April 2 is Close the Gap Day – an annual reminder of the commitment to eliminate the massive difference in average life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
A sign of the initial success of this campaign is the growing number of governments and political leaders who have signed on to it, making a public pledge [...]
March 27, 2009 – 11:07 am
While many Queenslanders last Saturday night were focusing on what the election result might be, a benefit show for jailed Palm Island man Lex Wotton was being held in the inner-Brisbane suburb of West End (which coincidentally is in the electorate of both the Premier and the Prime Minister). West End is also home to [...]
February 18, 2009 – 8:24 pm
Given the enormous under-representation of Indigenous Australians in full-time employment, it is hard not to be sympathetic or supportive of any efforts aimed at increasing employment opportunities, even if one has doubts about the prospects of success. So the announcement last year by mining magnate “Twiggy” Forrest that he was working with the federal government [...]
January 12, 2009 – 3:00 pm
Last week’s furore over the Keith Windschuttle/Quadrant hoax seems to have died down – you can read a summary of some of the reaction here. While Crikey and one my fellow bloggers at this site put quite a lot of focus on it, I must say I found it hard to get very worked up [...]
November 23, 2008 – 11:08 pm
Graham Ring, a columnist with the National Indigenous Times, had a good piece on Online Opinion last week bemoaning the difficulties of having a rational debate on Indigenous issues in Australia.
It strikes me that some of the commentary on Indigenous Affairs in this country has become so poisonous – not just among the media, but [...]
October 24, 2008 – 11:49 pm
On Wednesday I attended a rally outside the Brisbane District Court, held to show support for Palm Island man, Lex Wotton, whose trial had been going for two weeks. The jury started deliberating on the Thursday. When I saw news that they still hadn’t reached a decision on the Friday afternoon, with Lex having spent [...]
October 14, 2008 – 12:31 pm
The report from independent review of the federal Intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities is being attacked before the ink is dry. Yet almost all the attacks seem to be ignoring the evidence about what has been happening on the ground, and the views of the people that live there, instead treating policies such as [...]
October 5, 2008 – 11:10 am
The federal government has indicated they are looking at spending up to twenty billion dollars, currently sitting in a bucket labelled “The Building Australia Fund”, to assist in combating the looming economic downturn. The notion of pump priming the economy for this purpose is reasonable enough in theory. However, there are plenty of reasons to justify [...]
September 30, 2008 – 10:45 am
There is an old saying, attributed to former NSW Labor Premier and firebrand Jack Lang, that a politician should always back the horse called self-interest, as it will be the only one really trying. This quote is often used to portray politics as an activity that is ultimately driven by cynicism, but it can also [...]
