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Zevico
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Melbourne
Apr 2002
time: 15:19
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What the hell are you doing there, you half-witted ninkampoop! The whole of Australia is one giant hole, but Townsville and Tasmania are like craters within craters; the lice on the lice, if you will. My advice? Get the hell away from there. Go to Surfer's Paradise, or Brisbane if you must, or preferably Sydney/Melbourne. Anywhere else is a waste of time. You wanna hold some animals? Go to Melbourne, and drive out to Healsville sanctuary. But nooo, you just had to pick Holesville. When you come back home, smack that travel agent of yours in the face. Over and over again. Australia is NOT a tourist attraction people. Repeat, NOT a tourist attraction. It's a giant strip of suburbia dotted with boring towns, boring cities, and boring, boring koalas.
Ever heard of a good Australian author? Neither have I. The phrase is an oxymoron.
So I have a few issues with my country. Sue me.
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molly bloom
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Lundenwic
Oct 2001
time: 15:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Lonestar
For some reason the Aborigines (Koori?) seemed to be, uh, angrier at the few Black sailors in our group then us Gringos. |
I can offer no explanation for that I'm afraid.
The modern history of Queensland does offer some reasons for the plight of the state's indigenous Koori population- there was extensive political and police corruption at local and state level, gerrymandering and rampant racism- and it wasn't until the end of the Sixties that Kooris were granted full rights as citizens.
A frequent joke was 'What's the last thing an Abo sees in Queensland ? The inside of a jail cell.'
Unfortunately it was often too true.
It's worth remembering as well that there are far fewer Kooris as percentage of the population in Australia than there are African Americans in the States, and that even now, many Kooris still pursue as much of a traditional lifestyle as possible.
" Land rights wrongs
Commonwealth Games protests banned
Aborigines face a primitive government in Queensland.
AT midyear, Black Australian leaders were maintaining that their protests for land rights during this year’s Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Queensland, would be peaceful.
But the state’s ageing Premier, John Bjelke-Petersen — leader of the right-wing National Party, has been shooting from the hip even more wildly than usual.
Early in the year — to tie up the anti-terrorism, anti-any-kind-of-protest regulations — the Premier had his Police Minister, Russ Hinze push through a Commonwealth Games Bill. The Queensland State Council for Civil Liberties branded the bill as evidence that the Queensland government was determined to crush any attempt by Aboriginal land rights groups to draw international attention to their cause during the Games. The Government insisted that the legislation was anti-terrorist.
Some aspects of the new law:
• Police can arrest anybody holding a placard or handing out leaflets ‘in or near’ (within 16 kilometres of) a Games venue.
• ‘Prohibited items’ (not defined), ‘in or near’ a ’notified area’ can be seized without reason.
• Police officers have complete immunity against liability for any action they take ‘in good faith and purporting to be done for the purposes of the act’. Which means that a police officer who unwittingly beats to a pulp a legitimate ticket holder at the Games could successfully plead that he acted ‘in good faith’.
Mr Hinze says ‘good citizens’ have nothing to fear from the legislation.
Then came the Queensland Aboriginal Land Bill (actually an amendment of earlier legislation). It was raced through the state parliament, along party lines, without amendment. The act as amended denies Aboriginal groups throughout Queensland even perpetual leasehold over their traditional lands.
The Age of Melbourne commented in an editorial entitled ‘Black act in Queensland’:
‘Underlying all Queensland Government actions has been the denial of the principles of land rights and real self-management by Aborigines... The form of tenure for people with traditional links with the land fell well short of inalienable freehold title, essential if justice is to be served. . . The legislation, as introduced to Queensland Parliament, must not be tolerated by the Federal (National) Government.
Mr Bjelke-Petersen’s next trick was to come up with an unlikely ally— a unionist who had been expelled from the Australian Communist Party and was now an official of the Victorian Pastrycooks and Biscuit Makers Union. This man, the Premier claimed, had proof that the Aboriginal land rights movement was a Soviet takeover plot and that Aboriginal land would be used as bases for assaults by foreign forces on Australia. Even ministers from his own party couldn’t swallow that one. Bjelke-Petersen stood alone — defiant as ever.
In June, Aborigines still did not know if they would get support for their campaign from any competing Black Commonwealth nation. The outlook was not reassuring. But, desperate though they might be, Australia’s Aborigines do not have a modern record of violent protest. And that is not likely to change. What is worrying is whether Queensland’s police will be able to resist wielding the big stick their government has handed them. There is cause to worry when a government legalises violence for its own use. "
That's from 1982 !
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09-05-2005 17:14
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