ABC's Lateline Tony Jones interviewed historian Professor Henry Reynolds last evening about the impact of the Government's formal apology to the Stolen Generations.He said that Brendan Nelson's response was like 'trying to walk on the both sides of a bard-wired fence', a quote often attributed to John Beilke Peterson.
Here's the transcript and the Video. (Windows Media Broadband or Real Player Broadband)
You may also want to read the 1997 Bringing them Home report.
3 comments:
Oh for Chrissakes, can someone get onto YOUTUBE and tell those ALP staffers, journos and murris to "Leave Brendan Nelson alooooooone!"
And therin lay the rubb. Communication has been a big problem between whites and blacks. The whites don't speak black and the blacks turn their back. So be it.
Nothing changes, if anything it could be a little worse, especially when they hold their hands out for more of our money. The Labor Party would be well advised to remember that the Coalition held power for 10 years. The Labor Party didn't get in on the back of the promised black apology.
The Labor Party were returned because Australia was losing its most cherished value, "a fair go".
We were losing our identity as a decent and fair minded country.
Howard sent naval gun ships out to prevent a Norwegian ship from coming into Australian waters, after it had obeyed the rule of sea and picked up some Afghani and Iranian refugees. The Norwegian Ship, the Tampa, ran out of fuel. Howard incarcerated children and babies in barbed wire enclosures in the desert for years, pictures of whom were sent around the world.
So while the Liberals were bleating and wringing their hands about how "the Muslims treat their women" they sure as H0ELL were not going to let a few dozen Afghanis who had braved their lives to bring their women and girls to Australia, remain in Australia.
It galled us!! The rank hypocracy!
But what a hideous mixed message it sent to the rest of the world.
Then the Libs decided that the Australian worker's wages should be "as competitive as Asian workers". So while the Liberal Party sent up cheers to the rooftops, ordinary Aussies figured out that there are several billion Asians close to us earning less than 50c a day. The Libs were clear and committed. Aussie wages were going to be "as competitive as Asians."
This would have meant the loss of a "fair go" for Australia's six million wage earners as they would have been reduced to working peasants, probably within a few years.
The Libs also wanted to wipe out another "fair go" inherent in our society. Dismissal on the spot is not fair.
Finally, the Libs wanted passionately to take away our democratic rights. The right to a trail, no matter what our crime is, is enshrined as one of the most fundamental rights of a democracy. We are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.
The Libs were hellbent on taking that away with the David Hicks case. As I said, one of our most basic rights, handed down to us from Magna Carta.
As I said at the beginning, the Labor Party were voted in to restore Australia as a DECENT, FAIR MINDED AND GENEROUS country, where all people are given a fair go.
Our rising house prices are largely the result of the Howard Government halving the capital gains tax in 2001, and reducing negative gearing taxes, thus causing a stampede in "investment" housing.
This also changed the fairness of our housing policy, where prior to that, young couples could afford to buy a home.
Labor was thus elected because the character of Australia, under Howard, was changing to that of a mean minded, mean spirited country where greed has caused housing unaffordibility, and racism was driving a wedge between Anglo Saxon caucasians and the rest.
Labor was elected because Howard lied. The Liberal Party today have not apologised for "weapons of mass destruction" and the part John Howard played in the ruin of Iraq, a country which never did us or the USA any harm.
Labor was elected because Australia is a mid ranking country and of some weight around the world. Seeing our Prime Minister on bended knee, licking the backside of an American President (Bush) is outright insulting to Australians who expect their Prime Minister to hold his own and act like a man. not a lap dog.
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