Australian politics
Doing the Darwin Shuffle Part Two. The Northern Territory as a tax haven: 1982 to 1986
April 15, 2018 1
Senator WALSH — I was aware of the fact that the Northern Territory is heavily dependent upon Commonwealth revenue [and] I have noted from time to time that nobody has a more voracious appetite for Commonwealth money than the present Northern Territory Chief Minister, although incongruously nobody is a more vocal critic of the Commonwealth taxes which raise the revenue which he so voraciously consumes. Senator Peter Walsh, Hansard, May 1983.
Doing the Darwin Shuffle. The Northern Territory as a tax haven. Part One: 1971 to 1982
April 15, 2018
Graeme Lewis was part éminence grise, part bagman and part trouble-maker—as often within as without—for the NT's Country Liberal Party for more than forty years. Lewis passed away in early April while speaking from the floor of the 2018 annual conference of his beloved CLP. For all his apparent successes and failings—I'll leave the hagiography and excoriation for others—Graeme Lewis never held publicly elected office but nonetheless deserves respect as the Northern Territory's long-term political player par excellence. Lewis was also a prominent player in the Darwin Shuffle, the avoidance scheme that operated in the NT from at least the early 1970s through to the 1980s.
“A species of contempt heretofore unknown to the law”: Registrar of the Supreme Court (NT) v Nationwide News and Craig Dunlop
April 3, 2018
The lessons for Court administrators? If you are going to bring contempt charges against a journalist and their publisher then you must conduct a proper investigation of the circumstances of publication, in particular who published what, when and on whose authority. While it is unstated in Chief Justice Grant's reasons for judgment—for fairly obvious reasons—the real problems in this case lie with the conduct of the Registrar's case and the apparent lack of any investigation sufficiently thorough enough to gather evidence to meet the standard of proof required by the Court.
Book-burnings of our times. Clinton Walker’s Deadly Woman Blues gets pulped …
March 8, 2018 1
There are no winners in any of this—a group of women are (rightfully it seems) aggrieved by Walker's (admitted) failures in research and diligence, a respected author has suffered a terrible fall from grace and none of us (well, most of us) will get to read what is/was without doubt a valuable contribution to our shared musical history.
Essential documents from Aboriginal Australia: 7 – the 2008 Yuendumu Petition
March 4, 2018
Supporti-ki karlipa wangkami, tala manu nyiya kanti-kanti yungungurlu ngalpa yinyi nyampurla ngurungka. Nyampurla Yurntumu-rla panu karlipa madarni nyiya-ningki-jarra ngula karliparla yulkami. Madarni karlipa jana Mt Theo program, kurdu kurdu kurlangu, Warlpiri-rli ngulpa karlipa jana tiji-mani, PAW, Mampumaninja-Kurlangu jarlu patu ku, WarlukurIangu arts centre, manu yangka ngula kalu jana mardarni wiri-wiri-rli kurdu-kurdu. Ngulalparlipa mangu pungkalayi, Yungurlu ngalpa nyanyi nguru kari wardingki-rli pirrdiji ngula karlipa mardarni.
10 more years of “beads and mirrors” – Yuendumu’s 2008 ‘Statement from the Heart’
March 4, 2018
Yapa-patu nganimpa, Yurnturnu wardingki karndu nyarra wangkami ny arnpu statemcnt purdanyajaku manu yungurnkurlu pina kanyi Federal manu N.T. Government kirra ... Nyurru ngurla juku!
Chief Justice Michael Grant speaks on the controversy concerning the conduct of the youth justice jurisdiction in Alice Springs
February 4, 2018
From time to time there may be instances of inappropriate judicial conduct falling short of misconduct warranting removal. Sometimes these are matters which may be addressed and remedied by way of appeal. In such cases the appellate court will generally make comment designed to prevent, so far as possible, any repetition of the inappropriate conduct.
“Free of the hell that the Australian government made for us on Manus … We all need freedom”
January 23, 2018 1
I am very happy to be free of the hell that the Australian government made for us on Manus. But we are sad for those who are still waiting so long. We can't stop thinking of everyone who are still on Manus. We all need freedom.
Queensland Police State, by Earthworks Poster Collective, 1978
December 27, 2017
Further to the previous post by John Birmingham published at his Alien Side Boob website, this just popped into my inbox from Chips Mackinolty. It is a poster—among many—that he knocked up while at the Earthworks Poster Collective in Sydney around this time. Chips also sent through the following short note … see, even New South […]
Requiem for a Monster, by John Birmingham
December 25, 2017 6
All those ratfucks understood was strength and fear and the simple joy of driving their enemies before them. There was no schadenfreude in seeing Bjelke-Petersen humiliated before the Fitzgerald Inquiry when he was unable to explain what was meant by the doctrine of the separation of powers, because all it did was hammer home the truth that we'd been comprehensively arse-raped by a man with the ethics of a starving sewer rat, and the political instincts of a sabre-toothed baboon with a really scorching methamphetamine addiction.