Sunshine in Melbourne’s west has seen all manner of refugees in the past half century. The current mix includes a significant proportion of men, women and children from A ...
May 27, 2013
I want to tell you a story about a woman, Born in the first quarter of the twentieth century in an indigenous community, Who knew life on the land, a traditional Indigenous life; When only a small child, she hid in the bush, one of a handful of survivors of a massacre in central New South Wales; Her mind is fading today, her daughter is gone, her ways are but ...
April 9, 2013
The most recent public airing of a racist attack on a Korean man and his aunt visiting from his homeland has prompted another round of self-reflection on the Australian psyche. Waleed Aly published his point of view a few days ago and whilst I agree that all nations battle issues of racism, the difference is that they acknowledge the problem exists, unlike Australia. The Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, Canadians, Kiwis and ...
February 17, 2013
I like to learn how to say people’s names properly. Not that I have a particularly good memory for pairing names with faces, but I believe it is a sign of respect when you pay enough attention to learn to say – and spell – someone’s name correctly. Perhaps it’s a legacy of those elocution lessons at primary school … Mrs. Edie would be amused. I also like to learn ...
January 28, 2013
In this month of Janus, it is interesting to note that the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) via the mouthpiece of the Fairfax media is aiming to show how far it has come in addressing racism within its ranks. Whilst the ACT may well look to the past to walk through the doorway into the future, it cannot continue to ignore that harms its own servants of the public have perpetuated ...
January 13, 2013
”Quite often before they get there they have done something quite serious. It becomes quite difficult because the offending behaviour is the first point that you’ve got to address and you can’t say that just because someone is Aboriginal they are excused from any criminal behaviour. Clearly that doesn’t work. You have to go back earlier, to why they are offending in the first place.” Chief Justice Terrence ...
January 2, 2013
I couldn’t resist writing this post. I just couldn’t. Because since well before the whole Destroy the Joint thing has started, Blak and Black has been fighting to draw attention to the plight of Ms. King, Australia’s most senior Indigenous female banking executive who was indecently assaulted in broad daylight in the political heart of the Australian Capital Territory, also know as Canberra in 2005. What happened to Ms. King ...
December 25, 2012
“… people with mental health problems want the same thing as everyone else. Even the disadvantaged should be able to lead a contributing life. This can mean many things. It can mean a fulfilling life enriched with close connections to family and friends, good health and wellbeing to allow those connections to be enjoyed, having something to do each day that provides meaning and purpose – whether it be a ...
December 10, 2012
“No-one ever argues that governments should have less integrity, that elected officials should not be accountable, or that public servants should behave unethically. Broad statements of the value of integrity, transparency, accountability and ethics gain general agreement from all sides of politics and from all participants in public debate. But government integrity demands more than general expressions of goodwill. Enhancing transparency and accountability requires supportive structures as well as declarations ...
November 25, 2012
On Wednesday, November 21, the NSW Police arrested a man at Gosford train station for assaulting two people on a train. During that trip it is alleged that the man interfered with a 14 year old boy and a 44 year old woman whose breast he had grabbed. The offender has been charged with two counts of indecent assault. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Which makes me ask, why has ...
November 15, 2012
The announcement of a Royal Commission into child abuse by clergy is as big an issue as was the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption, if not bigger. This is no ordinary review of process or legality, but a direct attack on the primacy of religious and canon law over that of the state. Such a thing would never have happened a century ago, because the place of the church ...
November 13, 2012
Each man reaches perfection by doing his own duty; he worships god – from whom all beings come, by whom this universe was stretched forth – by doing his appointed work, with no desire for reward. You must do the work for its own sake and not for anything that it may bring to you. When pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat are the same to you, ...
November 10, 2012
A couple of weeks ago Mr. Julian Moti QC kindly pointed me toward a paper about the marginalization and usury of black women in the industrial age. Discussing the circumstances of the effective enslavement of Saartjie Baartman, also known as the Hottentot Venus and Truganini, Tasmania’s presumed last full-blood Aborigine, the paper investigated the means by which black women were dehumanized to become “black things”. The paper concluded with a ...
November 8, 2012
Lady, lady, hear her shout The black thing no-one sees about Lady, lady, on your knees Where white man says you must always be. Lady, lady, don’t you know You’re no more free than that nigger Truth Learn your place, and bow ’fore we The white ones with the power of sleaze! My full name is ...
October 26, 2012
If I could share a meal at a table with a small group of people from any time in history, Isabella Baumfree would be one of them. Perhaps, just perhaps, she could tell me how to help find justice for the Indigenous women ignored by the Australian Federal Police in Australia’s capital, Canberra. Isabella was born the daughter of slaves, enslaved herself from the moment of conception. Sold at the ...
October 18, 2012
a·chieve·ment 1. The act of accomplishing or finishing. 2. Something accomplished successfully, especially by means of exertion, skill, practice, or perseverance. See Synonyms at feat1. achievement 1. something that has been accomplished, esp by hard work, ability, or heroism 2. successful completion; accomplishment The Free Dictionary Success. It’s all a matter of perspective. What is valuable to you may well be meaningless to me. For many, achievement is evidenced by ...
October 11, 2012
Misogyny is a nasty word. It implies much more than sexism; it indicates a hatred of women. That’s why, in the overall view of the current political debates I must rise to the defence of the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. I do not perceive that he hates women, although his views on gender equality and marriage rights may not align with mine. Alan Jones, similarly, I do not believe to ...
October 8, 2012
“Before contacting EY/Ethics, we encourage you to consider whether or not you can directly raise your concern with someone at Ernst & Young. If you do not feel comfortable doing so, or do not know whom to contact, you can make a report to Ernst & Young on this Web site or alternatively by calling your local EY/Ethics Hotline number.” About EY/Ethics Given the experience of James Mandel and Cathal ...
October 1, 2012
It’s a busy month in the Australian capital. On the one hand, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard along with Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (“DFAT”) representatives are lobbying for a seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). On the other hand, the local elections for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are due to be held on October 20, with Katy Gallagher leading the ...
September 24, 2012
Question and answers, answers and questions, Where is the truth and what is the lie? Questions of fortune once built on a fib Foundations less stable than Pisa’s sick soil Answers now skewed, so we’ll flattened it all By building walls higher on angling downhill! Questions and answers, no truth can be told, Lest props sunk in subsoil are exposed when all falls! The end of the twelfth century heralded ...
September 17, 2012
“Behead all those who insult the prophet!” So read the banner in Sydney on Saturday, in a protest ignited by a film released in the United States. Really, the lack of respect shown by the creators of the video and by the protestors are equally abysmal. One group insults another, the other feels it acceptable to damage the property of the place they have immigrated to and chosen to call ...
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