Category: Australia’s Shame

Australia's Shame

The HECS Hex – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Can we ask that the HECS hex can somehow be removed, that those dedicated students who work so hard to gain an education and careers which not only promise them a quality of life and worthwhile careers, and incomes that bring them to higher income tax brackets so their contributions late in life more than repay the costs they have incurred?

That’s right, the Stage 3 tax cuts have worked to minimise that benefit… worse before the Albo ‘lie’ as he adjusted the rate thresholds to make the system a smidgeon more equitable.

Source: The HECS Hex – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

Australia is a silent partner in atrocity in Gaza and the West Bank – Pearls and Irritations

Israel and Australia flag together realations textile cloth fabric texture

On 27 February, we wrote to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) expressing concern that Australia had failed to fulfil its obligation under the Genocide Convention (1948) to prevent any action that further risks the survival of the Palestinian people. That failure continues.

Source: Australia is a silent partner in atrocity in Gaza and the West Bank – Pearls and Irritations

Australia's Shame

Australia backs report on Palestine aid agency UNRWA

Israel is as slippery as an eel. Their false claim made before Easter intentionally crippled the distribution of aid in Gaza and increased illness and starvation in the process. Why does the WEST give Israel the benefit of the doubt?

Australia has welcomed an independent report Israel failed to provide evidence members of a United Nations agency that provides humanitarian relief to Palestinians were linked to Hamas.

Source: Australia backs report on Palestine aid agency UNRWA

Australia's Shame

Australian military refuses to disclose arms deal with Israel to protect its ‘reputation’ – Pearls and Irritations
Israel and Australia flag together realations textile cloth fabric texture

Australia’s Defence Department has refused a Freedom of Information request about the details of an arms deal with Israel on the grounds that such information “could harm Australia’s international standing and reputation,” which suggests the details must be pretty damning. Equally as scandalous, this refusal was reportedly made in consultation with the Israeli government.

Source: Australian military refuses to disclose arms deal with Israel to protect its ‘reputation’ – Pearls and Irritations

Australia's Shame

Human Rights or the Right to Discriminate? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

At least that is what is looks like to this citizen. Religious schools can discriminate when employing staff, ensuring that all teachers comply with a morality standard and that will inevitably affect the way education is delivered, especially when dealing with ethics and morality.

How easy would it be to make the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which Australia was involved in setting up and is a signatory to, actually make that law. There are thirty articles in the Declaration and Article 2 is an overarching statement:

Source: Human Rights or the Right to Discriminate? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

Censors Celebrated: Misinformation and Disinformation Down Under – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The proposed bill on assessing, parcelling and dictating information (mis-, dis-, mal-) is a nasty little experiment in censoring communication and discussion. When the state decides, through its agencies, to tell readers what is appropriate to read and what can be accessed, the sirens should be going off.

Source: Censors Celebrated: Misinformation and Disinformation Down Under – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

Cognitive Bias – » The Australian Independent Media Network

“There is an anger across this nation that we choose not to acknowledge.

It is an anger fuelled by racism, prejudice, discrimination and poverty. A distressed discontent that is growing, not just here but around the world. But under anger is always grief…

Source: Cognitive Bias – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

Australia’s First Nations still looking over the 1788 chasm – Pearls and Irritations

The Australian Aboriginal flag on a flagpole at Bondi Beach, Sydney.

More than four months after a crushing defeat in the Voice referendum, and soon after the Closing the Gap report confirmed that there was almost no progress in improving Aboriginal lives last year, Aboriginal players in the yes case are moving towards an inquest into how their case went so terribly wrong.

Source: Australia’s First Nations still looking over the 1788 chasm – Pearls and Irritations

Australia's Shame

Border Paranoia in Fortress Australia – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The border fetishists also make a crucial omission. The people smugglers, who are of all stripes of opportunism and exploitation rather than some monolithic bloc, are merely facilitating the provisions of the United Nations Refugee Convention. All who arrive should not be discriminated against on the basis of how they arrive or their backgrounds – the articles of the Convention state as much – yet Australia’s border policy remains persistently cruel and defiant. Whenever a boat appears with a small cargo full of desperate individuals who make it to land, the fantasies of invasion, unwarranted intrusion and unwanted infiltration catch alight. It was high time they were snuffed out.

Source: Border Paranoia in Fortress Australia – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

War criminal Ben Roberts-Smith thrown under a bus by Kerry Stokes and his own barrister Bret Walker SCKangaroo Court of Australia

Israelis can’t understand what he did wrong. It’s just beyond them

It’s a failed strategy that Kerry Stokes, who is paying Roberts-Smith’s legal fees, used in the infamous C7 case he lost in 2009 and Kerry Stokes would know that Roberts-Smith’s chances of winning the appeal are Buckley’s or none.

Source: War criminal Ben Roberts-Smith thrown under a bus by Kerry Stokes and his own barrister Bret Walker SCKangaroo Court of Australia

Australia's Shame

Governments must act faster and listen to Productivity Commission recommendations to Close the Gap and tackle Aboriginal homelessness – » The Australian Independent Media Network

“The Productivity Commission’s report is a wake-up call for all levels of government. We cannot afford to let Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander homelessness continue to rise. The governments must prioritise and implement the necessary measures to address this crisis.”

Source: Governments must act faster and listen to Productivity Commission recommendations to Close the Gap and tackle Aboriginal homelessness – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame, Uncategorized

Old Dog Thought- ICJ wasn’t a trial. It recommended that Israeli actions could be tried under the 1948 Genocide Act. That’s no win for Israel and it correctly shames Australia

Will Israeli Zionists raise the Australian flag next to theirs in Palestine? What relevance has the ICJ decision in 2024 had for the teaching of Australia’s Colonial history, Our Frontier Wars,were aimed at Killing for the Country and they took place in our not-so-distant inglorious past?

Australia's Shame

What voice will we give to Australia’s future and where does it leave Australia Day? – Michael West

Australia Day

Maybe time for a one-flag world the one that belongs to the longest-continuous living culture on the planet

Australia Day is a good day to consider the repercussions of the Voice debate. We need to understand the history, but also look forward.

Source: What voice will we give to Australia’s future and where does it leave Australia Day? – Michael West

Australia's Shame

Lessons from the USA about patriotic beat-ups – » The Australian Independent Media Network

blurred Blue Ensign Australian flag

Fostering aggrieved patriotism is a core right-wing gambit, and we should recognise it when Dutton applies his lighter to that fire in the next fortnight: it is part of a grim package.

Source: Lessons from the USA about patriotic beat-ups – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

ABC joins the charge against quality Australian journalism

The ABC has succumbed

Once a reliable news source, the ABC has lately been relying on borderline plagiarism and clickbait to entice readers, diminishing its previously high standards. Rosemary Sorensen reports.

Source: ABC joins the charge against quality Australian journalism

Australia's Shame

Cleveland Dodd’s fate is Australia’s national shame

How is it that those who fabricated welfare checks have not been charged? How is it those who locked him in a cell endlessly for months and in which his eyes’ last sight dwindled to fading light and into endless darkness, those who cruelled hopeless fate have not been held to account?

How is it that the people who designed and approved the inhumane Unit 18 have not been named and brought to account? Atonement calls. Family and others say it is an evil place where hopelessness destroys mortal life. Charges? And the guards who ticked off welfare checks at the beginning of their shifts — 60 days later, since a child’s eyes closed in that cell, never to open again, how have there been no charges? Fated a child’s death in that dank, dark dungeon.

Source: Cleveland Dodd’s fate is Australia’s national shame

Australia's pride, Australia's Shame

ABC complaint over Insiders’ collaboration with Murdoch’s News Corp

The Quid pro Quo promise between Murdoch and the LNP made years ago that Abbott took on board to change the ABC and Australia’s Democracy

INSIDERS IS NO longer a program viewers can rely on for accurate information and analysis. This is extremely disappointing. This has come about through excessive reliance on Rupert Murdoch’s mendacious “news” outlets for its content.

Source: ABC complaint over Insiders’ collaboration with Murdoch’s News Corp

Australia's Shame

US, UK, AUS Defy International Law at UN

Murdoch has always held a personal relationship with Israel’s illegal occupation of the Golan Heights.  https://michaelwest.com.au/compromised-genie-energy-and-the-murdoch-medias-climate-denial/

The United Nations General Assembly voted 91 in favor and 8 against with 62 abstentions to reaffirm U.N. Security Council resolutions 242 of 1967 and 497 of 1981 that demand Israel cease its control over the Golan Heights and return it to Syria.

Source: US, UK, AUS Defy International Law at UN

Australia's Shame

David McBride verdict a sad day for democracy

Mark Dreyfus AG is related to Alfred Dreyfus the French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry from Alsace whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history.

Australian replay of the U.S.-UK persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange; the war criminals are running the persecution while the whistleblower is facing five indictments for the leaks, which carry maximum sentences of ten years each.  

A roll call of Australian whistleblowers and politicians was on hand to lend support. They addressed the assembled media and the McBride supporters, decrying what some described as a “war on whistleblowers” and others called the “war on truth”.

Source: David McBride verdict a sad day for democracy

Australia's Shame

Australia’s role in the bombing of Gaza – Pearls and Irritations

Very unusual close view of a F-35A Lightning II in a high G maneuver , with condensation clouds around the plane and afterburner on.

Being part of the global supply network that supplies parts for the Israeli F-35 jet fighters used over Gaza implicates Australia in their alleged war crimes.

With Australia previously spruiking the benefits of our global defence cooperation in supply and construction, it is now notable that the government is not being forthright with the Australian people about the extent of our involvement.

Australia needs to honestly acknowledge that atrocities like Gaza are exactly the kind of risk it has signed us up for.

 

Source: Australia’s role in the bombing of Gaza – Pearls and Irritations

Australia's Shame

When Netanyahu Accustoms Us to an Inhuman World Without Rights or Rules, the Law of the Jungle Reigns! – CounterPunch.org

Look, at what they have done Mum!!

While the operation to exterminate and ethnically cleanse the Palestinians in Gaza has – quite rightly – monopolized the world’s attention for weeks, little or no attention is being paid to one of its crucial objectives, which is passing rather unnoticed: the habituation of our societies and of each and every one of us, i.e. of all humanity, to a new international reality devoid of the humanitarian law that has governed international or internal armed conflicts since 1949. In short, we are becoming accustomed to a world that increasingly resembles a jungle, where only the law of the strongest reigns, and where the worst atrocities against the weakest are “permitted”!

Source: When Netanyahu Accustoms Us to an Inhuman World Without Rights or Rules, the Law of the Jungle Reigns! – CounterPunch.org

Australia's Shame

Our mapping project shows how extensive frontier violence was in Queensland. This is why truth-telling matters

The resounding defeat of the recent Voice to Parliament referendum is another case in point. It reveals a lack of understanding of the historical nature of violence against Indigenous people, the racist foundations of settler Australia, and how these continue to impact communities today.

Source: Our mapping project shows how extensive frontier violence was in Queensland. This is why truth-telling matters

Australia's Shame

Seven federal politicians could be rapists according to complaints made to the Federal Police. Is Canberra the rape capital of Australia?Kangaroo Court of Australia

AFP parliament house

Seven federal politicians, which could include the Prime Minister, had complaints of sexual assault made against them in the period from the 24th of February 2021 until the 30th of June 2022 which is the year-and-a-half period after Brittany Higgins’ allegations first became public knowledge.

Yet the Australian Federal Police failed to charge any of them which is consistent with how the federal police operate a protection racket for federal politicians.

Source: Seven federal politicians could be rapists according to complaints made to the Federal Police. Is Canberra the rape capital of Australia?Kangaroo Court of Australia

Australia's Shame

The Australian Wars review – a furious exposé of a place that celebrates murderous white settlers | Television | The Guardian

Rachel Perkins in the documentary The Australian Wars

Review The Australian Wars review – a furious exposé of a place that celebrates murderous white settlers Wide-ranging, unflinching and horrifying, this documentary lets Indigenous people speak out about centuries of legalised killing. No wonder it created shockwaves

Source: The Australian Wars review – a furious exposé of a place that celebrates murderous white settlers | Television | The Guardian

Australia's Shame

Assimilation – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook

Truth or dare

This is the grand outcome of the referendum loss. To the “No” campaign, the vote was never just about constitutional recognition. It was about undoing decades of progressive change. The prize to them is the ability to say aloud every cruel and anti-intellectual thought, to indulge every bigotry and pretend they are doing so on behalf of a country too fearful to listen to the people it dispossessed.”

Source: “There’s a… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook

Australia's Shame

Twenty years of Australian PM cowardice on Israel and Palestine

Are we that tied to America? Dutton says not enough and is importing their political strategies

Australia’s political leaders have tip-toed cautiously around conflict in the Middle East, offering words of support but showing little else, writes Tom Tanuki.

Source: Twenty years of Australian PM cowardice on Israel and Palestine

ALP Government,, Australia's Shame

Six Eyes: Australia’s secret support for the Israeli assault on Gaza, through Pine Gap – Michael West

Pine Gap, Israel, Gaza

Billions of dollars are being invested to kill what Right -Wing Israelis call rats trapped in a cage called Gaza. Why is the ALP government doing this? Are we America’s puppets their base in the Pacific or a sovereign nation? Albanese seems to be between a rock and a hard place and shames us. Dutton we know would be celebrating loudly while handing the keys to Biden. Albanese is not but are we doing what’s right and moral?

“Pine Gap facility is monitoring the Gaza Strip and surrounding areas with all its resources, and gathering intelligence assessed to be useful to Israel.”

Australia is not only providing diplomatic support for the Israeli government’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, but logistics support too. Peter Cronau of Declassified Australia reports.

Source: Six Eyes: Australia’s secret support for the Israeli assault on Gaza, through Pine Gap – Michael West

Aboriginal Australia, Australia, Australia Alone, Australia's Shame, Australian Constitution

What happened to Indigenous Rights? The world will judge Australia harshly – Pearls and Irritations

Sunrise in Australia; a dramatic contrast of red and black behind the gold disc of the sun; the image is reminiscent of the iconic Australian Aboriginal flag.

The World viewed Australia as Voting No to Indigenous Rights and Voting No to Palestinian Rights. That makes us unique and exceptional assholes even among colonizing nations.

We should not be surprised if as a consequence of the defeat of the referendum the world judges us harshly, accusing us of bad faith and hypocrisy. The extraordinary fact that our international commitments were rarely, if ever mentioned, in such a consequential debate suggests, at least, that the face that we turn to the world is very different from the one we present to the domestic electorate, and that international documents we sign up to are kept from sight rather than explained and publicised.

Source: What happened to Indigenous Rights? The world will judge Australia harshly – Pearls and Irritations

Australia's Shame

Political opinions shift on Israel conflict in wake of Hamas attacks

 Did News Corp really reveal that Sussan Ley was actually pro-Palestine not that long ago?

News Corp rags scoured the archives to dig up a grainy piece of footage showing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressing a pro-Palestinian protest as a “Federal Labor MP” and condemning the Israeli military many years ago when the PM had thick brown hair.

Now, as Prime Minister, Albanese posts messages on social media, ‘Australia stands with our friend Israel’ and appears to walk in lock-step with U.S. allies by positioning Australia firmly on the Israeli side of the conflict.

Notably, over the past weeks, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has also been making media statements condemning the Albanese Government for being too slow to act on the Israel conflict and calling the Government’s call for “restraint” as “disgraceful”.

In 2003, then a Liberal backbencher, Ley became Chair of the Federal Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group. Ley said at the time she had “a great and abiding attachment to the land and the Arab people. It’s something I gained as a child in the region where I grew up”.

 

Source: Political opinions shift on Israel conflict in wake of Hamas attacks

Australia's Shame

Opinion | Refusal to Back Cease-Fire Is an Endorsement of Israel’s Genocidal Attack on Gaza | Common Dreams

Israeli attacks on Gaza continue on the 15th day

By failing to advocate for a ceasefire, western states have given a green light to Israel’s agenda of collective punishment.

Source: Opinion | Refusal to Back Cease-Fire Is an Endorsement of Israel’s Genocidal Attack on Gaza | Common Dreams

Australia's Shame

Voice Crash Investigation: Transgenerational trauma – » The Australian Independent Media Network

‘Participants expressed disgust about a statue of John McDouall Stuart being erected in Alice Springs following the 150th anniversary of his successful attempt to reach the top end. This expedition led to the opening up of the “South Australian frontier” which led to massacres as the telegraph line was established and white settlers moved into the region. People feel sad whenever they see the statue; its presence and the fact that Stuart is holding a gun is disrespectful to the Aboriginal community who are descendants of the families slaughtered during the massacres throughout central Australia.’[13]

It’s difficult to avoid seeing commonalities between the feelings of the people of Charlottesville and the feelings of the people of Alice Springs.

These events and their consequences on vastly different continents encapsulate the transgenerational suffering and trauma among Indigenous and African American peoples. This writer can only hope that – post-Referendum – Aboriginal Australians will come around to believing that their trust has not been wasted, that despite the awful, politically-manipulated rejection of the Referendum, there remain great swathes of non-Indigenous Australians who will continue to stand with them through ‘Makarrata’ and beyond, no matter what it takes.

By Frances Goold Voice Crash Investigation [1] 1 ‘Mario, what’s your relationship to this park?’ ‘This is the park where my wife and I got married, roughly eight years ago.’ ‘And what did you father say to you at the wedding?’ ‘My dad told the photographer he didn’t want that statue in our wedding pictures’.…

Source: Voice Crash Investigation: Transgenerational trauma – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

Referendum silences First Australians

Australians had the opportunity to accept our invitation in the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’. Only they had the power to decide whether to accept or reject constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by voting “Yes” or “No” on a representative body enshrined in the Constitution.

I hope I’m wrong, but everything around me is saying that today Australia will reject that invitation. It will choose to leave our hand outstretched.

Unlike elections, the thing about referendums is that there really is no hiding the truth.

Source: Referendum silences First Australians

Australia's Shame

Rejected by the people who dispossessed and colonised them – Pearls and Irritations

Sunrise in Australia; a dramatic contrast of red and black behind the gold disc of the sun; the image is reminiscent of the iconic Australian Aboriginal flag.

This morning, I call to mind the Aboriginal woman who spoke at the end of a forum we held in Darwin on the Voice. She told us: ‘A lot of my people don’t understand all the law and politics about this Voice. All I know is that when they wake up on Sunday 15 October and if the answer is NO, they will think that they have been rejected once again by the people who dispossessed and colonised them without their consent.’ She wept.

Source: Rejected by the people who dispossessed and colonised them – Pearls and Irritations

Australia's pride, Australia's Shame

“Stuck in a colonial past” – the world condemns Australia’s “No” vote on The Voice – Michael West

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

A chorus of chagrin greeted news of a ‘No’ vote at Saturday’s The Voice referendum. But the damage for Australia – especially in our own Asia-Pacific region – could go further than a bruised reputation. Andrew Gardiner reports.

Source: “Stuck in a colonial past” – the world condemns Australia’s “No” vote on The Voice – Michael West

Australia's Shame

The Voice. A simple proposition of empathy to be ruined by time and politics? – Michael West

Uluru Statement

A Voice 2023 Stolen like the “Never Stolen Generation of Children” The odds against the referendum were already stacked by the electoral college hurdle it faced of 50% in each state and a majority of states required for it to pass. That alone proved it would be a highway to hell for yes and heaven for a Racist Australia

If the polls are to be believed, the referendum question will be soundly voted down this Saturday. It could – and should – have been so different.

Source: The Voice. A simple proposition of empathy to be ruined by time and politics? – Michael West

Australia's Shame

Blue Light, Green Blood: Edifice Politics for Israel – » The Australian Independent Media Network

While Australian politicians complained and sniffed, Israel has imposed another blockade of Gaza, with news reporters limply avoiding the point that the enclave of two million inhabitants was already blockaded. Such a political entity was barely breathing to begin with, but the promise now is to cut off water (97% of the water in Gaza is already contaminated), food, fuel and access to electricity (this was already subject to regular outages) is seen as a logical, natural barbarism. Searching for the appropriate word, the Israeli forces had dubbed this latest measure a “siege”.

During a visit to the Israeli Air Force’s underground command centre, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant summed up the attitude to this approach of even deeper deprivation against an already exhausted civilian population. “We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly.”

It has been a few days of slaughter-filled accounts. Starting on October 7 on the Jewish day of Simchat Torah, the State of Israel has faced assaults from hundreds of Hamas militants. Directed from southwards in the country, the mayhem has rattled the security and intelligence establishment smugly convinced in their reading of Palestinian motivations…

Source: Blue Light, Green Blood: Edifice Politics for Israel – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

Atlas Network’s fossil-fuelled campaign against the Voice

ABOVE IS WHO WE DO KNOW IN OPPOSITION TO YES IS A  THE DARK ARMY WE  DON”T KNOW!!  SO VOTE YES!!

Led by Advance, the “No” campaign is supported by The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) and the Australian conference of the international Far-Right Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC — until recently, hosted by LibertyWorks), organisations with which Price and Mundine have been associated for years. All have long opposed climate policy. CIS, IPA and LibertyWorks are all affiliated with the little-known global Atlas Network.

Founded in 1981 by the English businessman, Antony Fisher, ‘to litter the world with free-market think tanks’, headquartered in Virginia by the U.S. Capitol, Atlas is not itself a think tank. It discreetly fundraises, networks and expands its vast public opinion, public policy and election influence machinery of 515 “partner organisations” in 100 nations.

Better-known U.S. think tanks include the Heritage Foundation, the Cato, Heartland and Competitive Enterprise institutes. All oppose climate policy and all have documented histories of oil-derived funding, such as from oil billionaires Charles Koch and Richard Scaife, along with ExxonMobil and other multinational corporations.

Source: Atlas Network’s fossil-fuelled campaign against the Voice

Australia's Shame

Referendum’s clear choices on the way Australia should go

Indigenous for well over 100 years couldn’t ‘Testify’, or “Bear Witness”  in any court in the Colony because Aborigines simply couldn’t swear on a bible as they were heathens. That belief was the cornerstone of our racist system which has carried through as a belief that they can’t be trusted even today.. As a consequence, crimes by whites murder, rape, theft, or the stealing of children never came before the courts. Charges were never laid as there weren’t any white Christians who would testify.

Today Andrew Bolt publicly calls Indigenous Australians liars if they accuse whites of racist crimes or our Institutions as Racial. To do so is not to be a REALIST but to be WOKE and a  REVERSE RACIST.

The Voice Referendum presents voters with many dilemmas, including, for “Yes” voters after a secret ballot, how to tell who not to invite into their homes.

Source: Referendum’s clear choices on the way Australia should go

Australia's Shame

Albanese and Dutton set aside differences to back Israel

What is “abhorrent” is that the Australian Government never applied that term to the constant and incessant provocations by the Israeli government. They closed their eyes to the Israeli Government’s sponsored, almost daily, attacks on Palestinians in Gaza the West Bank, and in Jerusalem itself. Nothing was said only silence when Israelis invaded Palestinian places of worship whether Muslim or Christian it didn’t seem to matter. It’s shamed the LNP but that was no surprise. But it now shames an ALP government and that’s a major disappointment to those that voted Labor.

Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have joined to condemn Hamas’ assault on Israel, with the Prime Minister condemning the attacks as “abhorrent”.

Source: Albanese and Dutton set aside differences to back Israel

Australia's Shame

Paul Bongiorno: Key question for voters on the Voice

Australia is seen as an Apartheid nation in the Pacific

Some can hear Albanese’s referendum night speech if it goes down.

They believe he will say he proposed the constitutional change with the best intentions and to keep faith with Indigenous and Torres Strait Islanders. It was always doomed without bipartisan support and he will attempt to move forward in a way that doesn’t involve what the people have rejected.

There will be no painless way out of such a calamitous outcome for our nation and its First Peoples.

Source: Paul Bongiorno: Key question for voters on the Voice

Australia's Shame

Paying the ‘Price’: The ‘no’ case infected by fanatical Christianity

 An investigation into the rhetoric of proponents of the “No” campaign reveals the erosion of the fragile constitutional foundation of the “separation of church and state” in Australia.

Source: Paying the ‘Price’: The ‘no’ case infected by fanatical Christianity

Australia's Shame

The AFL had the power to turn the tide – Pearls and Irritations

Former AFL player Michael Long in Canberra as part of his recreating his Long Walk in 2004, Wednesday, September 13, 2023. Image: AAP/Mick TsikasBobby brings house down with scintillating speccy

On The Voice, the AFL has hung back and refused to put its head right over the ball and have a fair dinkum go on its biggest day.

I was imagining that classic aerial shot of a packed MCG, with people of all ages in all club colours running out from the centre circle, opening a huge canvas with “Yes” clear for all the world – or at least all of Australia – to see.

But I was dreaming.

The AFL has prided itself on being socially responsible, on being caring and on being something of a role model.

It has incredible power, which it generally seems to have used for good.

On The Voice, however, in my view, while it formally expressed support, the AFL has hung back and refused to put its head right over the ball and have a fair dinkum go on its biggest day.

It is a contest that demands to be won, and a contest the AFL could have swung the right way as we near time-on in this most important campaign.

Source: The AFL had the power to turn the tide – Pearls and Irritations

Australia's Shame

The referendum: So little asked, so graciously, but seemingly too much – Pearls and Irritations

Uluru Statement from the Heart, May 2017, Aboriginal Convention, Central Australia

Why do so many of my fellow non-Indigenous Australians seemingly have such a deep aversion towards the Aboriginal peoples of this land? Sadly, I am compelled to ask that question as we approach a referendum asking for constitutional recognition of Australia’s First Nations and an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to parliament.

Source: The referendum: So little asked, so graciously, but seemingly too much – Pearls and Irritations

Australia's Shame

(1) National Times – Leading No campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine… | Facebook

1) Mundine says he will join the Uluru Council if YES23 wins. However, he doesn’t even begin to say who will vote for him.

2) He wanted to run for preselection in Marise Payne’s vacated seat and better represent his white constituency as does Jacinta Price. Backed down for flipflopping on the  No Campaign

3) Indigenous Australians see them as “Plastic” Dutton’s Ken and Barbie

4)“The fact is that most Indigenous Australians are doing fine,” he said.  60% live below the “poverty line”.  Another 30% live either on the edge or under a glass ceiling

5)“It is wrong to tell young people growing up in these families that they are disadvantaged because they are Indigenous. So Mundine Speaking for himself and a very small minority. While 83%  simply  recognize a statistical reality that’s not “doing fine”

6)”It’s wrong to tell them, as I’ve heard many times during this campaign, they are more likely to go to prison than to university. Because it’s just not true.”

However, a 2015 ABC RMIT Fact Check found that it is true, that Indigenous men are more likely to go to jail than to university.
7)”Imagine if all the celebrities, corporates, law firms, sporting codes, religious groups, local, state, territory and federal governments, unions and agencies and bureaucracies had devoted all that energy, time, money and other resources they’ve devoted to the Voice to getting Indigenous children into school.” It’s why they turned because  they have witnessed the LNP failure to do anything
8)“What I’m talking about is whether you agree with victimhood or not, or whether you agree with colonial intergenerational trauma, there is a stage you have to move on,” Mr Mundine said.  Guess that  attitude also applies to women who have been raped according to Mundine “move on”
9) The Germany teaches its shameful Nazi history and changed their society to prevent the past from repeating itself. The Norwegians and NZers have given the Sami and Maoris Voice and do the same. Other countries have a Bill of Human Rights enshrined in their constitution and/or laws. We don’t. We have Race built into our Constitution and the Liberals wanted to close the UNAHRC while Abbott promised to rid us of sections of the Racial Discrimination Act. He promised to “change the laws”
Should we feel proud that stand shoulder-to-shoulder and closer to Russia, China, North Korea and Israel?

Source: (1) National Times – Leading No campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine… | Facebook

Australia, Australia's pride, Australia's Shame, Australian Constitution

No means no – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Help yourselves Australia. We have had a problem for 250 years and it has never been Black. Indigenous People have had a Voice on previous occasions like ASTIC but it was removed. Ripped away by the Howards and Abbott’s. It’s time to change direction and “Fix It”! Cuban Global Voulteers came to teach and be health workers in remote Indigenous communities and were shocked with what they saw the worst living conditions of any people ever seen on the planet. White Pride and privilege is Australia’s Shame and Dutton simply says what’s been said for 10 generations by white colonisers “There’s really no problem other than that of their own making and it’s a “lifestyle choice.” Listen to Jacinta Price she’s “their (my) voice.

Voting ‘no’ is essentially a vote to not change anything because there might be something we didn’t think about that happens down the track. As countless people, including the former Spanish Football President have found out to their cost – no means no – there are no excuses. Your ‘no’ vote is the same as Dutton’s, Price’s or Mundine’s – regardless of how you try to justify it to yourself or others. And if you don’t know – do the research. Here’s a link to help you start.

Source: No means no – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's pride, Australia's Shame

Everything you need to ‘No’ for the Voice Referendum

 Peter Dutton in the footsteps of Donald Trump has been shown at rallies suggesting that if Yes23 succeeds Indigenous Australians will be saying “If you’re white, you have to go to the back of the line. ” That any positive discrimination is discrimination against white people and therefore Racist. The far-right of the LNP are against the immigration of colored people other than for temporary labor. They are ideologically aligned with the “great replacement theory” that contends white privilege and power is being radically displaced by immigrants.  The No campaign underlies an ever-fiercer defense of so-called Christian nationalist identity. Let’s not forget just how Dutton laughed at Pacific Islanders, at Boomgate. Was anti-Asylum Seekers Muslims and Africans. No matter their religion they were the new gangs in Australia and has even maintained that racial discrimination going on right now in this country was the action of the Yes campaign. Until the Voice was proposed there was no racism in this country. For Christ’s Sake Australian Indigenous peoples in the main are far more practicing Christians than even whites and fail to be listened to. Here are a List of claims by the no-voters in 2023

The key to clickbait is to give an odd-number, single-digit list of things to confirm prejudices.

Source: Everything you need to ‘No’ for the Voice Referendum