By Allan Richardson

Unless Erwin Schrödinger and Dr Anne Twomey have secretly colluded, I’m not a constitutional lawyer. Nor am I even a conveyancing clerk. The nearest I come to law offices is to sign compulsory documents, when electronic signing is unavailable. That establishes my law credentials. Although I am seeking involvement in the burgeoning APT (Australian Pub Testers).

It’s said that it’s the people who make the ultimate decision in a referendum. This is superficially true, but the wording of the referendum is the real driver. This is common knowledge to the proponents of both sides of the argument of course, but as soon as the major political parties decided that it was their responsibility to join the fray and to drive everyone into making political decisions, it became as dishonest and grubby as an election campaign! As always, the white noise obscured the facts. Dutton will never recover from Widening the Gap, but so what? He’s just another LNP black hole.

The failure of the referendum will not be the shock to the First Nations community that has been mooted. It becomes just another disappointment in an endless catalogue of FNP subjugation and disenfranchisement.

The real loser of a referendum fail is the Australian electorate. The opportunity for major reforms to our defective social cohesion has just been squandered by both major political parties, and both need to be held accountable.

It may be counter-intuitive but compare Albanese with Netanyahu. The latter is said to have deliberately strengthened Hamas, the theory being that he was seeking justification for an all-out assault on the Palestinians, so as to reverse their ‘illegal’ occupation once and for all. Albanese deliberately insisted on bundling the Voice with Constitutional recognition of the FNP, and refused to consider any changes to the wording, knowing that this applied the kiss of death to the entire process, while blowing millions of dollars and many months of government commitment. And as expected, Dutton did what Dutton always does, and said No to everything. The No campaign was never going to have a head-to-head debate, as it had no substantive argument, so the outcome was pre-determined. Do not for one minute imagine that the Prime Minister will be outraged, disillusioned or aghast after the failure of the ‘reform’. It’s just the hocus-pocus of politics.

Why do we continually allow ourselves to be duped by those for whom we’ve entitled with our votes? Whilst we continue to elect party politicians who prioritise self and party ahead of their electorates, or even the national interest, we can no longer uphold our pretence at democracy.

The party-political shenanigans must stop. Vote Independent where possible. Even when it’s as unlikely as a Teal defeating a ‘popular’ sitting Treasurer. Oh, wait …

Remember that feeling inside when the Matilda’s inspired the nation? Many of us didn’t even know the rules, everyone did by the end of it though. Excited conversations were had about whether we should call it soccer or football, as we recalled the nail-biting moments of that penalty shootout. Didn’t it feel good to feel connected to everyone? To enjoy goodwill so strong that you could hear the electricity crackling in the air. To feel pride so fierce that it gave you goosebumps and brought tears to your eyes all at once. It was addictive, and satisfied a yearning you didn’t realise you had.

This is what feeling united as a country feels like.

Our commonalities

Australians have more in common with Indigenous Australians, than we do differences. When we are being welcomed to country, we are being welcomed by a culture that welcomes us and respects country all at the same time. This isn’t far away from how many of us welcome people into our homes. ‘Make yourself at home’, or ‘my house is your house’, we say with affection. We hug and kiss each other on the cheeks and thank our guests for bringing a bottle of wine, or cake for us to enjoy together.

Time for change

It’s been fifty-six-years since the 1967 constitutional referendum gave the federal parliament power to decide upon Indigenous affairs. It was also when Aboriginal people were counted as part of the Australian population for the first time.

Twelve-years of consultation between over two-hundred-and-fifty Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leaders and Elders, has led us to the Voice referendum. Politicians from governments on both sides have also been involved.

The constitution is a rule book from which laws can be made

Unless you’re a member of a local club or are a company board member, most of us have never voted to amend a constitution before. For clubs they usually relate to things like increasing expenditure to fix the facilities of the club toilets. For companies, it could be a constitutional amendment regarding shares.

This isn’t about one group of people having more rights than others

This Saturday’s constitutional vote is not about giving Indigenous people more rights than everyone else. Did you know that we are the only liberal democracy in the world without a Human Rights Act, or a Constitutional Charter of Rights? The author believes that we should be striving to include this into our constitution too.

This Saturday is about giving Indigenous people a seat at the table when it comes to the federal government making decisions about their affairs. Voting, Yes, will give them a way to provide advice directly to elected members of parliament; the ones that we vote for to do this type of work. The reason that the Voice needs to be formalised as part of the constitution via referendum, is to ensure that future governments can’t undo all of the hard work that has gone into getting to this point.

Final thoughts

As was explained to me by a voter that changed their mind about voting, No: “Who am I to stand in the way of a chance for Aboriginals to make their lives better?”

Indeed, how can we deny an opportunity that does not affect the vast majority of our lives in the slightest? Voting No will ensure more of the same, which clearly has not worked. Voting Yes will finally allow Indigenous Australians some control over their destinies.

Channel the warm glow in your heart that you felt for the Matildas, and vote Yes.

This article was originally published on MelMac Politics – Shining a light on politics.

By Joey King

I desperately need help.

The Project will be sharing my story Friday, 6 October at 7pm. Please watch it and share about it.

I’m back in my car on the 12 October and I’m very stressed I won’t find anywhere before then.

I am a 54-year-old woman with long term, severe mental health concerns and I have been homeless since 07/19. I’ve been on the housing waitlist since 03/23 = 186 weeks when the average wait time is 113.5 weeks and I was priority list 04/22 = 75 weeks, when the average is 52 weeks.

I called the Department of Housing. They told me they were not allocating housing for 2022 approvals as yet. I could possibly have another 12 to 18 months of moving from house to house every month.

This is not a solution and while I like staying in beautiful homes and hanging out with cool animals, it is seriously affecting my mental health resilience and overwhelming despair I will ever have something of my own or be a part of a community again.

I have tried to house sit so that I don’t sleep in my car. I am on a couple of websites and four Facebook pages for sitting. Apart from students and tourists, there are more people struggling with the housing crisis wanting to house sit. People are also renting their homes and sitting to take advantage of the rental crisis. More competition and less sits available.

This is such an unstable form of accommodation, and the situation can change at any time dependent upon the needs of the people for whom I’m providing this service. When house sitting options are not available or the arrangement falls through, I’m at high risk of needing to reside in my car which puts my safety and health at risk.

I’m exhausted from this constant worry, my back hurts because I have to change beds so often and they are usually not good quality or sleeping in my car. I’m so tired of being surrounded by strangers’ belongings.

When I first became homeless, I was paying $200 per month for storage. I now pay $500 per month. My brother who lived with schizophrenia and has since died by suicide, used to work with wood and much of my furniture has been handmade by him. I haven’t seen any of it for more than four years.

I have no contact with my family. My support network is made up of old friends who live in Perth, mostly in the suburbs surrounding Fremantle. My long-term mental health conditions make it difficult for me to reach out to others and to establish new relationships. I am continually at risk of social isolation and my ongoing state of homelessness is detrimental to my mental health and as a result, continues to deteriorate because of the huge amount of duress I am endlessly under.

Due to ongoing homelessness, I am unable to establish roots within a community and I find it difficult to work toward my health, employment, and relationship goals. These goals have been identified within my NDIS plan and I’m currently receiving funding from the Federal Government to achieve these. I am unable to work toward these while I remain homeless and if I do not use this money, I will lose it through future audits and will not have funds once I am housed in the future to accomplish my goals.

Within my NDIS plan, I am funded for Core Supports. This funding can be used “to help with daily activities and my current disability related needs”. At times, I experience rolling panic attacks and I need overnight support. This requires the support worker to have their own room to sleep in. I currently cannot access these supports as it is usually a condition of the owners of the homes I sit, that I do not have people stay over. Another aspect of my transience is I cannot find an ongoing Support Worker. Moving north and south of the city and the southwest prevents me from forming a relationship with a Support Worker. This has obvious ramifications to my mental health, ability to interact and the risk of losing this funding because I’m not making use of it.

I have been diagnosed with major depression, social anxiety, Bi-Polar Disorder, psychosis, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. As part of my recovery from these conditions, I engage in activities such as painting and exercise. Due to the social anxiety, it is often impossible for me to go outside, and I am currently unable to engage in these activities in other people’s homes.

My much-loved dog passed away last year, and on the advice of my psychiatrist, I have recently purchased a new dog.

I do not want to be this person but cannot see a way things will change without your help. I spent the weekend wondering what the point was anymore and regretting buying my dog. I should be in hospital, but I can’t because I’m looking after a stranger’s house and their pet.

Thank you for reading. Please share my story and watch The Project, so you understand what is happening to women in crisis circumstances, becoming the fastest growing demographic in homelessness.

I give consent for you to share my story with everyone you can think of and for everyone to share and watch my story on The Project.

Yours sincerely

Joey King

THIS THREAD
I desperately need help.

Hello, please watch me on @theprojecttv tonight. Channel 10, 7pm talking about the 186 weeks I have spent on the Dept Housing waitlist. Please share so everyone can see what my life is like. Thanks 🏡 🙏
I’m back in my car on the 12 October

— Joey King (@Joey_KinginWA) October 6, 2023

By Jane Salmon

All the hyperbole about Pezzullo’s fall from grace is annoying.

Everything Pezzullo oversaw on Manus and Nauru was actually worse than all the insider grandstanding, the attacks on public service neutrality, the enabling of lobbyists, the damage to democracy, the filthy deals. He oversaw actual torture, restrictive practices, medical neglect, human despair, denial of access to lawyers, bashings, extreme corruption, abuse of youth.

The neutrality of the public service has always been a myth. But brutalising refugees is a very obvious low. Devastating more than 2000 lives is significant.

Media have been far too gentle with the Home Affairs culture for way too long.

Address that by all means, but also give the legacy caseload of refugees permanency now.

Now, how do I tackle this? Do I use the information in my “To read” list as source material for another article, or do I use it all as an overview of our politics in its current gloomy state? I select the latter and click into my “To read” box.

1. The first piece I come across makes a rather obvious point. What if the NO vote wins the upcoming referendum? Before I address the issue, I watched Warren Mundine on Insiders on Sunday, 17 September, and I was sometimes confused about who he was supporting.

He wanted a treaty where, as I believe, a Voice is a prerequisite, the first step toward getting there. It has taken 15 years to arrive at where we are today. A treaty or treaties may take as long.

And on this subject, what does a NO vote mean? Given the absence of other propositions, it must mean that it is a vote for the continued domination of Indigenous Australians. This thought arises from a rather excellent piece by Ryan Cox for the ABC on the ethics of the Voice.

2 Stuart Robert and the Synergy 360 procurement controversy rolls onward. Robert has, predictably:

“… emphatically denied allegations that Synergy 360’s co-owner proposed a structure for the former MP to profit from government contracts… In its interim report tabled last Wednesday, Parliament’s audit committee said it had received ‘concerning evidence … raising serious allegations and questions about financial inappropriateness, improper relationships and undisclosed conflicts of interest’ with parties receiving government contracts.

As a consequence, the committee has referred the matter to the NACC.

3 Next up is the latest report from the NACC:

Assessment is a process by which the Commission considers, first, whether the referral is in its jurisdiction and raises a corruption issue (which they call triaging) and, secondly, whether and if so, how to investigate the issue raised by the referral.

Since 1 July 2023, 310 referrals have been excluded at the triage stage because they do not involve a Commonwealth public official or do not raise a corruption issue.

198 referrals are pending triage.

150 referrals are currently in active triage.

145 referrals are currently under the second stage of assessment.

4 For something different:

“A recent poll of Anglican clergy for the Times showed that only a quarter think that today’s Britain is a Christian country. Almost two-thirds believed Britain could be called Christian “only historically, not currently”. The poll showed, too, majority support for priests to be allowed to marry gay couples and for the church to drop its opposition to premarital sex.”

In the same theme, this article about the state of religion in England somewhat mirrors its position in Australia, where its survival is also under threat. People may point to the tremendous past revivals, but they didn’t have to contend with today’s technologies.

Before I move on, you may have noticed that I am a devoted reader of The Guardian. You may not know it, but Malcolm Turnbull did a feasibility study before it entered Australia. I recall Turnbull saying at the time something like. “You may not like its politics but with Lenore Taylor and Katherine Murphy you can be assured that you will read the truth.” But don’t quote me.

5 This article by Paul Bongiorno titled Spectre of Berejiklian hovers over the National Anti-Corruption Commission caught my eye because finding that a person did something “seriously corrupt” and then doing nothing about it is like an egg half-cooked.

6 Last week, in my piece, The ALP is best prepared to take us into the future I briefly mentioned a speech by Gen Angus Campbell at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Conference. It was one of those words that make you think of speeches that hit me right in that part of the brain that sends a shiver down your spine.

“Democracies face ‘truth decay’ as Artificial Intelligence blurs fact and fiction, warns head of Australia’s military.”

(This statement, and others, really got me thinking about how we are to combat the misuse of A-I in the coming years.)

He accused Russia of “wielding disinformation as a weapon of statecraft” in the United States and the United Kingdom. Such campaigns could increasingly be used to fracture “the trust that binds us”.

He said of the climate crisis:

“… we may all be humbled by a planet made angry by our collective neglect.

“Today, we are more connected and have access to more information than any other time in history – and also more disinformation. conference.

“We rightly pride ourselves on being an open, diverse and liberal society – in other words, exposed.

“Healthy and functioning societies like ours depend upon a well-informed and engaged citizenry.

“Unfortunately, it is often said, we are increasingly living in a post-truth world where perceptions and emotions often trump facts.

“We can sometimes slip out of the reality of these truths, mainly when so many lies are being thrust upon us.”

7 Another piece I highly recommend is by the editor of The AIMN. Michael Taylor systematically rebukes the rants of Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price:

“Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comment that:

… she did not believe there are any ongoing impacts of colonisation, but in some cases, a “positive impact”.

… begs to be disputed. There is zero positivity in the planned extermination of the world’s oldest culture. But that was the plan…

In a younger Australia there was an agenda in both the colonial and early federal governments; that being the extermination of Aborigines. Not only was it the will of ‘man’ that the Aborigines be exterminated, but also the will of God. Or so they believed.”

8 Another is from the ever-popular and seriously funny Rossleigh titled The Clear Bias Of The Labor Government! It was another of his satirical gems:

“Of course, the people complaining about the bias of Labor on the Voice aren’t the slightest bit concerned that the Liberal Party have adopted a position. Neither are they concerned about the National Party’s decision to oppose it. Or Pauline Hanson’s One Notion. Or…”

Do yourself a favour and read these two truthworthy articles from two of The AIMN’s finest writers.

“Truthworthy.” Did I invent a new word?

9 My last read is from Freedom House, a piece about the growth of the Far Right in Europe, written by April Gordon who chillingly warns that:

“Far-right groups are growing in prominence and sophistication across Eurasia, particularly in countries where notable democratic and liberalising reforms have taken place. These movements have emerged in similar contexts and share certain characteristics, and should be evaluated as a phenomenon in their own right.”

There is much deeper stuff in my “To read file” and plenty more, but this will suffice for now.

By Anthony Haritos

Yes, we were cheap. And we were very nasty. Yes, we did fuck your mind over. Yes, it’s true; we did twist your moral compass completely out of shape so that you’d never ever remember you ever ever had one.

Because – and this is a tad difficult since I feel we’re now old pals – you never ever had one.

Here’s the rub, baby. We worked very well together. A great team. So good in fact, they’re gone now. All of them. And there’s no one left to speak for you.

IN THE BEGINNING …

“It’s time now to round up all these subversives and traitors.”

When supporting the NO vote in The Voice includes this Facebook statement we have a problem.

When it was preceded by “Witch” and followed by “She should be charged with treason”, it’s not just Professor Marcia Langton who has a problem, nor the two authors, but all of us.

The last time we went through this routine bigtime the footnote was,

“Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me”(1)

Given the movies documenting the descent from first line to last, one might suspect the line was placed mischievously. Yes, daily life is filled with boredom but …

This post isn’t to slag the creators of the comments nor defend the Yes vote, which is facing imminent defeat yet which on balance one can only advocate.

It’s however reminding how people can be easily transformed into cauldrons of hatred, and of the ramifications.

Germany 1930s from which the “Then they came for me …” poem sprang, saw Nazi media manipulators along with media and munitions Barons slavering for favour oversee the transformation.

(I feel like a crashing bore writing this stuff, ‘cos we already know this, It’s elementary, my Dear Watson, isn’t it?)

But us, Australians circa 2023; sophisticated, first-world, well-travelled etc, transformed?

Apparently yes.

Murdoch’s News Limited is gleefully consolidating its ability to twist our psyche into a contorted horror show.

No healing or counter will come from slavering Opposition leader Peter Dutton and his cabal whose only course is to ram the dark message home.

It’s inevitable: Blackfellas are going to face a more hostile, racist Australia than last year. What else besides?

(My fellow) Australians, don’t get sucked into feeding this growing vortex of hate.

Berlin mid-1930s images show a society going along just dandy until one morning footpaths were covered with shattered glass.

Australians are still at the Falling-In-Love stage with Fox News’ younger relative Sky News. Have we publicly considered its raison d’ etre? Why does it exist? Why that particular agro one-dimensional format? It’s new, glittering, polished, seductive, and we’re bunnies in the spotlight.

The polished art form which Fake-News-Obfuscation became during the 2016 US Trump-Clinton election was then ripe for export. Where next? Down Under?

CODA. Giving away trade secrets …

Orwell’s 1984? No, we’re Huxley’s Soma-fueled Brave New World, ‘cos you’ll never know you’ve been incarcerated nor that you’re on the stuff.’

We’re warm honey trickling through your veins. We’re here merely reminding you of what you already instinctively know. We’re a global money-spinning machine, baby, just keep dropping in the coins and we’ll keep pressing your booster buttons. We’re here for your pleasure. Relax, and enjoy. We’re The Future, baby.

We’re the voice.

(1) 1946 post-war confessional prose by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). Wikipedia:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me –

And there was no one left to speak for me.

By Andrew Klein

I remember that as a teenager we had to sing ‘God save the Queen’. This was done at school, in cinemas and public events. Often this was linked to stories of horrific battles and wars. I was told that it was a good thing to fight for ‘Queen and country’. I really did believe as a child that somehow it was the job of young men to save the Queen and once that was done, whoever was left would save the country. It always involved saving virtuous people from complete bastards. I once asked if the Queen had been involved with less savage projects, building farms or housing estates. Apparently not, she was our Sovereign a very abstract concept that meant that ‘God had anointed’ her and placed her over me to rule me.

I looked up what ‘anointed’ meant and found that involved senior clergy and holy oil. The process of anointed was not included in the films of the coronation. Turned out that the staff had forgotten the recipe for that oil and that new supplies had to be made in a hurry.

Here I was, 12 years old and discovering that my Queen was my ruler by right of birth and a concoction of manmade oils applied by men wearing flowing dresses and that she was attributed with all kinds of magic, least of all the ability to motivate large numbers of young men much like me to go forth and kill large numbers of men just like me and of course the people of her ‘dominion’ and selectively anyone who seriously annoyed her. There were cenotaphs (empty tombs) all over the countryside attesting to what appeared to be divine will.

By the time I was 19, the dream had worn off, in the reality of life it seemed that our Sovereign had little interest in the wellbeing of ordinary folk and that pomp and circumstance, catering for tourists and occasionally foreign wars summed up her imagined role. As a figure head she became more and more irrelevant. Killing foreigners seemed to be more of a state function designed to protect assets and investments, resources. Moral high ground was always found or created to justify what in hindsight was state sanctioned murder. Of course, wars and created chaos are ways of advancing a state’s plans, that is the sad reality.

I met, on my journey through life, many who were once the enemies of my Sovereign and when times were good, we became friends. It’s funny how you can wake up, feel the rising sun and see the blue skies above and then, in an instant, you find your mind’s eye looking at a cenotaph. If we had all been honest at the start, accepting of the fact that there was no more holy oil that created rulers and that all of this was in essence an arrangement by mutual consent, maybe we could have built farms and houses instead of cenotaphs.

Dear Pauline,

I’ve read that you have been confused and outraged that the number of people laying claim to Aboriginal ancestry is increasing. If you bear with me, I think I can explain.

I’m a middle-aged white woman who was raised in a very white-seeming rural community. As far as I knew, I had minimal contact with anyone who was of Aboriginal descent. Looking back, I can remember families who were darker than the Spanish, curlier haired than the black-haired Welsh and Irish… and I now know many of these people had Aboriginal ancestors because, while they didn’t ever speak of it back then, they’ve spoken about it now, or written about it in their family trees.

But when I was growing up, if someone’s Nanna was one of the tens of thousands of brown skinned young women who’d been taken from their Aboriginal homes, raised on a mission, and sent to serve as domestic help in the homes and farms of our country, most avoided talking about it. If they were fair enough to pass as white, they never mentioned their Aboriginal family origins because they saw and heard the nasty treatment that their darker-skinned relatives got. They saw that they were less likely to be treated decently. Less likely to get a job, more likely to be bullied, bashed, arrested, or even killed. They were very quiet about their family tree, or they invented a family mythology that explained the darker features of their complexion.

It was discrimination that they wanted to avoid, and fear that fascism could return and see whole sections of society being marked out as inferior, even marked for genocide. It wouldn’t be the first time. Nobody wants that kind of horror visited on their children, or their grandchildren. They watch the news, and see the surges of fascism, racism, neo-Nazis wearing swastikas in public and throwing salutes at rallies. I don’t think their fear was unreasonable.

Sadly, they thought it best to let the heritage be lost – so much of it was destroyed already; what was the point of putting a target on your family’s back in an effort to preserve or re-claim a cultural heritage that was mere scraps of what it had once been, when the risks were so clear, and so harsh? Loving parents quietly allowing their children and grandchildren to become completely assimilated into white society is a safe, if tragic, option.

Whole generations have arisen while the elders of these nominally white families are still holding to their resolution to bring their descendants into the safety of the mainstream.

There are many in these families who know the truth. It’s a bit of an open secret, and as time passes and the old people pass away, the secret becomes a dilemma; should the children know? We’re in a safer society now. Most of the younger kids pass as white without question, and the darker skinned members of the family look well-tanned and maybe… nobody really cares about their skin colour anymore. Or nobody who matters. Only a handful of white supremacist dickheads think anything of it if their nurse, vet, retail assistant, or magistrate isn’t obviously pasty-white. Aboriginal heritage doesn’t carry the risk of bringing an automatic social downgrade anymore, especially for people who pass as white enough not to get brutally discriminated against by police, bouncers, nurses, security guards, employers, prospective in-laws etc.

This brings another dilemma for the younger generations: if they “come out” as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, they will also “out” their family members. What if their cousins don’t want to be identified as anything but generic white people? Is it fair to claim your own cultural heritage and ancestry if doing so will expose your cousin or siblings to nasty racist discrimination?

So, Pauline, I think that the increasing number of people who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a great reason. It’s because racist fearmongering is having a diminishing impact. Despite the best efforts of racists everywhere, Australia is smarter and more knowledgeable about race now. Not as many people are as deeply racist. Not as many people fear the resurgence of genocidal fascism in this country. Not as many people feel it’s necessary to hide their heritage.

More Australians now accept that “white looking” Aboriginal people have every right to ‘tick the box’. It’s becoming normalised that regardless of whether a person with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage has been raised on country in their ancestor’s ancient traditions, or whether they grew up in bland suburbia, the people who are claiming or re-claiming their cultural heritage should do so freely. Sure, they may get a job or a scholarship that’s been designated for Aboriginal people – but guess what? Aboriginal people now come in all shades. Some of the palest people I know (and I mean kids so white they have no visible eyebrows, and you get snow-blind just looking at them in sunlight) are first cousins to some who are quite noticeably brown and of obvious Aboriginal descent.

And for the Aboriginal people who are quite obviously of Aboriginal heritage, there’s no point in not marking the ‘of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent’ box. It’s not like the discrimination against your dark skin goes away if you deny your genetic heritage.

So then there’s the people who are in-between. Most of the time, nobody cares about their skin colour. They might or might not be marked as Aboriginal for the purposes of discrimination. They may or may not have been raised in households of intergenerational trauma and poverty caused by the destruction of their originating culture. Should they tick the box or not? I’d say it’s up to them.

It’s certainly not up to you or me, Pauline.

By Allan Richardson

Planksy, a highly experienced fitter, turner and boilermaker, cracked his head on the hoist after forgetting to let go a runaway rattle gun, also severely damaging a green Mitsubishi Magna, so no real loss there. But following HIA protocol, the shop steward sent Planksy off for a mandatory 11 days.

But so as not to be a burden on society, Planksy undertook free government transition training to be an Area Controller of a solar farm conglomerate, a change from being on the tools. He declared the course quite straightforward, apart from some new terminology and, as expected in the government-sponsored RoboTrans, TMFAs.

Because the transition course was, strictly speaking, incomplete, the course instructor subcontracted a Personal Trainer to direct exercise classes – a healthy body makes a healthy mind, said the PT, gibberishly – and as is the wont of said profession, punctuated their endless drivel with ‘Awesome!’.

Then a well-earned counter lunch before a gruelling afternoon session, known as ‘brainstorming’. Planksy and the others had to work out what the course should involve. The participants did a pretty good job, Planksy opined after the role play. It even reminded some students of a TV series!

* * * * *

It’s 2030, and surprisingly, the atmospheric CO2 has barely shifted since the 2022 election, and the Labor/Greens coalition governments that followed cannot agree amongst themselves, and are both going to go it alone, like the Libs and Gnats did after their destruction at the 2025 election. But unlike the earlier dissolution of the conservative coalition, the government parties are hoping to retain sufficient relevance to maintain their parties’ registrations. But the ever-increasing Indies see that as a bridge too far, as they finalise the Private Members Bill to at last legislate the UBI. (If there are any survivors left in the climate-damaged country to take advantage of this belated necessity.)

Meanwhile, at the International Head Office of Spark Central, Planksy has a problem. ‘We’re expecting to be about 15 gigawatts short over the peak’ said Planksy. ‘Someone ring the store and stock up. Get 20 gigawatts while you’re there. Can’t discount a possible outage, with the floodwater lapping at the panels and the substations partly submerged. I’ve been trained to manage this sort of common, unanticipated disappointment. My comprehensive training course included advanced Disappointment Management modules, featuring another prominent guest lecturer, who unfortunately failed to show up for the practical. And someone said the voltage was down a bit. Better get a truckload of volts, to be sure.

I’m not trying to be a prevenient naysayer. About 30 years ago, after I stopped working for da man, I helped a CBT facilitator to secure a State government contract to develop audio-visual Computer-Based Training modules. We developed a 60 second pilot as a sample for just over $70,000, but there were three of us. The module showed trainees how to effectively wield a broom safely, with the background wall featuring the three different types of fire-retardents. A work of art!

And I did a TAFE course myself about 20 years ago in Damage Mitigation, known by most people as venomous snake handling. Sure, I was about 60, and all the other participants … weren’t. But you wouldn’t feed any of them, far less having them in any way responsibly for your well-being!

If the transition to renewables hasn’t been mapped out in detail for the transition training, implementation and ongoing management of the new way, then Labor has failed. They’ve been spruiking Global Warming and Climate Change for the past decade, but they haven’t done their homework. They were excused for not announcing detailed plans before the election, just to see it squandered by relevance-deprived fifth columnists, but they’re the government now, and they can come out of hiding. Not that the LNP can even spell AGW!

The operation was successful, but the patient died.

It had been a long, hot day by the time Jake and I arrived at a far north SA town where we were to stay overnight before heading home the following morning.

Unpacked and cleaned-up we did what most blokes in an outback town do after a long, hot day: we headed for one of the town’s two pubs.

In we walked, heading straight to the bar I couldn’t help but notice that all eyes were on us.

“I wonder why everyone’s looking at us,” I whispered to Jake.

“Think about it,” he replied. “You’re a white fella walking in with a black fella.”

Jake, as you’ve guessed, is Aboriginal.

Our cool reception nonetheless disturbed me. Jake was a talented footballer and cricketer who back home was held in high esteem. Jake couldn’t walk down the street without people wanting to chat to him about last week’s game. This was the exact opposite.

Back to the story…

After a drink and a meal, we headed off to the other pub in town – a new place – where we’d planned to catch up with workmates who were also passing through.

And what a much nicer place it was… until we left to head back to our motel.

Walking through the reception area we saw a young Aboriginal girl being abused by three drunk, young white blokes. Their language and insults were disgusting.

”You’re nothing but a half-caste bitch.”

”You’re probably a slut.”

”People like you are better dead.”

And on it went. It was vile.

The girl, as you would imagine, was distressed and in tears.

Then one of the blokes saw Jake watching the proceedings, walked over, stood in his face, and shouted, “What the fuck are you staring at, ya boong?”

I squeezed in between them, stared at the other bloke, and came out with something passive, “Hey, lay off him. How about we get out of here and go our seperate ways?”

And off we all went. Jake and I headed to our motel while I assume the aggressors went to the other pub to continue with more mayhem.

At 2am I was awoken by a knock on my door. It was Jake. He was crying.

”What the hell’s the matter?” I asked.

His answer floored me: “I’ve never had a white fella stick up for me before.”

(Damn near brought a tear to my eye, too.)

To me, it was just an incident. To Jake it was something stronger. My one small action seemed to help to right a lifetime of wrongs.

So I’m voting Yes for Jake. And the tens of thousands like him.

By Jane Salmon

Does it require a refugee being passed like a parcel from well-meaning ally to ally in a relay of 70 towns? No.

That is way too extreme.

Many asylum seekers have bravely walked before: to mixed effect. It is however possible for refugees to campaign for a better visa from their precarious Aussie homes (such as they are).

Recent precedents offer hope to some Tamils who left Sri Lanka 12-16 years ago. The in-country conditions of the time are now mapped out for Tamils applying to Immigration.

If you are not Tamil, you can still assemble the evidence of conditions in your country at the time you were forced to leave and submit it with your application.

Refugees cannot all access mainstream multi-media campaigns. Refugee sector resources are not there. Moreover, your privacy is precious.

Right now, it seems that “getting a go” does require each refugee to put in an application for Ministerial Intervention through their lawyers … even if things have not gone well in the courts or by negotiation with Immigration before.

Will you buy new hiking boots plus podiatry … or a lawyer? It’ll cost at least $250 for either. I promise you, you’ll need a reputable lawyer, so start there.

Hard-pressed refugees don’t need to abandon their responsibilities at home to obtain a future. Keeping families safe is vital.

Skip the boots. Get someone to help write up your story and assemble home country data.

Perhaps you feel up to engaging with your local community (in the same way some high-profile families have) to become better known.

Bona fides & connection or trust do help speak to your character.

As we all know, volunteering is a great way to build up language skills, recover mental health and learn the written and unwritten rules of a place. But also protect your own interests; give of yourself only when you can.

Beware the patronisation of Anglo allies. We all have egos and agendas. We are all scrambling to show off what we think we can do. Being pulled in many different directions may not be what you need. Try to define your situation yourself.

But have courage. There are signs that greater fairness is possible.

We see you. Tell activists what you need. We are here to be educated and to help.

Let’s give uncertainty “the boot”. Get those applications and petitions in. We need a register of applications made.

Otherwise, “These Boots Are Made For Walking” and there will be a fluoro-clad, backpack-laden throng of all ages and stages bootscooting outside APH until everyone has permanency. Those optics could be pretty overwhelming for any government.

 

Graphic by Aja Bon

By Jane Salmon

Eight generations ago, my dirt-poor Celtic ancestors were colonisers. They logged trees, eroded the land. They brutalised animals. They farmed, fought, bred and built for themselves.

They probably also abused Aboriginal women or stockmen and participated in genocide. The evidence is well hidden but pops up in hints such as Aboriginal families bearing my surname across the rural area where my great-grandfather worked.

This has been minimised by subsequent generations determined to steep their identity in middle-class suburban “niceness”. They claimed to be “self-made” bankers. Land ownership has been an obsession for all of them.

The same Aborigines who were told by my forebears that they didn’t polish the silver properly could not have any level of dominion over their own lives. They were only given the vote in 1967.

“Money spent on them was wasted,” said the same patriarchs who stole their wages.

Perhaps white women should identify with Aborigines more. Yet Aborigines have always been welcoming to refugees, hospitable to me. The Aboriginal passports sent to refugees on Manus are a case in point.

So why should new migrants care? Because erasure and homogenisation keeps happening. You may have come here to escape discrimination, but you also want to protect your own precious cultural heritage.

And where was the equality Jacinta Price speaks of, that day in 1993 when we saw an Aboriginal woman turned away from a half empty church-run women’s refuge in Eastern Sydney? White hookers who had actually injected drugs in the waiting room of Childrens’ Court (while awaiting custodial hearings) were treated better.

Where is the equality when the nearest petrol station is many hours drive from where you were raised and where a handful of green beans costs $20?

The level playing field does not exist. The LNP are the first to claim every advantage or opportunity for themselves before kicking the ladder away. They socialise their losses while privatising profit. Then they whine about red tape … when not tangling lowlier Australians up in it.

I will be voting Yes proudly. Affirmative action of any kind is not handicapping the rest of us. It is redress.

And no matter how hard or tedious the dialogue is, it is honorable and necessary.

By Allan Richardson

I was attempting to complete an online appointment request form for a non-urgent plumbing job.

I filled in all the contact details, except for the phone number, the format being:

Prefilled country code field: +61. Tick.

(###) ### ####. Hmm.

Do people still have landlines? Not really, though this format started disappearing in 1994 and was totally gone by 1997.

The rest of the website’s functionality was schmick. The world’s first ever website appeared in 1991, so chronology dictates it’s older than the plumber that I’d used previously.

So, donning my lateral thinking cap, and noticing that the postcode field was missing, and that I’d had no difficulty with this page previously, I concluded that their website had been:

Triumphant trumpet fanfare …

*** UPGRADED ***

And the 11yo interning technician may have had a few too many red cordials and inadvertently added a digit field; one too many for a mobile format. And the software clearly expected the phone fields to be completed before accepting SUBMIT. A dead end for me …

I rang and spoke to a nice woman, surprisingly chatty at 07:40, who was surprised, but not dismissive of my issue on the phone. I don’t sound like a doddery git in his 80th year apparently lol Video OFF!

Now for the Samaritanisation; they can’t do my job, but I had a job only half completed myself, so I opened their site once more. Then I had to re-enter all my details, and a message describing what I was doing, and that I’d added a zero to my phone number, and voila! SUBMITTED!

‘Oops, I accidentally deleted the postcode field. Hang on, I’ll ju… OK, coming, mum!’.

As a devout 🙏 follower of the 🔱 ‘Why wouldn’t you offer a hand if you thought it might help, and you have no pressing engagements’ (better known by the catchy initialism WWYOAHIYTIMHAYHNPE (An acronym if you’re of Polish xtrykzyn)) lifestyle choice, though probably tagged as a meddling fucking opinionated interfering old git (who’s impervious to your barbs, you beardless whelp, you whipper-snapper!).

HOT TIP

If confronted by precocious technokinder, learn the following patter:

‘I’m not really up to date with these basic wee computers. My expertise is in supercomputers, mostly designed by Seymour Cray (no, not one of the brothers, so don’t worry about a surprise kickin’). These developed hundreds of Petaflops using pipeline burst technology and needing Nitrogen cooling. One Petaflop, as any professional like yourself would know, but just to refresh your memory, is one quadrillion floating-point operations per second. Or a thousand Teraflops. Or a million Gigaflops. Or a billion Megaflops. Or … What’s that? I’ll let you get back to your little hobby. Sorry, chore’.

By Allan Richardson

Few would disagree that right now the world is a pressure cooker of aggression, despair, discontent, bitter disappointment and fear.

Australia, being geographically isolated, is at least free from cross-border incursions by hostile forces, but as we’ll soon discover in Ukraine, hand-to-hand combat has become yesterday’s war-mongering, and adolescent gamers may become the silent aggressors with the most sophisticated toys ever!

But Australia’s security won’t be determined by surveilling 34,000km of mostly irregular coastline, boasting over 1,000 estuaries. We’d quickly spot attackers should they attempt an incursion in a populated area, and for those choosing less hospitable entry points, may the desert take the hindmost.

Like so many other politically polarised nation States, the danger is in internal conflict. Not only do we seem unable to respectfully recognise our original inhabitants (despite the comforting assurances by bigoted racists), we seem unable to agree to implement policies of mutual benefit to warring political parties. And there’s the rub.

What potential we have here in Australia! Our moderate climate makes for comfortable living conditions, yet we enjoy the enviably ideal environment for generating renewable energy. First, this can make us potentially energy self-sufficient, a critical factor in mitigating global warming. As well, we can create a timely energy export hub without resorting to the extraction of fossil fuels!

But we currently have an insurmountable problem! Our national conversation is monopolised by two major political parties, both in thrall to the fossil fuel industry.

Despite the removal of the party responsible for the decade of neglect, we are not seeing Labor’s reforms in energy policy, central to their last Federal election campaign.

It’s not drawing too long a bow to suggest that the only long-term solution is to eschew the two-party system. The LNP makes no secret of promoting continued steaming coal and gas extraction, with the highly questionable prospect of building our first nuclear energy plant. Expected to be completed at about the same time as the non-arrival of our third-of-a-billion-dollar virtual submarine joint defense agreement. Labor does make a secret of continuing to approve fossil fuel projects but does it anyway! How can this even be a possibility in the face of international scientific condemnation?

The surveys I’ve seen indicate that the majority of Australians want to see an orderly energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables. Regardless of the influence exerted by the Greens, they’re not going to be able to radically change Labor’s platform in time to abate the existential threat of climate collapse. Timing is everything.

No political party in power is ever going to sacrifice the status quo and ‘void’ itself, but we do need political parties to be dissolved sooner rather than later, and Independents to be elected to represent the views of their constituents. You know. Like in a democracy.

The world is in extremis. Yesterday’s solutions just won’t cut it. Everything is at stake and we’re sleepwalking into extinction.

As Metallica would say:

Never cared for what they say
Never cared for games they play
Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
And I know …

By Allan Richardson

I haven’t heard much comprehensive analysis on how Dutton will fare if the No vote gets up in the upcoming Recognition and The Voice referendum.

Much superficial political commentary seems to suggest that a victory will set Dutton up as the strong opposition leader for the next federal election, because Albanese recklessly (some might say) pinned his and his government’s achievement on a successful referendum. Eggs/basket.

Just imagine the chat in the increasingly likely event that the Yes vote will fail.

The backslapping and merriment in which the LNP will indulge with much fanfare and ceremony will be short-lived.

Forget the rusted-on advocates for either position; the referendum was never about them. Like forever, the goal for each side was to capture the ‘undecideds’. And if the referendum fails, the LOTO will be seen as the strong leader. Until the dust clears …

And after the hullabaloo, when nothing has changed to close the gap, the First Nations People will still be just as disadvantaged as before in every way; ways that have been decried by all parties, with whatever level of sincerity one normally attributes to politicians. And many of the undecided-but-No voters will start to wonder about the wisdom of their actions. Too late.

The advocates for the Yes vote are not going to shut up, and all the Labor, Greens and Teals will pile onto Dutton as the self-appointed ‘Nokesman’ for the ‘debate’. Any half-decent election campaign will have him seen as the bigoted racist that he is. And given the broad remit of the NACC, there’s every reason that he and his co-liars should be referred to the Commission, for clearly identified misinformation relating to something as critical as modifying our founding document! But this won’t benefit Labor. Albanese would be (correctly) identified as a Prime Minister unable to prosecute his signature policy. The disenchanted would migrate to the Greens and the Teals.

And my guess is that he’ll be blamed for any political unrest that a failed Recognition and Voice referendum will engender. And there’ll be plenty of that! He’s a goner, but his vitriol and spitefulness will never be forgotten. Being publicly dismissive of respectful requests by a 65,000-year civilisation is glaring, unmitigated arrogance.