Former ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has been lauded as a champion of human rights, but an examination of his actions reveals a dissonance between his proclaimed values and the realities of his political decisions
The sign says it all. Since when should people need to rally to welcome others, to offer a helping hand? The annual #Walktogether held in both capital cities and regional…
Where to start … where to start … After a protracted hiatus, Blak and Black is back! There’s so much to write about, so much in the news and the…
“The West Papuans have become the victims of Australia’s regional foreign policy arrangements that prop up the anti-refugee policies of Operation Sovereign Borders.” Ian Rintoul, Refugee Action Coalition. Fifty-two years…
This post has been proferred by Imogen, a reader of Blak and Black. As South Korean-born Dami Im’s X-Factor win in Australia is celebrated with a number one single it’s a shame…
She is a very beautiful young woman, quiet, reserved, cautious and courteous. Her parents have sent her to Australia to undertake tertiary studies, full fee paying tertiary studies. She has…
How much can we ever know about the love and pain in another heart? How much can we hope to understand those who have suffered deeper anguish, greater deprivation, and…
Charity begins at home. Some agree, some do not. But the simple fact is that our treatment of those close to us sets the foundations for our behaviours toward others.…
The absence of good and evil characterizes the mind itself (hsin-t i) The presence of good and evil characterizes the movement of intention. The knowledge of good and evil is…
In the Twentieth Century of my trespass on earth, having exterminated one billion heathens, heretics, Jews, Moslems, witches, mystical seekers, black men, Asians, and Christian brothers, every one of them…
The more classically minded among Blak and Black’s readers will recognise the title of this post as being the opening words of Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid, "... sing of…
The request for assistance was then referred on to the [Australian] Federal Police but they said they didn't have the resources to respond. (Serco Regional Manager John Hayes) The above quote from Serco Manager…
There is no question about racism being a profound form of ignorance, but when it becomes something that informs employment decisions by one of the world’s biggest accounting firms, Ernst…
“A State cannot claim to be operating under the rule of law unless laws are administered fairly, rationally, predictably, consistently and impartially.” (Chief Justice Spigelman, as he then was, in…
I have borrowed the title from Michael Stolleis' oxymoronically titled book Justice within Injustice which is about, oxymoronically, justice in the Third Reich. After having read Stolleis' essays, in which…
“A State cannot claim to be operating under the rule of law unless laws are administered fairly, rationally, predictably, consistently and impartially.” (Chief Justice Spigelman, as he then was, in…
Racial discrimination against Indigenous Australians is as alive and well in Australia today as it ever was. In fact, under the lost years of opportunity known to history as the…
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today rebuked Australia for its political, rather than human rights based approach to indigenous people and asylum-seekers. Although criticizing some of Australia's…
"Australians have a great sense of fairness and when you do things like that we say 'get on your bike, fella' and get back out again. Don't take advantage of…