Three months for a dollar

On New Year’s Eve I received a phone call from a representative of the Greens advising me that I would need to provide more evidence if I wanted an enquiry into the $130,000,000.00 that has gone missing from ACT Treasury. I was rather perplexed by this comment and advised my caller that I had neither requested nor did I expect any assistance from within the Australian establishment in furthering my application to the United Nations. As for the missing $130,000,000.00, I further advised my caller that this issue is not my concern and any comments I have made relating to same, were made to illustrate the lack of accountability and integrity within the public service in Canberra.

However while we’re on the subject of the missing $130,000,000.00 it is worth noting, at least in passing, that one of my colleagues while collecting signatures on a petition asking the Australian Senate to conduct an enquire into ‘entrenched and systemic racism and corruption within the Australian Federal Police’ came across an Australian Labor Party ‘hack’ undertaking fundraising activities on behalf of the ALP in the lead up to the last Victorian state election. During the course of the conversation between the ALP ‘hack’ and my colleague the issue of the missing $130,000,000.00 came up, while acknowledging that $130,000,000.00 was a lot of money and if it was stolen from the public purse (read you and me for public purse) it should warrant an enquire. To my colleagues astonishment this same ALP ‘hack’ comment that all politicians and senior public servants are corrupt and it wouldn’t be worth conducting an enquiry for the theft of anything less than $20,000,000.00!

I was astonished to hear this. Astonished for a number of reasons, not least of which was that while working for a law firm in Young NSW a client of the firm, an unemployed and disadvantaged Aboriginal lady was charged by the NSW police for obtaining a financial advantage by deception; namely the proceeds of the sale of a $1.00 raffle ticket. For the princely sum of $1.00 this disadvantaged, Aboriginal lady, was sentenced to three months in prison, yes, that’s right, three months for $1.00!

Let put things into perspective here; if you’re a highly paid white politician or public servant it’s considered acceptable practice, at least by the ALP, to steal $20,000,000.00. The theft of a paltry $20,000,000.00 doesn’t on the advice of the ALP warrant even a cursory investigation, just par for the course for a white politician or public servant. However, if you happen to be a disadvantaged black person struggling to survive on about $550.00 a fortnight the ‘theft’ of $1.00 earns you a three month prison sentence. Is this what you white folk call justice? If it is you’re welcome to it!

One of the justifications used by the English for their illegal invasion and occupation of Aboriginal Australia was that they were bringing all the benefits of the ‘rule of law’ to us wretched blacks. Our white brothers argued that, once the ‘rule of law’ was gifted to us by them, we would rise from the depths of ignorance to the glories of white ‘civilization’, or at least have the good manners to die out!

As Robert Burns wryfully observed: The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley.” Or to use the English equivalent: The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. And so they did in Australia. We didn’t dutifully die out for the benefit of our white brothers and now we’re asking our white brothers to hold themselves accountable to the same standards of the ‘rule of law’ as they hold us accountable.

Accountability

If the white legal system deems it appropriate to incarcerate a black woman for three months for the ‘theft’ of $1.00 then how long should white politicians and public servants be incarcerated for over the theft of $130,000,000.00? Moreover, how long should a white ACT Treasury Official be incarcerated for over the unprovoked racial vilification and indecent assault of another black woman at the Waldorf Cafe? Or, what is the appropriate period of incarceration for a white ACT Treasury Official who misused ACT Government stationary in order to deceive Ernst & Young and the ANZ Bank into providing him with documents on an Aboriginal colleague that he objected to working for, solely because of his Aboriginality? The white ACT Treasury Official knew, or ought to have known, that he was not legally entitled to have, use or request those documents.

According to the white burocrates who staff the Australian Federal Police, the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office and the Commonwealth Privacy Commission, the answer is; there should be no penalty and no investigation because the victims are all black while the perpetrators are all white.

Given that white Australians are so enamoured of the English concept of the ‘rule of law’ they why do they go to such lengths to ensure that they can waive its principles and penalties for their own benefit while holding black Australians accountable to the highest standards of what is to us a foreign imposition?

All I can do at this stage is wish all thieving, lying and manipulating white politicians and burocrates a prosperous New Year built on the fruits of their corruption, while a black woman languishes in jail for the ‘theft’ of $1.00. Now there’s a legal system to be proud of!