on Earth was this decided on the basis of an Aboriginal Advisory panel threatening to quit?

Are they some kind of irreplaceable group chaired by untouchables or something?

How contrived it will be when in twenty or thirty years times students ask their teachers ‘why the settlement of Australia is considered an invasion?’, teachers will have to reply ‘because some nobodies threatened to quit their jobs back in 2011′.

Meanwhile the City of Sydney’s decision seems to have hinged on the dictionary definition of ‘invaded’;

During a long debate, Deputy Mayor Marcelle Hoff argued that the term “invasion or illegal colonisation” should be used in the council’s official documents and statements.

She read out dictionary definitions of invasion as “to take possession, to penetrate, to intrude upon, to overrun”.

“They came in and they did not leave,” she said.


Indeed.

Now if we look at the definition of ‘invaded’, we get

To enter by force in order to conquer or pillage.


Either way, if we accept that it was an invasion, Aboriginals were intruded, overrun, their land possessed and they were completely and utterly conquered.

So, moving forward, is it safe to assume that Australia will no longer recognise them in any way shape or form? I mean they were conquered after all. History now says so.

No more generous welfare, special treatment or land claims – they all went out the window when Sydney decided the settlement was an invasion.

It might all sound a bit silly (as is a council rewriting history in the first place) but honestly it seems that, at the expense of greater Australia, we’re continuing down a path of selective historical moments.

Starting off with Kevin Rudd’s government level apology, slowly but surely, under the threat of Aboriginal council’s quitting their jobs, Australia seems to be on the path of rewriting history to suit a very small minority of people who, let’s face it no matter what, are never going to be able to get over what happened over 200 years ago.

Meanwhile the rest of us try to get on with our lives and make the most of now.

Does changing ‘settled’ to ‘invaded’ really have any effect on those the use of the term is supposed to appease?

Of course not.

What I can’t understand is why the far more neutral terminology which respects both sides of the discussion was deleted in favour of this one sided invasion nonsense. Last week Lord Mayor Clover Moore offered up a much more suitable passage;

British settlement of Sydney and its surrounds is interpreted by some people, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, as invasion.

For others it is colonisation. History is interpreted by people differently according to their experience of its consequences.


This not only appeases Aboriginals still wallowing in self pity, but also acknowledges Australians like me who not only don’t see the settlement as an invasion, but are also thankful it did happen.

Without it, I wouldn’t be here today – at least not in this capacity.

Unfortunately though this didn’t feel, how should I put it, guilty enough for the Aboriginal council and was subsequently removed in favour of ’invaded’.

Given that what’s done is now done and looking forward (wouldn’t it be great if Aboriginals could simply adopt such a mindset and just get on with being productive members of society), I imagine the real cost of rewriting history is yet to be felt.

What the City of Sydney have really done here is encouraged resentment and division in an entire new generation of Aboriginals, who really have as much to do with the settlement as any other Australian in 2011.

That is to say, nada… zip, nothing.

I can’t wait for Australia Day 2012 and the renewed calls to rename it ‘Invasion Day’… now what with historical context backing the calls, is there really any reason not to?

In the context of what went on in the world regarding colonisation back in the 1700′s, I sincerely doubt ‘invasion’ was on the minds of any who originally landed here.

Who are we to rewrite history in such a context that completely misrepresents how Australians 200 years later feel about their nation?

Robbery is up 450%, sexual assault is up 97% and commercial break-ins are up 185%.

In response to these statistics, the activist group ‘Action for Alice’ self funded a television commercial targeted at the Northern Territory government that aired on Aboriginal TV network, Imparja Television.

Sidenote: when did Aboriginals get a TV station?!

Apparently the ad has been airing in the Northern Territory for about a month now and while I couldn’t find a direct link to the video of it, this news report from 10 covers its release;


In response to the video the Minister for Central Australia, Karl Hampton, applied pressure to Imparja Television to pull the ad.

“I spoke to the chairman of the board about the ads and expressed my disappointment with the ads, because I believed they did not follow the objectives and aims of Imparja Television, which is to promote … positive things about Aboriginal culture”


Only positive things about Aboriginal culture? Why on Earth would that be?

the commercials highlighted the problems of Alice Springs to the detriment of the local tourism industry and small business.

“It made it impossible for the government to recruit doctors and nurses to the area.”


Oh, I see.

The greater irony here of course being that ‘Action for Alice’ is from what I understand primarily made up of (notably white) business owners, whose businesses rely on tourism to stay afloat.

They’re pissed off that Aboriginals are killing the tourism industry and the government is worried that by publicly airing their complaints, that they themselves risk killing Alice Spring’s tourism industry.

Productive Aboriginals on the other hand are too busy complaining to the Human Rights Commission because they find the ads ‘offensive‘


Unedited footage of Aboriginals drinking themselves stupid and fighting is naturally going to be offensive to anyone, but is appealing to the Human Rights Commission actually going to achieve anything?

Why aren’t these offended Aboriginals out there trying to address the real problem on which the advertisement revolves around?!

…can I get off the merry go around yet?

Why anyone would want to visit Alice Springs in its current state is beyond me but surely the NT government isn’t that naive that they believe covering up the problem will keep the tourism dollars rolling in?

Apparently so.

Meanwhile Aboriginals seem to be complaining that at the heart of the problem is the intervention, which needs to go.

What they conveniently forget though is that it’s the intervention that has itself directly brought the rampant drug and alcohol abuse in remote Aboriginal to the spotlight of Alice Springs.

This might be crappy for tourism and the locals, but it does thrust the problem directly into the forefront of the Northern Territory’s public sphere.

Removing the intervention will undoubtedly drive the problem back out to the remote communities and make tourism in the region attractive again, but will it fix the heart of the problem?

Not a chance.

One of the common retorts of bleeding hearts is the notion that it’s easy to be an armchair critic when it comes to issues such as Aboriginal alcohol and drug abuse problems.

‘you don’t live there, why don’t you go out there and see first hand just how wonderful these people are!‘ is usually along the lines of how it goes.

Here we have a group of people who live right in the thick of it, proposing their own ‘a nine-point plan for change in the town which they say will bring lasting results‘.

Is the government even willing to listen, discuss and perhaps adopt such measures if their feasible?

Of course not.

Instead their protests are discouraged and brushed off by the government. God forbid anyone get in the way of their romantic illusion of ‘outback Australia’ for the tourists.

Oprah Winfrey’s been making a bit of a hoo haa recently about promoting Australia to the rest of the world (no doubt a reciprocal agreement in return for tax breaks and greater access to our tourist hotspots.

In regards to the Aboriginal people, her visit didn’t seem to extend past visiting Ayres Rock, about which she commented;

Me being here is a way to pay my respects to the Aboriginal people while showing respect for the land, their culture and all this rock means to them and the continent and the world.

(She) said that she wanted to find out more about their culture when visiting sacred indigenous site Uluru.


If Oprah really wanted to experience Aboriginal culture firsthand, someone should have dropped her off with $20 into the heart of Alice Springs on a Saturday night and told her to make her own way to the Opera House.

Now that’d be tv worth watching.

There didn’t need to be any reason for doing so and the government was under no obligation to establish a case that the removed children were in any way neglected or mistreated.

This policy has gained widespread criticism and even prompted a formal apology by the Australian government back in 2008 to people commonly referred to as ‘the stolen generations‘.

In modern day Australia, Aboriginals and bleeding hearts alike like to use the stolen generation as a brick wall argument to fend off any and all criticism of Aboriginals. These days you can bring up any argument and it’ll predictably be countered with ‘well what about the stolen generation?’

From welfare reform, addressing cultural problems, lawlessness in the outback, overcrowded jails, police abuse and a whole host of other modern day Aboriginal problems – the rebuttal is always the same;

‘What about the stolen generation? This is your fault.‘

And by ‘your’, universally the term is applied to ‘us’ and so perpetuates the us vs. them mentality keeping Aboriginals from being full blooded Australians.

I wouldn’t for a second argue that the stolen generation was just or deserved. These days we have the Department of Child Services (DOCS) and various policies and procedures to follow when processing the welfare of children. Back then though, removing Aboriginal children willy nilly does seem a bit excessive.

Forty years on from the end of the Stolen Generation era however and I can’t help but ask, are Aboriginal Children any better off?

I’m not talking about the now adults that were forcibly removed as children, but rather those Aboriginal children born post the stolen generation era. For the most part they live in backwater communities situated in the middle of nowhere, solely at the mercy of their parents.

Police and children’s services mostly ignore them and the media often feels like it has a self imposed blackout on the subject. What little news we do get out of the North Territory and the rest of North Australia is actually quite damning.

Far more so than a century of removing children from their parents.

Over two years ago, Howard Bath, was appointed the Children’s Commissioner in the Northern Territory. Following this appointment Dr. Bath set about compiling what would later be known as the ‘Bath Report’.

The report itself was damning and the findings of the report were surpressed by the Australian government for two years.

The Bath report ‘found Aboriginal children were at particular risk, often consigned to carers who lived in violent or abusive homes in remote communities where standard case reviews rarely happened‘.

Meanwhile widespread reports of abuse and a government failing to cope with the situation continued to trickle out from the Territory.

A few reports have centered around Tennant Creek in which an Aboriginal child was found abandoned in a garden bed near an area of local pubs by a sixteen year old mother, pregnant with another child (which brought her total number of children to three).

A child protection inquiry in Tennant Creek revealed that ‘kids (were) running around Tennant Creek with visible cigarette burns and bruises from beltings‘.

Yet still nothing was done.

And now, the latest from the Northern Territory details that Aboriginal children are now resorting to selling themselves for drugs and alcohol.

Araluen MLA Robyn Lambley told Parliament children as young as nine were lurking in the streets of Alice Springs in the middle of the night.

Some of them, she said, were “soliciting” their bodies for money.


Seriously, widespread child prostitution. Could it get any worse than this?!

Furthermore the wider effects of forty years of government non-intervention are already manifesting themselves;

A 50-year-old American woman was the latest victim of the brutal lawlessness experienced in the desert town.

She was last night recovering from facial surgery at Royal Adelaide Hospital, in SA, after being stoned, hit with wooden sticks and then punched and kicked by 10 youths while already lying on the ground.

The attack happened on her doorstep of her Memorial Drive house, Gillen, early on Sunday.

A 29-year-old German woman was stabbed and her three friends were stoned and punched when a gang of teens attacked the group only a week earlier.


Although not explicitly mentioned, in the context of the news story it’s a safe bet we’re talking about predominantly Aboriginal youth gangs.

Post stolen generation, Aboriginal children start off with deadbeat mothers like the one from Tenant Creek, are born into a life of alcohol and drugs and ultimately end up roaming the streets in gangs bashing the shit out of random people.

I can’t predict when, but sometime in the future the Australian government and the rest of society is going to be held accountable for the travesties occurring daily in the Northern Territory.

Can a century of stolen kids even begin to compare to what Aboriginal kids are being put through today?

I’m not suggesting we bring back the policies of old but clearly running in the opposite direction isn’t working and has ultimately failed god knows how many thousands of kids.

‘Blame whitey’ sympathisers would have you believe that the Stolen Generation was the worst thing ever to happen to Aboriginal children on Australian soil. The reality of the situation however is that the worst things to ever happen to Aboriginal children are happening here and now.

These atrocities are perpetuated daily in lawless Aboriginal societies and by and large nothing is done.

The sad part is that as long as the Australian government sits on its hands in fear of political correctness and retribution from the Aboriginal community, the worst is probably still yet to come.

The problems of entitlement, longstanding welfare agreements, bungling administration costs of anything Aboriginal related and the all to eager government policy to continue wasting money on failed Aboriginal welfare programs, all come together in a neat package.

At the heart of the problem is a report by the Australian National Audit Office, detailing a loan program that provided $2.7 million dollars in funding for Aboriginal home ownership.

The problem?

It cost Australia $10 million dollars in administration costs.

Dubbed the ‘Home Ownership on Indigenous Land’ (HOIL) program, the initiative set out to provide 460 home loans to Aboriginal people from eight communities.

Ten million dollars later in administration costs however and all taxpayers had to show for it was just fifteen loans.

So, how did such an ambitious project deliver such a mediocre result?

The report suggests the HOIL program was constrained by the high cost of construction and long-standing tenancy arrangements that act as a disincentive for Indigenous people to buy their own homes.


I’ve got no idea what it costs to build a house in the middle of nowhere, but more importantly it seems that Aboriginals don’t want their own houses.

I mean why on Earth would you take on the debt of a home loan when the government provides you with dirt cheap accommodation of comparable quality?

How do I know the government provides such accommodation?

Following the abysmal failure of the HOIL program, the houses constructed under it ‘were transferred to the Northern Territory Government as social housing stock, following Ministerial endorsement.’

In short, after failing to sell the houses to Aboriginals the government is just going to let them live in them under social welfare.

So just to recap, the government creates a program designed to sell houses to Aboriginal people who have no jobs (or money).

Aboriginal people turn up their noses because they already have housing provided to them dirt cheap by the government.

The government then ends the program with just 3.2% of the target loans met it set out to achieve and administration costs almost triple that of the money loaned out.

Then following ‘ministerial endorsement‘, the government decides to dump the houses into the Aboriginal social welfare program, so that more Aboriginals can move into them  and stay there for virtually nothing.

And they wonder why nobody took up their home loans?! Seriously, would anyone take out a home loan if they knew the government was just going to cave and provide you with the same home a few months later for next to nothing rent?

I know Labor aren’t known for the economic management… but this is ridiculous.

Following a day of drinking the two retired to a local drinking spot where a drunken argument then broke out. During the argument Datjirri first took a stick and smashed it over his sister-in-law’s head. As the argument progressed, Datjirri then took a shattered glass bottle and proceeded to slash Elaine in arm, thigh, left breast and left armpit.

Elaine Wunungurra survived the brutal attack but was permanently disabled. Meanwhile Datjirri faced criminal charges. Datjirri amazingly pleaded not guilty to the charges laid out against him and during his trial his uncle, Wali Wunungmurra, was called on to give character evidence in Datjirri’s defence.

When asked to clarify Aboriginal law against violence against women, Wali stated;

The law as far as the Aboriginal law stands, violence on an Aboriginal woman is not really terrible but a mild one, you can work around it.


Violence against women is only a mild offence and easily worked around? Well gee, why am I not surprised.

When later asked to explain his comments, Wali expressed that his comments had merely been misunderstood. To clarify, Wali stated that

Yolngu law differentiated between acts of violence involving alcohol and those that did not. He agreed the assault on Elaine Wunungmurra was “not okay”.


Now whilst I’m glad Wali agrees that the assault on Elaine ‘was not okay’, just what is the differentiation between alcohol fuelled violence and non-alcohol fuelled violence?

By making the distinction and tying in Wali’s earlier comments about violence against women being not such a big deal in Aboriginal law, I can only assume that one or the other is somewhat acceptable in Aboriginal law.

Given that Wali has stated that the alcohol fuelled violence against Elaine was ‘not okay‘, I take it that under Aboriginal law, non-alcohol fuelled violence against women is all fine and dandy… or a ‘mild‘ offense as Wali put it.

Wait what? Non-alcohol fuelled violence against women is a mild offense? How the crap is that law in any form acceptable?! And why are our courts asking Aboriginals to clarify the matter?

I don’t care if under Aboriginal law bashing women is the holiest of holiest traditions… in modern day Australia it’s simply unacceptable and should be counted as assault under any circumstances – alcohol related or not.

Thankfully Datjirri was convicted by a jury of his peers and sentenced to a six year jail term with a no-parole period of four years.

God knows what kind of slap on the wrist he’d have received under Aboriginal law, but it must have been light enough to warrant a visit from Datjirri’s uncle to explain to the court that bashing women is fine under Aboriginal law.

Whilst justice thankfully prevailed in this particular case, one can only wonder how much it fails in others where Aboriginal law is applied. I couldn’t find a news link for it but there was a story a few years ago about an instance of two Aboriginal women fighting somewhere in the NT. Instead of focusing on why the women were fighting and throwing rocks at eachother, the focus of the story was on some guy who recorded the fight and then (I think) posted it up on Youtube.

I always wondered why nobody there raised an eye at Aboriginal women fighting in broad daylight… perhaps this cultural and legal attitude explains why. Either way, which such gaping discrepencies between mainstream Australian law and Aboriginal law, here’s hoping we never take Aboriginal law seriously.

Nevermind the fact that there’s already Aboriginal courts up and running for Aboriginals only… how’s that for reverse racism.

Federation Square is a jumbled mess of architectural vomit, nobody visits the docklands, the Southern Star Oberservation Wheel was a colossal failure and that giant space near the Yarra river, Birradungarunga-something-ma is nothing to write home about.

Our towers are nice but well, no different to towers anywhere else in the world. Melbourne’s nice to look at from a height, but it’s not going to take your breath away anytime soon.

A few days ago, building firm Grocom announced a project to build a landmark apartment building in Carlton. The thirty two storey high block is set to be a visual delight due to the inclusion of the face of Aboriginal elder William Barak.

Design wise I have to admit I was worried when I first read about the project and was all too willing to write it off as yet another landmark embarrassment our city seems to love indulging itself in. Having seen the artists rendition though, if it stays true to the concept design it seems finally Melbourne will be getting a new landmark that isn’t something I embarrassingly share with people.

William Barak is the guy who features on our two dollar coin and in his time was a prominent artists and spokesperson for Aboriginals; a stark contrast to the mostly abysmal state the aboriginal community is in today.

The design itself is quite striking and, unlike Sam Newman’s horrendous Pamela Anderson apartment, quite successfully conveys a sense of modernity against a historical backdrop.

The guys behind the design are touting it as a city ‘bookend’ in line with the Shrine of Remembrance and I can sort of see where they are coming from. What I do hope doesn’t happen however, is that the building be turned into some kind of rallying point for opportunist degenerates that plague other sites around Melbourne such as St. Paul’s Cathedral.

These gatherings are a blight on Melbourne and serve no other purpose the the misguided notion that drunken louts will somehow reinforce fictitious feelings of guilt the greater community supposedly has towards Aboriginals.

I’m sure once Portrait is built these people would love to set up a camp or some other rubbish around the base and watch the $295,000 to $1,000,000 price tags plummet.

Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them even demanded a free apartment or two. Y’know, in the name of cultural tolerance and all.

For me, the importance is far more significant then personal gain or acknowledging a great man in a time long past.

Portrait isn’t about one-upping the Shrine or creating some kind of contrast to the post war sacrifices we acknowledge as a city. William Barak was an Aboriginal man who did great things and his solemn face watching over the city doesn’t contain a message of guilt or sacrifice.

Baraks face is a reminder to Aboriginals that individually and as a people they were and are capable of great things. In an era of decrepitness and wallowing in self pity it’s never too late to dig yourself out of a hole and truly make a difference to a people.

This I believe is the greatest lesson modern Aboriginals have yet to learn and hopefully the addition of Portrait to Melbourne’s skyline is a step in the right direction. Long after speeches and individuals are buried and forgotten the face of Barak watching over the city will remain…

…waiting and watching silently for the day his people make something of themselves again.

In the lead up to recent election, Julia Gillard stated it wasn’t something she wasn’t prepared to bring up until the current Queen died and Tony Abbott has declared himself a staunch Monarchist. Regardless of who eventually gets into power it seems the republic debate is off the table for a few years yet.

This fact was recently picked up on by Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry. McGorry entered into the Australian republic debate today by claiming that ‘the nation’s political leaders are too worried about focus groups to push for a republic‘.

With minorities having an increasing power wielding capacity in our political landscape (one only needs to look at the current hung parliament to see the evidence), it’s easy to not only see where McGorry’s coming from, but also to agree with him.

…but then came the fineprint.

National issues like the proposed internet filter, immigration and the economy have long since felt like they’ve been controlled by focus groups. One only needs to attempt to suggest reform in any of these categories and it doesn’t take long before the christian family lobby groups, bleeding hearts focus groups and the mining giants respectively clamp down on you.

For publicly pointing this out and rallying the cry for a public champion to push the Australian republic agenda McGorry should be praised. It’s high time the republic movement got it’s shit together and put forward a blueprint plan of action.

Howard did a great job of stuffing up the last attempt and sadly the movement hasn’t recovered since.

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with McGorry’s position on a republic, his additional comments on Aboriginal sovereignty left me questioning his ultimate motive.

it is hard to see how the unextinguished claims of the Aboriginal peoples to sovereignty of this country can be responded to while the Union Jack still has pride of place on our flag and the Queen of England is head of state.


Note that he’s not talking about a few Mabo claims to crown land, he actually lays out a claim to the entire country itself.

Sorry but when did becoming a republic mean recognising Aboriginal sovereignty over the entire nation of Australia? And how exactly is that going to work?

What, we trade in one mostly silent overlord for what would arguably be a much more active other? Aboriginal sovereignty as it stands shouldn’t mean too much more then it does to me.

I was born in Australia just like most of them and consider it my home. The fact that the Queen is still our head of state and resembles complete irrelevancy in the majority of Australia’s affairs and the lives of it’s citizens irritates me.

Not enough to launch a civil war over or anything but it’s always there lurking in the long term activist portion of my mind as something that needs to be one day resolved.

My plans for an independent republic of Australia however by no means includes handing over. For this reason an Australian republic is important to me. It’s certainly not however about passing off power to minority and focus groups.

The idea behind dismantling the sovereign tie between Australia is that Australia is released into the hands of Australians, all Australians. Not some select mob of Aboriginals with entitlement issues.

The last republic referendum was plagued with confusion after a successful campaign that presented a severely flawed model to the Australian public. The last thing the movement needs is Aboriginals latching onto the idea and pushing through ridiculous amendments that are guaranteed to fail on a national scale.

Aboriginals, along with all the other minority and focus groups out there looking to capitalize on the republic movement can keep their grubby little hands off it thankyou very much. A republic should and should always be for the entirety of the nation, not just a select few.

If the choice becomes an Australian republic with forced acknowledgement of Aboriginal sovereignty or maintaining the current system, well I don’t think there’s really that much else to say…

…long live the queen anyone?

It’s the fallout over Aborginal political correctness. A government too scared to hold the Aboriginal population to the same standards as the rest of us, and Aboriginals so entrenched in entitlement that they don’t see the biggest threat to Aboriginal culture are Aboriginals themselves.

Earlier this month in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory a four year old baby was found abandoned on a Friday night. The baby was found abandoned in the garden bed of a shopping mall, near an area of local pubs.

The sixteen year old mother could not be located until the following day.

It’s not entirely hard to picture what went down that night. Being sixteen and near a pub area I’m betting she wasn’t alone.

‘Hey ditch the kid, it’s Friday and I’m exhausted. Bludging is hard work, we need to go get pissed’.

‘Well what am I supposed to do with it?’

‘I dunno ey, let’s go see if 7-11 will give us a pack of ciggies for it.’

‘ey bro, want this kid. One pack of winnie blues’.

‘um…. what?’

‘carn cuz… not even a bottle’o'VB? Aboriginal kids are welfare goldmines, we’re doing you a favour!’

‘Sorry but I can’t accept your child’

‘Fine. Fucking racist. Cmon let’s go.’

‘What about my bab-’

‘OMG just leave it here in the bushes. We’ll come back and get it tomorrow.’

‘Cool. See ya tommorrow bubby.’

The good news is that the sixteen year old mother is pregnant yet again and the unborn baby she carries will be her third child. And so it is written somewhere on a tree in the middle of nowhere ‘thus the cycle of cesspool is perpetuated…’

The news report makes no mention of the mother being Aboriginal but it’s easy enough to tell.

Police say they are not laying any charges in relation to the incident and the matter is now in the hands of the department.


If the mother was anything but Aboriginal she’d have been held to the same standards as the rest of Australia. I know that as a parent if I abandoned a four month old baby to go drinking there’s no way in hell police wouldn’t be pressing charges against me.

That and the legal age of consent in the NT is 16. With two kids already this teenage mother has been doing it since at least the age of 14. But she’s Aboriginal so we won’t worry about questioning her about that either.

Last thing we want is to drag some upstanding member of the Aboriginal community off to court for sex with a minor now would we.

In Tennant creek child abandonment is only the tip of the iceberg though. This week a child protection  inquiry was held. Local resident Jacqui Hingston told the inquiry that

“There are kids who have actually had markings on their face and I have actually seen that,” Ms Hingston said.

“I was sitting down with family the other day, and I have seen actual burn marks from cigarettes and markings on their face where they have actually been hit by a drip system, a belt and just backhanded over the top of their head.”

She said she has reported cases of abuse to the Northern Territory Government department responsible.


Yet as usual when it comes to Aboriginal cases of child abuse you can bet nothing has been done. God forbid anyone criticise the utterly useless Aboriginal Placement Principle which often sees children blindly placed in the care of drug dependant abusive relatives.

Seriously, kids are running around Tennant Creek with visible cigarette burns and bruises from beltings and nobody is doing anything!?

Just what the hell is going on in the seemingly lawless Northern Australia?

And it’s not like the government knows nothing about it either. A few years back now the Bath report was commissioned and found that

Aboriginal children were at particular risk, often consigned to carers who lived in violent or abusive homes in remote communities where standard case reviews rarely happened.


Upon receiving the report, the Northern Territory government suppressed its findings  for two years.

If people thought taking Aboriginal children and putting them in white homes was bad wait until all these currently suffering in silence abused Aboriginal children grow up.

When the time comes and the current generation of Aboriginal kids start asking why the bloody hell nothing was done, I hope the bleeding hearts of Australia have got some answers for them.Through complacency, inaction and the need for political correctness as an Australian I am disgusted that we continue to let Aboriginal children be abused.

We’ll happily entertain the idea of censoring the internet nation wide in the name of lazy parenting, but god forbid we take action and zero tolerance on the child abuse rampantly occurring daily in the Aboriginal community.

To kick start the assembly an acknowledgement was made to the traditional Aboriginal land owners of the area. As I sat in the audience watching this strange little ceremony I couldn’t help but wonder what, if anything, anyone was getting out of it.

Fast forward to 2010 and not much has changed.

Tony Abbott recently caused a bit of a stir when he had the balls to publicly raise what I suspect a lot of Australian’s have been thinking;

“Kevin Rudd is not an old-style lefty… but the Labor Party is full of people who are, and I guess this is the kind of genuflection to political correctness that these guys feel they have to make,” he said.

Mr Abbott cited Mr Rudd’s speech at last week’s Australian Medical Association parliamentary dinner in Canberra as an occasion at which a nod to the land’s traditional owners was inappropriate.

“There’s a place for this in the right circumstances but certainly there are many occasions when it does look like tokenism,” he said today.


Now I know that Mr. Abbott’s intentions in raising this point are quite possibly purely political but even so, he does raise a valid point.

Is acknowledging traditional Aboriginal landowners little more then a hollow token gesture?

I certainly think so. If you’re holding some event related to Aboriginals in particular then by all means pay your respects to the people that once roamed there. I don’t really care if you do or not but it’s your call to make.

If whatever it is that’s going on has absolutely nothing to do with Aboriginals or Aboriginal affairs, why exactly are we acknowledging them again? And why stop there, why not acknowledge the previous tenants of your residence the next time you hold a party.

Or hang a photo from the rear view mirror of the previous owner the next time you buy a second hand car.

It all does seem a bit silly.

As a young Australian the sentiment is completely hollow and beyond tokenism. It’s like saying grace at the table because your parents did despite you not believing a word of it.

Frankly I don’t really care who inhabited whatever land before I happened to be attending whatever formal ceremony was now being held on it. If they did nothing to contribute to the current state of events, other then running around hunting some kangaroos a couple of hundred years ago, then why do they deserve my recognition?

Yes the British could have handled occupation a bit better and it’s a tragedy that so many Aboriginal lives were lost but Aboriginals didn’t even have a system of land ownership to begin with. Get over it already.

In a similar vein of the abysmal state of Aboriginal welfare it seems traditional land acknowledgement is yet another example of modern day Aboriginals living in the past.

Naturally after stirring the bleeding heart hornet nest that is the cornerstone of latte politics in Australia, it didn’t take long for people to publicly disagree with Abbott’s remarks.

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally stated that

acknowledging traditional owners at official ceremonies is an appropriate way of recognising indigenous people

I’m more inclined to take advice from Aboriginal people, from elders, from our indigenous leaders, than I am from Tony Abbott on this subject.


“Hey guys, do you want us to stop acknowledging you everytime someone so much as farts in public?”

“Yeah, no we’re right cheers.”

Of course Aboriginal leaders are going to support the continued show of recognition of their people, no matter how far removed from Aboriginal rights or relevence the event being held the recognition is presented at.

The question being raised isn’t whether they are comfortable with it but rather does it mean anything to the rest of the Australian population.

I mean traditional land ownership acknowledgement at an Australian Medical Association dinner… really?

Next in line to swing the bat was Curtin University Centre for Aboriginal Studies director Anita Lee Hong.

Hong made a public announcement calling for an apology from Abbott citing

It’s a way that non-Aboriginal people can show respect for Aboriginal people, building on our heritage and our ongoing relationship.


I’m all for respect as I see no point in disrespecting people for the sake of it. However just what exactly are we respecting by acknowledging at a medical association dinner that Aboriginals once ran around the area?

Then there’s the issue of respect being a two way street and all. I mean it’s not like non-aboriginal people do nothing to show respect towards Aboriginals. What exactly do Aboriginals do apart from going around telling the people of Australia ‘it’s not enough’ and demanding we pay them more money?

Why pretend like Aboriginals have a choice in the matter or that we’re actually going to listen to them if they objected to whatever event we asked them to attend and throw their blessing behind.

‘Sorry guys, we’ve had to call off this years Australian Medical Association dinner because the traditional land owners didn’t approve’.

Token acknowledgement indeed.

And what must it be like from an Aboriginal (non leader) perspective. It’d kind of be like Britain taking control of the Australian parliament and then requesting we attend every dinner party, afternoon tea or shopping mall opening to acknowledge the now defunct Australian parliament.

I don’t really see how modern day Aboriginals are benefiting from this acknowledgement at all. It’s not like we’re all going to forget who was living in Australia before the British arrived. I mean history is still taught in schools right?

If Aboriginals are worried people will forget they roamed Australia for 40,000 years before the British arrived then make it a question on our citizenship test or something. If you want acknowledgement as a race then how about doing something acknowledgeable.

Simply existing just doesn’t cut it.

On one side of the fence you have the traditionalists. People who place Aboriginal heritage above all else, including the welfare of the child in question.

On the other are people like me who, and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see it, think that the system is horribly broken. Amongst a decrepid sea of apologist policy, castrated government departments and a bunch of old tribal members blindingly out of touch with reality stands the current situation with Aboriginal children.

In this environment it’s easy to see why for two years the Northern Territory government would hide a damning report of a truly failed policy.

The Bath report was suppressed for two years presumably because it didn’t fit in with the Australian government’s apologist ‘everything is going ok’ public image.

Sure Kevin Rudd got up and said sorry but all that achieved was a bunch of old Aboriginals whinging about the lack of monetary compensation that was forthcoming afterwards. From the rest of us then came the annoyance that the government  apology was merely symbolic and failed to address any of the current issues facing this troubled community.

With everyone running around too scared to intervene or remove Aboriginal children from abusive parents and relatives the current climate these kids live in appears to have been swept under the carpet.

Amongst other things the Bath report found that;

Aboriginal children were at particular risk, often consigned to carers who lived in violent or abusive homes in remote communities where standard case reviews rarely happened.

Barely any Aboriginal carers underwent a registration process, and the Government’s bureaucrats warned it that a “sense of complacency” governed the assessment, review and management of cases of children placed in the care of a relative.

Dr Bath found the Aboriginal child placement principle – which states that Aboriginal children should be placed with a relative or other Aboriginal carers if possible – sometimes took precedence over child safety, and that the standards applied to foster carers were followed with much greater rigour than with relative carers.


This is all from someone who was actively charged with reviewing the current situation and making recommendations to the Australian government.

So what did the knuckleheads in power do?

They hid it for two years and pretended everything was fine.

I’m not for a second going to suggest throwing money at the situation is going to fix it. But can somebody in power please grow a pair and start the ball rolling on what needs to be done?

If anyone else in Australian society abuses children directly or is charged with their care and is clearly not fit there are penalties put in place. If the parents of Aboriginal kids are deadbeats and their relatives are no better then the culture itself has failed them and it’s time to go.

Mind you if there’s suitable Aboriginal carers in the area willing to take the child/children in then I don’t see why this can’t happen.

What we have here is a predictable chain of inaction that will ultimately lead us down the path of a whole new generation of Aboriginals either growing up into adults and perpetuating the cycle of abuse, or worse still getting out of their childhood hell holes and wondering why nobody did anything to help them.

The problem is that by then it’s too late. A whole new generation of Aboriginals will feel cut off and failed by the system that governs the rest of us.

Ironically the most vocal opponents of such change are the people supposed to be in favour of Aboriginal welfare and rights.

Aboriginal or otherwise child abuse is child abuse and cultural tradition should never take precedence over the law of the land. Australia doesn’t tolerate honour killings, polygamy or the random violence that occurs in other war torn countries, so why are we as a society and government so continually lenient towards Aboriginal offenders?

Call me racist or whatever else you want but all I know is that the experience some Aboriginal children go through would never be allowed for children in greater Australian society.

Yet by calling for this equality somehow I’m the racist.

If I make the call for equality now in the best interest of Aboriginal children, at least in ten or fifteen years time I can say I wasn’t sitting around with my thumbs up my arse making cultural excuses for Aboriginal child abusers.

After holding a competition across Australian schools to design the Australia day ‘doodle’ (a design to replace the Google logo on the Google website), a design was chosen which featured the Aboriginal flag.

What should have been a proud day for Aboriginals and recognition through the largest online search portal in the world quickly degenerated over what anything Aboriginal boils down to;

Money.

So the story goes after student Jessie Du’s design was chosen as the winner Google contacted Thomas to use the flag as the flag itself is copyrighted for use in commercial situations.

Some to’ing and fro’ing ensued and eventually negotiations broke down. In Thomas’ own words, the reason?

“They didn’t make me an appropriate offer.”


Thomas described the amount offered as “a pittance” but both himself and Google have declined to state exactly how much was on the table.

In any case one of two things happened here;

a. One of the most profitable companies in the world offered a local Australian artist a couple of hundred dollars to use the Aboriginal flag.

b. One of the most profitable companies in the world offered a local Australian artist a sizeable amount. Due to the fact that the company is one of the most profitable in the world, the artist thought he could get more and it backfired.

What it all comes down to is exactly how much was offered, or the broader question, should anything have been offered at all?

Google make money from advertising on their search results, there’s no argument about that but surely the use of the Aboriginal flag is more beneficial to Aboriginals then Google itself.

It’s not like ‘Aboriginal’ is a money making keyword as far as advertising goes or that Google is going to make a bucketload of money showcasing the flag on their search page.

In return for using the image Aboriginals get recognition in that I’m sure out fo the millions (billions?) of searches conducted each day more then a few people are going to be curious about the image and click on it.

The irony of the whole situation treads further into ridiculous territory when on Australia Day itself we had around 100 Aboriginal protesters campaigning outside Parliament house for ‘greater recognition’.

In the digital age it’s pretty hard to beat your flag being showcased on the world’s largest search portal. That is of course if your just after recognition though.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd may have issued his formal apology to the stolen generations shortly after he took office but many in the indigenous community believe his words have not been backed by action.

Les Coe called on all indigenous people across the country to come together to fight for indigenous rights and welfare.


Methinks somebody has confused action with monetary compensation.

When I see the Australian flag, in any context (political protest and flag burning aside), I always get a ping of pride inside me. Not Southern cross bogan swastika pride but just that feeling of my country and belonging.

Perhaps even more so now that I’m overseas, although I’m far from ever becoming an ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!’ embarrassment.

It’s a shame that what could have been the greatest global recognition of Aborigines in Australia for years was caught up in the bitter monetary stigmata that seems to be at the heart of any Aboriginal issue raised today.

Underpinning any sign of good will or constructive progress on Aboriginal issues are stories like this. I guess in part because they showcase the true colors of those involved.

Not red white and blue, green or gold or even black, red and yellow, but rather the colors of the Australian currency.

Google made headlines earlier this week when they announced they’d had enough of being compromised by the Chinese government unidentifiable Chinese nationals definitely not working for the government.

In response to these attacks Google pledged that they would no longer be censoring internet search results made from Google.cn.

Despite internet filtering being relatively easy to circumvent, having search engine results filtered at the source was a major setback for online freedom of speech.

Less then 24 hours later however came the announcement that Google Australia would be censoring the entry for Aboriginies on Encyclopaedia Dramatica.

It seems that internet censorship isn’t fit for the Chinese but Australian’s are more then willing to bend over for it.

For those of you not in the know Encyclopedia Dramatica is the Wikipedia equivalent for the notorious online community 4chan. 4chan is essentially a massive anonymous imageboard and has been the source of a lot of internet sub culture over the years.

The page in question is Encyclopedia Dramatica’s entry for Aboriginals which, like the rest of the site is loaded with satire.

The decision to drop the entry came after Australian Steve Hodder-Watt launched legal action against Google. He found the Encyclopedia Dramatica entry after entering the search string ‘Aboriginal and Encyclopedia’ into Google.

I’m not a big fan of blunt racism just for the sake of being racist but underneath the deliberate offensiveness there is somewhat of a hollow ring of truth. Well, at least as far as drug abuse goes.

When asked why Hodder-Watt launched the action he replied,

It portrays indigenous Australians in the most unsavoury light possible, and you wouldn’t want a child stumbling across it.


If parents were doing their job properly then kids shouldn’t be able to access sites like Encyclopedia Dramatica to begin with.

Like I said I’m not saying the site isn’t racist but unless racism is explicitly refused classification (currently no such system is in place) who does Hodder-Watt think he is dictating what Australian’s can and can’t see?

I applaud Google for taking steps towards opening the internet up in China despite the likelyhood that unless they back down then the end result will be pulling out of the country.

What I can’t understand is why they’ve gone and decided to restrict our search results. Hypocritical much?

If you’re offended by content online then by all means petition the host of Encyclopedia Dramatica to remove the offensive content. Launching government funded legal action via the Australian Human Right Commission just creates a dangerous legal precedent.

What about my human right to access legally published information, regardless of how offensive it might be?

‘Hey jewboy, can you do me a favour?’

‘uh..what?’

‘See those nigger tv snack teddies, I want you to throw a bag on the ground and stomp em. STOMP EM!’

‘you’re not serious…?’

‘ey dun listen to those gookface pocky, what you wan’t to do is teach those Oreo’s a lesson. Interbiscuit relations is not on and somebody has to teach those skanky white fillings a lesson.’

‘a lesson? the only lesson that needs to be taught here is that you nigger teddies aren’t welcome here. This aisle is full, piss off back to your own country of origin.’

‘ey jewboy I’m still talking to you!’

‘HOLY CRAP TALKING BISCUITS…wait you guys know I’m not even jewish right?’

The above might be a strange surreal world to some of you but for Sam Watson, director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies at the University of Queensland, it’s just another day fighting prejudice in Australian supermarket aisles.

Sam Watson lives in a world of racist biscuits.

Despite being on Coles’ shelves for three years, today Coles Supermarkets announced they’d be changing the name of their Creole biscuits due to “claims it is racist”.

I’m the first to admit when I first read the story I had no idea what a Creole was. I thought maybe it was an ancient Greek island but it turns out it’s a derogatory word for people who have mixed European and African ancestry. Oh, and it’s also the name for widely popular spicy cooking that originated out of Louisiana in the US.

What’s more probable, Coles named a food item after a popular food name or that they wanted to send a racist message to the European-Afircan community?

Unlucky for us, possibly  the only person in Australia who knew of Creole’s racist connotations decided to make it his personal quest to badger Coles until they agreed to change the name.

Because you know really, this is clearly the most pressing issue affecting Aboriginal and Torres Straight islanders today. I mean christ, I’ve never had the courage to just come out and say it but on the back of Mr. Watson’s (seen on the right there with a ‘Black Australia movement’ tshirt) victory I’m just going to let it rip.

WHY DO THEY ALWAYS USE WHITE SUGAR ON BISCUITS?!

Seriously, is brown sugar just not good enough? What is this crap and who’s responsible. BROWN SUGAR RIGHTS NOW!

While Creole biscuits might be crossing the line, it’s reassuring to know that after a hard day’s work of White King’ing my bathroom and Black & Gold disinfecting my kitchen I can still sit down with a black tea and enjoy some Coon cheese and relax.

Instead of wasting research time on stupid things like racist biscuits perhaps Watson could take a look at some more pressing issues. Like perhaps the fact that:

• An aboriginal youth is four times as likely to be the victim of domestic abuse.
• Indigenous children make up 40% of all hospital admissions for children aged 0-4.
• An indigenous baby is 1.8 times more likely to be neglected or abused.


Just this morning a four year old boy was admitted to Darwin hospital.

The lifeless body of a six-week old baby who was allegedly brutally bashed was rushed to Royal Darwin Hospital this morning.The boy who had reportedly blood on him was pronounced dead upon his arrival at the hospital about 4am. It is believed the boy’s family was known to child protection services.


Whilst the article doesn’t mention the baby was of aboriginal descent, statistically there’s a very high chance he was. In any case, the government’s response?

Ms McCarthy said she was confident with the department’s work and leaks within the agency would be investigated.


Instead of addressing the problem they’re more worried about how embarassing information was leaked and how it can be prevented in the future.

Rudd himself isn’t any better with the announcement today that he is planning a formal government apology for the ‘Forgotten Australians’. Seriously, didn’t we clear all this crap up with the government apology to the Stolen generation?

Apparently not.

This time around we’re apologising to “the survivors of some 500,000 children who found themselves institutionalised in orphanages and homes between 1930 and 1970.”

Child Migrants spokesman Harold Haig said the apology was only a first step.

“There would need to be reparation and restitution … so that child migrants finally get justice.”


Just like the stolen generation apology, greedy opportunists are already getting ready to circle the government with their hands held out. Who’ll fit the bill? Why the taxpayer of course.

In fifty years time I hope somebody gets up in parliament and makes an apology to the current ‘Stolen (from) generation’. I mean Jesus Christ if we thought the stolen generation was bad wait until the neglected kids of today wake up and start asking questions about why nobody did anything to save them in the name of political correctness and non-intervention.

With child protection laws woefully inadequate, child abuse out of control and the Rudd running around apologising on behalf of Australian’s to any minority group he can find, it should be people like Sam Watson leading a charge against blatantly inadequate policy.

But no, instead Watson is off fighting racist biscuits.

We’ve pumped billions into their failed townships and remote communities.

We’ve tried letting them govern themselves.

We gave them an official government apology over how they’re ancestors were treated.

All this and still practically zero productivity, more whinging and demands for more money.

After reports of rampant child abuse and alcoholism were publicised the Liberal government decided enough was enough and put in place what’s called the intervention. In a nutshell the idea is that Aboriginals are forced to buy food and essentials with their dole money instead of drugs and alcohol.

For the most part it seems to have worked, infact it seems to have worked a little too well. Some aboriginals are so disillusioned that they’ve appealed to visiting UN delegate James Anaya.

A GROUP of Australian Aborigines has asked the United Nations for refugee status, claiming special emergency laws to curb alcohol and sexual abuse in the remote outback have turned them into outcasts at home.

“We’ve got no say at all. We feel like an outcast in our community, refugees in our own country” said Richard Downs, a spokesperson for the 4000-strong Alyawarra people in central Australia when he spoke on state radio.

The intervention, launched in June 2007 to stamp out widespread child sex abuse, had taken away indigenous rights, Mr Downs said.


So certain Aboriginals are feeling like outcasts over not being able to abuse children and drink themselves silly?

WELL GOOD.

Finally maybe the message is starting to get through.

And what’s all this nonsense about indigenous rights and the intervention. What do Aboriginals seriously expect us to respect their claims that they have a right to abuse children? Yeah sorry Richard not the best argument for your people there that one.

Unfortunately the UN is probably only going to scratch the surface and point the finger at Australians again and probably recommend we just throw more money at the problem and let Aboriginals manage their dole payments themselves again.

I mean it’s easy as an impressionable outsider from the UN to rock up, see the appalling conditions these people bring upon themselves and just blame the government. Everywhere else in the world the local minority seem have gotten on with life but oh no, not our precious Aboriginals.

Personally I lost most of my respect for the UN when earlier this year they entertained reccomending to governments that blasphemy be made illegal. Even more respect was lost when the Durban conference, which is supposed to be about combating global racism was again hijacked by Islamic states and used to bash Israel.

I really feel sorry for those Aboriginals trying to make it in this world with the rest of us. It seems there are simply no limit to the depths certain Aboriginals will sink to in an effort to get back the old gravy train of welfare with no personal responsibility or commitment they were on.

The glory days are over guys. Even if you are declared refugees what’s that going to achieve? If the global spotlight is shone on these failed communities do you really think anybody is going to see anything different to what the rest of Australia sees?

How insulting that Aboriginals who have it so good believe they are on the same level as those genuinely fleeing for their lives. I’m not talking about the asylum shoppers who jump on a plane to Indonesia either, I’m talking about the genuine ones who flee with nothing to wherever they can get to and are just happy to not be dead.

Really, not being able to abuse children and alcohol puts you in the same basket as a genuine refugee? Please.

We hear this old chestnut trotted out time and time again when the issue of Aboriginal welfare is discussed. Despite educational subsidies, health care subsidies, virtually no criteria for welfare payments, free housing and a whole host of extra support from government services, it seems there’s always something else to whinge about.

Back in 2007, six hundred and forty two million dollars were put aside for the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program. This program was created to build houses in unsustainable communities and then …something something… everyone would find jobs and live happily ever after.

To date not one house has been built under the program and Aboriginal groups have started to circle the government demanding to know why.

To be fair to the Aboriginal groups it does seem rather shameful on the government part that after promising such a large budget, nearly two years later they’ve done nothing about it.

Sure they’ve probably held committee after committee and meeting after meeting on it but the bit that people care about, getting a free house hasn’t really happened.

The government argue that the money is there and what’s holding progress back is the refusal for Aboriginals to sign the government on with long term leases on the land. We’re not talking small potatoes money here either, recently one hundred and twenty five million was knocked back by an Aboriginal community.

For land that has no agricultural value, is in the middle of nowheresville and has no infrastructure the money is ludicrous. When Aboriginal people complain about being stuck in places with no choice in the face of such offers clearly there’s huge questions of credibility in their claims.

Personally while I’d prefer the government avoided making such grand gestures and continuing to prop up failed communities with taxpayer money I can’t help but feel a little left out. Sure I might live longer, enjoy a better education and job availability but is that something I’ve achieved or more the product of choosing not to live in the middle of nowhere?

The advantages most Australians enjoy are available to Aboriginals, just not in the trashy environments they choose to live in. And it’s not just restricted to Aboriginals, I mean if I went out and lived there I imagine my health would eventually take a pounding too.

This I believe is probably why the government have been slow to act on building houses for these people. It’s true the economic crisis cannot be blamed for inaction dating back to 2007 but it’s not like the Rudd government aren’t known for stalling and holding committees for months before deciding on anything.

Take the National Broadband Network for example, last I heard we can expect to have a rollout sometime in 2090. Maybe.

What I think has most likely happened is that while their intentions were good back in 2007, after planning, discussing and yada yada whatever else governments do, when the time came around to coughing up the money they realised there were more pressing matters at hand.

Aboriginals on welfare don’t contribute to society or the economy, they don’t produce anything and any money you throw at them gets sucked into a black hole never to be seen again. In the face of a declining health care system, crippling public transport infrastructure, water shortage worries and housing crisis’ in our capital cities to name a few of the problems we’re facing, does it really surprise anyone building free houses for deadbeats has taken a back seat?

Especially when this is invariably how they wind up;

Up the road, a dozen people slump across the porch of a tiny, graffiti-stained house. Inside, a ceiling fan loses a battle with the rancid smell of the garbage and feces that litter the bathroom floor.

Palm-sized cockroaches skitter across the shower, and the two bedrooms are crammed with tattered mattresses where some of the home’s 18 residents sleep.


No it’s not a made up stereotype, it’s an accurate description of what Australian taxpayers get for their money when investing in ‘closing the gap’ for Aboriginal communities.

Scattered towns and communities exist all across Australia full of welfare supported deadbeats and layabouts. The featured video below showcases the best of one such community, Halls Creek.


Again, this isn’t an isolated incident.

So can someone tell me why the hell the government would even want to build houses for these people?

Even if we forget about the taxpayers return on investment for doing so, why is it that the massive inequality programs such as this create are never addressed?

Most Australian’s dream of owning their own home one day. For most of us that means working hard, taking out a mortgage and and maintaining the property.

Why is it then that just because I’m Aboriginal I can not only demand free housing but then have the balls to stand up and complain when the government doesn’t maintain the property free of charge?

Really, this is that what Aboriginals are complaining about these days?

An economic drain of a craptastic community in the middle of nowhere with no job prospects, little infrastructure, water problems, alcohol and drug abuse with shiny brand spanking new houses is still a craptastic community.

It’s high time the government stood up to Aboriginal groups and started to demand a return on investment to the millions we pump into these failed communities every year.

The jobs aren’t coming, the booze won’t stop and the kids are just going to continue to die younger until you start taking responsibility and constructive lifestyle choices of your own.

Stop deluding yourselves and wake up.

It is followed closely by the notion that current generation Aboriginals are somehow doomed to a life of booze, cigarettes and child abuse because they are genetically unable to move on with their lives.

The end result of both of these lies is the biggest sink of billions in Australian taxpayer money in the history of this country. And for what?

A government report released today, ironically titled “Overcoming Indigenous Advantage‘, informs us that aboriginal child abuse is at record highs, more aboriginals then ever before are commiting crime and being jailed and all those unsustainable jobless aboriginal communities up north are just as unsustainable as they were 50 years ago.

Well suprise bloody surprise.

They wanted a public government apology: They got one.

They wanted more handouts then ever before: They got them.

We ask them to get off their arses and become productive members of society: They call us racist.

And so the never ending cycle goes. The good news for Aboriginals is that it appears set to continue down the same well travelled path. Despite the writing on the wall clearly showing that throwing money at unsustainable remote communities with zero job prospects does nothing but promote rampant drug abuse and child molestation, Rudd’s answer to the damning report is:

It is unacceptable and it requires decisive action. (It) means we have to redouble and treble our efforts to make an impact… we must turn the corner.


Presumably this means we’re just going to double, if not triple our financial commitment to failed Aboriginal communities and hope for the best.

Hip hip hooray!

The wasted billions have allegedly been squandered in the ‘closing the gap’ programs. These programs are designed to ‘close the gap’ between the general population statistics and those of Aboriginal communities. Things like life expectancy, probability of getting abused as children and jail rates are all taken into account.

Statistics aside, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if non-aboriginal Australians were stuffed into camps in the middle of nowhere with no jobs available our life expectancies would plummet too. Not to mention crime rates would soar and I’m sure with a lack of policing things like child abuse would be on the rise too.

Sadly yet again another opportunity to blast this white elephant out of Australian society is missed and instead we just throw even more money at Australia’s least productive citizens. Money that I’m sure could be better spent in a time of financial crisis and record unemployment.

I mean jesus christ, if people thought sub prime mortgages were a bad investment, giving money to aboriginal communities is like selling soggy cardboard box homes to the homeless for millions, lending them the money to buy and expecting them not to default on the repayments.

We are never going to see a return on investment as long as we continue to permit unproductive welfare dependant camps to exist. Send a few bulldozers up there and offer to bus them back into civilization, or let nature take its course.

People, Aboriginal or not are never going to establish a sense of worth, productivity or self respect as long as they have all the time in the world to reflect on just how useless they are and are handed out free money for doing so.

In a sense Aboriginals are right when they harp on about the rest of Australia being to blame for their problems, only the past has nothing to do with it. It’s what the government does here and now that hurts them the most.

This comes on the back of news of an Aboriginal corporation going into receivership due to “significant number” of alleged “breaches of law”.

So one side of the fence are arguing that they need more money, sorry “intervention” and on the other side of the fence we have Aboriginal coprorations being shut down for abysmal management of supplying resources to their own communities.

Wayne Bergmann: "MORE MONEY PLEASE!"

Wayne Bergmann, Kimberly land council chief claims that “Nothing of any substance has been done by the Rudd Government that will dramatically impact on the wellbeing of Aboriginal people in the Kimberley.”

I agree wholeheartedly, nothing has been done nor will it be done until aboriginals in the Kimberly show any initiative of their own to justify spending additional taxpayer funds on unsustainable communities. The government apology was just that, an apology. It was certainly not an ‘admit all’ ticket onto the gravy train of more free money that some aboriginals seem to have deluded themselves into thinking it was.

As for running your own businesses and winning jobs on your own, Aboriginals can’t even run their community stores succesfully; how the hell are they going to win jobs and set up their own businesses? And what jobs exactly are they trying to win in their remote communities?

Last I checked there wasn’t any employment opportunities when you live in the middle of nowhere in a government fund propped up unproductive community. Businesses? What a joke, the only profitable business in these communties would be a 24 hour alcohol, cigarette and spray paint store, and realistically how many of them can we have competing against eachother.

Just how unsustainable are the communities?

Well let’s have a look at Alice Springs, where the where the Tangentyere Council are holding it’s own people for ransom over fears it will lose power over it’s own people to the government.

Tangentyere has let slip six deadlines — the most recent this week — that would have put $60 million to work repairing and normalising the camps. Tangentyere wants to be the major service provider to the Aborigines in Alice Springs, and fears it will lose its power. It seems to believe the camps are on Aboriginal land, which they are not.


Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin will not take them on. There is a small group within the town-camp hierarchy who have developed powerful Sydney-based allies and who want to embarrass the Government with a UN human rights action over control of the town camps, and the intervention itself. Meanwhile, the town camps continue to fester, which is the real human rights tragedy.

What an utter disgrace, the government is too weak to confront the council meanwhile the people living in the camps suffer. Without government assistance these remote camps disintegrate into delapidated human rights disasters.

On one hand I think the government needs a good solid kick up the bum in dealing with Aboriginal affairs but on the other hand I can appreciate how hard the lefty apolgists in can make it for the government, ironically they are the ones that continue to promote the feeling of hoplessness people living in these camps suffer from. Bryan from the IrishTimes drives the point home;

Incredibly, it seems as though the Rudd government is being accused of pursuing a line of thought that isn’t too far removed from the one which led to the abduction of Aboriginal children so that they could be raised ‘properly’.

Here’s another example from Andrew Bolt on just how impotent our government is when it comes to dealing with Aboriginals;

Two years ago a 24-year-old man broke into a house near Yamba and went to a room where a four-year-old girl was sleeping.

He stepped out of his underpants and stripped the girl, who told him to go away. The man instead digitally penetrated her and masturbated.

Now let me tell you the jail time the NSW District Court imposed. Not a day.

You may already suspect, as I did, why such a shocking crime got such a light sentence.

Yes, the judge says he merely took into account the man’s remorse, his plea of guilty, and the lack of premeditation of a rape that was “a moment of drunken madness”.

But for me the words that rang loudest were these: “(The rapist) is a man of Aboriginal origin …”

Hopeless.

The government and legal system seem to be utterly incapable of standing up to the Aboriginal community, infact the only thing they seem to be able to do is apologise, apologise, apologise.

Aboriginals from the Kimberelys (in red) want to compete in the mainstream jobs market. What mainstream job market?

Marty Sibosado, from the Kimberley Futures coalition of Aboriginal groups asks, “How does an individual then break the cycle of welfare dependency? How do they gain an education, gain some skills to compete for a job in the mainstream market?”

For a start, how about moving into mainstream society? Nobody is going to give you mainstream market jobs when you live in the middle of nowhere so stop deluding yourself that it’s going to happen.

If Aboriginals want the same employment opportunities as mainstream Australia they need to get realistic and become part of mainstream Australia. If I go move out into the bush nobody is going to listen to me cry about unfair disadvantage in finding work… why?

BECAUSE THERE’S NO BLOODY INDUSTRY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OUTBACK.

Infact the Australian government will actually penalise me for moving to an area that lowers my employment prospects. Talk about discriminatory double standards. Penalise the rest of Australia for moving to areas with no job prospects, but it’s ok to actively encourage Aboriginals to do so.

Wake up Aboriginals, the Australian economy is crashing all around us and people who contribute to the economy are losing jobs all around us. You’re deluded if you think giving Aboriginals more money for more taxpayer funded booze and cig parties is anywhere near the top of priority lists for Federal government, let alone the now failing resource-boom dependant state government of Western Australia.

Time to stop blaming every Tom, Dick and Harry for your troubles. If you want more taxpayer funds how about showing us some initiative and joining the rest of Australia, we’re ready to welcome you with open arms.