Australia's Apology to the Stolen Generations - Wednesday February 13, 2008

It's a bloody good piece of writing, it's long overdue, and perhaps it's also one big step closer to our nation eventually saying Thankyou. We wouldn't be who we are as a culture without the influence of Aboriginal peoples and nations from the moment modern Australia insisted on being born of blood. It's a big step for our nation to acknowledge seven decades of cultural genocide. I think that this action tomorrow by Kevin Rudd will ultimately have greater positive effect on domestic relationships and social politics within Australia than ratifying Kyoto has had on our international relationships. Tomorrow will be a real beginning and much more than the token gesture that some would like to reduce it to.



For all you international folks, that's our new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the left. That's the leader of of the deceptively named Liberal opposition, Brendan Nelson, on the right. Brendan Nelson is an utter spoogemop, while Kevin Rudd is a Cantonese speaking diplomacy-Yoda with balls the size of a goat's head. Oh yeah, the text -

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

Check out the coverage at National Indigenous Times, as well as the excellent pre-Sorry Day coverage on the February 12 edition of the 7:30 Report

Phillips - Australians Are A Bunch Of Cowardly Fuckwits. Now Take Me Roughly Howard You Dirty Boy

So, John Howard gets the kicking he deserves and how does the reactionary right respond?? In typical fashion of course:

Now he is gone, knocked out by a man who copied to the letter the trick pulled by Tony Blair in persuading blue-collar workers who had previously abandoned Labour for the Liberals (the equivalent of the British Conservative party) that it was safe to return to Labour because he was a Howard wannabe in contrast to his rabble of a party. But just as with Blair, no-one really knows what Kevin Rudd actually stands for — and whether he will now move back towards the left. Whatever now happens, the fact that he ran on a platform of pulling troops out of Iraq and endorsing the ludicrous scam of man-made global warming are enough in themselves to tell the jihadis that Australia has now lost its (one-man) nerve. Australia just made itself (and the rest of us) a whole lot less safe.

Mmm, as last seen after the Spanish election. Good work Melanie. Why is it that as soon as an election result goes against them, they suggest that the people have put themselves at greater risk?? It's like a less subtle version of the games played by Blair and Bush in their prime. Looks like Phillips is as big an enemy of democracy as the so-called Islamists.

Oh, I wrote a comment at the end of Phillips' despicable rant, wonder if it gets posted??

John Howard Attempts To Bribe Electorate

Cos that's the only way he'll get in:

HALF-A-MILLION families would pay less in advance for child care if the Coalition is re-elected.

The Government has announced a $652 million plan to pay the child care tax rebate before parents settle their bills, rather than after the tax year ends.

And in an about-face on previous Coalition policy, capital funds of up to $1 million apiece will be granted to help build or upgrade centres in up to 35 areas with no child care vacancies.

Unveiling the pre-payment plan at his election campaign launch in Brisbane yesterday, Prime Minister John Howard said it would provide more relief in the family budget.

Yes, I am an evil totalitarian fuck monkey, but I'm a fuck monkey that can give you extra dough. Come dance with me my pretties while I slap you round the face with the promise of more money. Dance!! Dance I tell you!!! Hahahahahahaha!! You love it you slags!!!

The Howard Government and Work Choices

One of MOA's contributors, Hugh Manatee, has posted on the Get Up! blog page entitled 'Joe Hockey's clever resignation' (and he namechecks MOA as well - good lad!). Go read, you know it makes sense.

David Hicks - Nothing More Than A Political Pawn For John Howard

Hot on the heels of the announcement of John Howard's day of reckoning with the Australian electorate, comes news that is a stark reminder of the what this man stands for. You may remember the case of David Hicks (if not, here is a clip developed by my good friend RickB at Ten Percent) and the appalling treatment he suffered at the hands of the American and Australian governments. It transpires that, what a surprise, his eventual release into Australian custody was a political stunt aimed at securing Howard another election victory. From The Age:

Hicks had been held by the US at Guantanamo Bay since January 2002, a month after his capture in Afghanistan, where he fought with the Taliban.

The father of two was sentenced to nine months jail and, under a plea bargain, was transferred to Adelaide to serve the remainder of the sentence at Yatala, where he remains in solitary confinement.

He is due for release on December 30.

A report in Harper's magazine said it was Mr Cheney and Mr Howard who cut the deal to release Hicks from Guantanamo Bay.

Quoting a military officer, it said a military staffer was present when Mr Cheney interfered directly to secure the plea deal.

"He did it, apparently, as part of a deal cut with Howard," the officer was quoted as saying.

"I kept thinking: this is the sort of thing that used to go on behind the Iron Curtain, not in America.

"And then it struck me how much this entire process had disintegrated into a political charade."

Mr Hicks said if the report was true it was further evidence of how political his son's case had become.

"I've said all along that David's issue was political," Mr Hicks said.

"You're not allowed to go through a court of justice, you've got to be dealt with by politicians."

A political charade indeed. What makes it all the more laughable is that this blatant emulation of Soviet tactics is being carried out by a right-wing administration backed by a highly vocal gaggle of right-wing foot soldiers (not to mention so-called members of the 'left'). This process has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with politics.

Environmental Outrage Down Under - 200 000 hectares of native forest doomed by industrial insanity

In case you've missed it, one of the world's last bastions of exquisite ancient ecosystems - Tasmania - has been in a state of virtual civil war which has finally spread to the mainland and is going global even as you read this.

It is a bitter war between citizenry, astroturf lobby groups paid by the logging industry, and both major political parties who - at state and federal level - have set aside their differences to support Gunns - Tasmania's largest landholder, and a logging powerhouse responsible for around 5 million tonnes of export woodchips each year, largely from native forests.

All due process went out the window, the state government skimped on detail and rushed through legislation, the federal government was seemingly backed into a corner and yielded with a whimper. All so that the world's largest pulp mill, turning 4 million tonnes of forest into one million tonnes of paper ingredients and more than ten million tonnes of greenhouse gases annually, could be built in a totally unsuitable valley and dump 70 million litres of effluent A DAY into an ocean rich in seals, penguins, and a diversity of flora and fauna.

Please - if you are concerned about climate change, if you are concerned about biodiversity, if you are concerned about forests, if you are concerned about corporations destroying every last natural inch of the planet for no good reason - please visit this campaign website. Get informed, show your support, consider ways in which you might be part of the global difference needed to halt this project now that it has been rubber-stamped at all levels of government.

It is a seriously off-kilter project. A majority of Tasmanians oppose it, a recent poll showed that over 83% of Australians don't trust the recently announced federal approval, and all avenues of resistance are now going to require determination, support, and creative activism.

I was feeling somewhat guilty about finally emptying my pockets of any crumbs of hope that Peter Garrett - formerly the legendary singer of Midnight Oil, now the increasingly debilitating shadow environment minister - might suddenly emerge from a phone box wearing a cape made of organic hemp with a huge green 'S' on his chest. But then he further clarified his position.

Mr Garrett argued yesterday that the tracts of old-growth forest that will supply the mill were already earmarked for logging under the Regional Forest Agreement.

"One of the policy goals for using the existing forest identified for that purpose is to add value to it.

"I prefer to see value added — so long as the environment is properly protected — rather than seeing woodchips sailing out to sea," he said.

Now, disgusting as it is people do throw around Hitler and Stalin analogies like so much confetti at a wedding (between all levels of government and a select group of well-subsidised private interests). I hate this trend as it generally discredits thoroughly justified anger and revulsion. So without specifying a context, let me just say that this comment from Garrett makes me think of a situation where somebody might endorse killing somebody and melting down their gold fillings, rather than just killing them. The viable option of protecting life where it exists seems preferable to all scenarios apparently on offer, yet all those with responsibility to proclaim as much seem far too scared to do so.

So weak are opportunities for public representation in the supposed houses of democracy, Greens leader Senator Bob Brown is repeatedly forced to personally fund legal challenges to government environmental actions in court. The Greens are drawing closer to lodging a formal legal challenge on the basis of Malcolm Turnbull's conditional approval being legally inoperable within the ambit of the EPBC Act by which he is reluctantly empowered. Bob Brown explains,

“My reading of Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act section 132 (indicates) the minister has not acted within the law,“ Senator Brown said.

“We will have our barristers look at that and they are as we speak,” he said.

“We warned before he made the approval he should act within the law.”

It is an Akira situation - the beast of inequity is growing like a snowballing lump of departmental pr masturbation, environmental catastrophe, and corporate cancer but there is an overwhelming certainty that it must collapse under the weight of its own illegitimacy. It's not going to break down on its own though, it's going to need a lot of help from some unlikely places.

Please - if you're an eco-warrior, get involved and mobilize anyway that you can think to.

Check out Tasmanian Times for breaking news, commentary and background,
hit my website and check out 'Tasmania' in the category cluster,
go to the campaign site at TAP and see where you as an international citizen might be able to get involved in derailing this monster,
learn a whole lot more at Chris Lang's definitive site for anybody concerned about industrial forest operations globally,
and check out Bank Track, where they're leading the global charge to cut off financial lines of supply for the project.

Sorry to get all desperate on you, but this campaign desperately needs support. It's asymmetrical warfare, but it's been that way all along and even with full government sanction the tide has been slowly turning against this insane project for months now. Among the next steps, it is likely that direct action followed by mass arrests and destructive civil lawsuits against protesters will follow, as this has been the form of both Gunns and the Tasmanian government so far.

Please don't just flip past this if you're at all eco-minded. Now is the time for an international wave to build against this over-riding of public interest. Like the Franklin Dam and the pulp mill project before this, this project can be stopped but only by awareness, outcry, and action.

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Rejected By Usual Suspects

Finally, after 22 years of debate, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. According to the BBC:

The treaty sets down protections for the human rights of native peoples, and for their land and resources.

The General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with 143 countries voting in favour and 11 abstaining.

Four countries voted against the measure, can you guess who? Well, unsurprisingly the opponents were Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. That these countries have large indigenous populations tells you all you need to know about their contemptuous regard for human rights. And who takes a large share of the blame? Why, our old friend John Howard of course. According to one report, Canada actually supported the declaration until Howard lobbied the Canadian government to reverse their position. Just another reason to give Howard a good kicking in the upcoming election. Mmmm, I feel a slideshow coming on.....

Brendan Nelson Lets The Cat Out of the Bag

Who? Nelson is Australia's Defence Minister. Here is what he had to say on Iraq on the wider Middle East:

In comments to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Mr Nelson admitted that the supply of oil had influenced Australia's strategic planning in the region.

"Obviously the Middle East itself, not only Iraq but the entire region, is an important supplier of energy, oil in particular, to the rest of the world," he said.

"Australians and all of us need to think what would happen if there were a premature withdrawal from Iraq.

"It's in our interests, our security interests, to make sure that we leave the Middle East, and leave Iraq in particular, in a position of sustainable security." [BBC]

Oooops.

(h/t War Within a Breath)

John Howard Attacks Aboriginal Settlements

Melanie Phillips' object of affection gets a well deserved dressing down from Germaine Greer in today's Guardian. She examines his disgraceful policies in the Aboriginal homelands. Here's a little taster:

The name of the game, as usual, is bad faith. Everything Howard does is calculated to win him votes. The suffering of Aboriginal women and children at the hands of their deranged menfolk has been going on all Howard's life. For most of that time whitefellas made a joke of it. At this late hour, on the eve of a general election, he is suddenly taking it seriously. It is of no consequence that what he is doing is illegal. His treatment of asylum seekers and boat people is just as illegal, and it is widely admired by Australians and people who should know better.

To read the full article, click here.

Happy Birthday Mad Mel!

I understand that it was Mad Mel's birthday a couple of days back and I would just like to take this opportunity to wish her a very happy birthday. Yes, I know I have not exactly held back in attacking the poor old love, but I would like to put that to one side as she celebrates her birthday. In the spirit of the occasion, I have even bought her a little present:

Yes, that's right, a one-way ticket to Australia to be with her beloved 'wizard of Oz'. Here's hoping she fucks off at the earliest opportunity.

Dedicated to Ten Percent

Pots, Kettles and John Howard

John Howard has demanded that the Australian cricket team puu out of a scheduled tour of Zimbabwe in September. Criticising the human rights abuses of Mugabe, Howard said:

"The Mugabe regime is behaving like the Gestapo towards its political opponents."

That's John Howard ladies and gentlemen. The very same leader who refused to stand up for the basic rights of an Australian citizen.

Australia Ripe For Electoral Stitch-up?

Keep a close eye on this one in the run-up to the election in Australia, particularly given the way Howard abandoned David Hicks and the subsequent anger in this most compliant US franchise.

From the Sunshine Coast Daily (spotted thanks to a comment on Wish Hounds' MySpace page):

Although the Federal Election must be called in 2007, the call is unlikely to come before July with many hedging their bets that the Howard Government will announce an election sometime around October.

Mr McKenzie warned that a Sunday election announcement would allow un-registered voters only 24 hours to get their name on the roll.

Meanwhile, registered voters who had failed to update their current details would be allowed only three days to check whether or not they had been removed from the electoral roll and re-register.

Australia’s compulsory voting regime potentially puts registered voters who fail to arrive at the ballot box at risk of a fine but Mr McKenzie said the biggest penalty was missing out on the chance to have their say on election day.

According to Get Up!:

In the last election, 83,000 first-time voters enrolled in the first week after the election was called. Hundreds of thousands more registered at their new address.

This cunt will try anything to shit on the people of Australia (with the full backing of some particularly vile fascists). And he will be even more determined after being revealed to the world as a vicious totalitarian. It's time this bastard was kicked out. Australia - YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS.

You can also visit the Australian Electoral Commission website to check your enrolment, register for the first time or update you details. More information is available at: www.myspace.com/getupaustralia.

A Plea To Raise Funds For A Worthy Cause

Right, that's it. I've had enough. Let's start a whip round to buy Melanie Phillips a one-way ticket to Australia. If she hates this country so much, why doesn't she fuck off to somewhere she would clearly be better off. Check this series of comments out by Brit hating Phillips:

'Britain seems to be in some kind of dreamworld'.

"With what contempt they must regard us — a country that stands impotently by while its people are kidnapped and then does no more than bleat that it is ‘disturbed’".

'....many in Britain are failing to see the big picture'.

'We just don’t seem able to grasp the true nature and scale of the Iranian threat'.

'...there is a distinct air of irrationality about a Britain'.

'We have consistently shown we are not prepared to defend ourselves.'

And that's just from one article! And add to that this rather superb idea that Phillips has come up with to encourage the Iranians to release the British servicemen and woman:

Third, we should announce that we are seeking a UN resolution condemning the kidnap of our Marines and enabling us to use ‘all necessary means’ to get them back. And we should back this up with some significant moves by a couple of frigates.

Yes, the same woman who hates the UN, and approved an action that undermined it, thinks it is part of the solution. So anyone want to put some money in the pot??

David Hicks - Enters Guilty Plea

This from the BBC:

Australian detainee David Hicks has pleaded guilty at a military court at Guantanamo Bay to a charge of providing material support for terrorism.

The 31-year-old Muslim convert was accused of attending al-Qaeda training camps and fighting with the Taleban.

Other charges against him, including attempted murder, have been dropped.

Of course they have been dropped, they were complete bollocks. His charge sheet is really pathetic to say the least. No-one deserves five years of detention without trial, but certainly not for 'material support'. As for the guilty plea, it is hardly surprising given the treatment he has endured. Any other plea would only have resulted in a longer detention period and even more abuses. Although I have no confidence in the trial process, there is a real chance that David could be on his way back to Australia (although whether he is released is a different matter). What really made me laugh when I read this article (if 'laugh' is the right word) was this paragraph on the BBC's website:

He faces a maximum sentence of life but after strong pressure from the Australian government there is speculation that he will receive a shorter sentence.

Yeah, that Australian government have really worked thier socks off to get David back to Australia, haven't they? I wonder if it has anything to do with upcoming elections and the damage that Hicks' continued detention would have on Howard's campaign? Nah, couldn't be.

Go Back To Bed, Australia

You've got to love the reactionary right. They just never take the time to think things through. For some bizarre reason, most of the righties that comment on Tim Blair's blog seem to think that nobody who has an opposing view reads his site. I'm mean, even I know that there are people out there who read this blog and disgree with everything I say (that's how this started in the first place). Are they stupid, or just plain naive? Take the recent furore over that song. Now, you can hate that song as much as you like (it's ok, I'll let you), but as soon as you attack it publicly on a blog, what do you think is going to happen? Your opponents will find out about the song and spread the word, as has happened. If they had kept quiet about it, it would still be the same small group of people who had heard it. Idiots.

On top of that, you get reactionary morons saying things like this:

And then there’s Anarchists that hate America- America, where mistrust of government was written into the constitution and everyone’s allowed to own a gun just in case they need to overthrow the State on short notice. The USA is about the closest thing to a successful Anarchist society that will ever exist.

Posted by wreckage on 2007 03 19 at 07:36 AM • permalink

Come again? The USA is about the closest thing to a successful Anarchist society that will ever exist?? Now, I'm no anarchist (cue dumb righties scratching their heads and saying 'But your title......'), but the US?? A country that spends more on the military than any other country in the world, a country that has Christofascists in the White House, a country who locks people up at will and the most successful capitalist economy in the world?? What definition of anarchy were you thinking of?? The slightly mad, strait-jacket afflicted, knuckle dragging, right-wing definition (brought to you be Conservapedia), by any chance?? And they call this:

an overdose of facts and reason.

Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 03 19 at 11:30 AM • permalink

Only in your tiny little brain my friend.

Still, the whole 'debate' (such that it is) reminds me of something good ol' Bill Hicks once said:

Go back to bed, America. Your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control again. Here. Here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up. Go back to bed, America. Here is American Gladiators. Here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go, America! You are free to do what we tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!

Although, obviously, you can substitute 'America' for 'Australia' and the message would still fit.

Into Our Arms - A Song For David

Into Our Arms is a beautiful song by Wish Hounds in response to the continued incarceration of David Hicks in Guantanamo Bay. It is part of a growing campaign to see David released from Guantanamo and returned to Australia. Despite the lack of action by John Howard and the Australian government, many people care desperately about David's plight and the precedent that has been set by his treatment. If you want to learn more about David's situation, you can view the YouTube video devised by my friend Rick B at Ten Percent. I'll leave it to singer/songwriter Justin Parker to explain the background to the song.

‘Wish Hounds’ is the nom de plume of Melbourne, Australia singer/songwriter Justin Parker.

The new single ‘Into Our Arms’ sounds the frustrations and despair that many fellow Australians feel over the plight of David Matthew Hicks. David, himself an Australian, has been in US custody at the Guantanamo military prison in Cuba and held for more than five years without trial since being captured in Afghanistan. On March 02, 2007 David was finally charged, retrospectively, with "material support for terrorism" and referred to trial by a special military commission at Guantanamo Bay.

After suffering a debilitating trauma accident early in 2006, and subsequently thrown into a long and arduous rehabilitation program, Justin was presented the opportunity for lengthy self-reflection. Feelings of resentment, despair, and abandonment were frequently common. Whilst not condoning David Hick’s alleged actions, his treatment by the current Australian Government, with their disregard of national and international law and justice for one of their own citizens, became intensely personal.

The complex and painful mechanics of relearning the guitar was instrumental in the healing of Justin’s injuries. ‘Into Our Arms’ was written, foremost, as a personal outlet; recognition of the many things that we can all take for granted. Hopefully, it finds its way to those blessed with the gift of empathy and aid those who struggle against adversity and who campaign to uphold habeas corpus and the rule of law...

You can listen to the song at Wish Hounds' MySpace page here, visit the homepage here or view the lyrics here.

David Hicks

Please share your thoughts on this slideshow I have put together. I'm not sure if it could do with a little tweaking, so any suggestions would be gratefully received. If you want to add this to your website, I have added the code at the bottom (if you don't run off Blogger, let me know and I'll provide the code for your publishing system where possible).

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Is Hicks On His Way Home?

Encouraging signs from Australia over David Hicks (taken from The Age):

Hicks 'coming home'


JOHN Howard is bowing to mounting pressure over the David Hicks debacle and is working to bring him home before this year's federal election, highly placed sources have revealed to The Sunday Age.

Attention on the Hicks case will intensify with the arrival of US Vice-President Dick Cheney on Thursday, and Prime Minister Howard is being pressed to defuse the issue.

With anger over the handling of the Hicks case growing across the community and within the ranks of the Coalition, a senior Howard Government adviser has revealed that the Prime Minister "wants this issue off the agenda before the election campaign starts".

"That means we bring him home. It is highly likely that David Hicks will be back in Australia before October and right now we are working out the politics of how we do that," the adviser told The Sunday Age.

For David Hicks

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