Turnbull “Appalled”, Scullion “Not Piqued”, While Mirabella Fails To Grasp Simple Concept!
The Prime Minister was shocked after viewing the footage on “Four Corners” last night. Shocked. And appalled. Footage showing young offenders being tear-gassed, stripped, beaten and generally given the sort of treatment that qualifies as torture if we were so silly as to use the UN definition of torture. Whatever, given that he announced his intention to hold a Royal Commission straight away without the need to put it on that slanted table which had things slide off within a day of their announcement, one presumes that he was appalled by the content of the footage, rather than the idea that they hadn’t managed to prevent the ABC from showing it. One also presumes that he was shocked by the footage, rather than the ABC having the temerity to time the release of the story in the same year that NT government is facing an election.
No, it seems that this time the PM was actually upset by this. He seemed to show the same sort of anger that he felt on election night when Labor’s scare campaign on Medicare nearly meant that he was one of the few Prime Ministers never to win a general election. We have to give Malcolm points on this one. We can’t cynically suggest that he – like the Northern Terroritory government – is jumping on the Royal Commission idea just so that it’s put to bed before the NT election.
Why, Malcolm was even so appalled that he rang his Indigenous Affairs Minister, Nigel Scullion to suggest that he should have seen the program. I understand the call went something like this:
“Nigel, are you watching ‘Four Corners’?”
“No, why would I be watching the ABC?”
“Didn’t your department let you know that it’s about Indigenous children being ill-treated?”
“Yeah, but surely we fixed all that a few years ago when Mal Brough announced the intervention and we sent the army in.”
“No, this is in a Northern Terroritory detention centre.”
“A detention centre? Are they illegal immigrants?”
“No, they’re young offenders…”
“Offenders? Then surely Andrew Bolt will have something in his column tomorrow about how they deserve all they get…”
“Just watch the program!”
“But it doesn’t really pique my interest.”
“Pique your interest? Now you sound like George bloody Pell. Whatever you do, don’t say that to the press!”
“Ok, Malcolm, I’ll get off the phone and make sure I watch the program and don’t say that to the press… Or was it the other way round? Malcolm? Are you still there? …Bugger, I think he hung up on me. Well, back to ‘Masterchef’… I hope I haven’t missed the desserts.”
Anyway, let’s give the Liberals their due. A Royal Commission. That should sort it out. Obviously the inquiries that the NT government held didn’t seem to be able to find all the footage, or else the ABC would never have received a copy.
Still, say what you like about Scullion, he seems to have a better grasp on reality than Sophie Mirror-ball, or whatever her name was. Apparently today she announced that she was quitting politics and that she’d be a commentator. This is probably one of the biggest misunderstanding of the democratic process since the Greeks invented the idea and excluded slaves and women. Or to put it another way, she is quitting politics in the same way that Poland decided that it’d be like to ruled by Hitler. She is quitting politics in the same way that Tony decided that he no longer wished to lead the Liberal Party. She is quitting politics in the same way that Icarus decided that he’d give this flying thing a miss because falling to earth is a lot more appealing. She is quitting politics…
Oh wait, she got voted out in 2013. She tried to regain her seat. She stuffed up with her hospital comment. She wasn’t elected again. But in spite of all of this, she’s decided that she won’t go to Canberra and give Cathy McGowan a shove, run into the House and say, I’ve got the seat, I’m the King of the Castle and the Liberals are in power so nobody is going to enforce the rules now. It was an interesting choice, Sophie.
Sophie blames “unions and Melbourne-based feminists” for her loss. Who would have thought there’d be so many in a country electorate like Indi. Oh, wait, I guess she means that the country voters – like most rural electorates – were swayed by those unionists and feminists into not voting for her, because they’re so easily swayed by left-wingers like that.
Yep, that’s the sort of intelligent commentary so lacking and why there’s such a need for someone like Sophie to balance the columns of Peter Reith and Amanda Vanstone in the Fairfax media!
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Return to home pageThe revelation that the government was treating Aboriginal youth very ‘badly’ is more likely to bring cheers rather than boos within that NT electorate.
It’s a bit like our treatment of asylum seekers. Most Australians think the government is too lenient. Hence the promotion of Dutton, giving him even greater powers.
Governments can’t have too many Royal Commissions underway at any particular time because they lose their political potency. For Turnbull this RC and its endorsement by so many of the ‘players’ couldn’t have come at a better time.
Leaving aside the need for some sort of inquiry (into what’s been known – in depth – for years and years), Labor’s push for a Royal Commission into the ‘banking system’ now has a greater chance of being ignored. After all, the banks don’t …. bash kids, hit them with tear gas and so on. It’s all a matter of perspective. Let’s concentrate on the important things.
No doubt the MSM will fall into line and find other ‘atrocities’ that any follower of Aboriginal affairs already knows about. It’s a good distraction.
I do not believe for one minute that the politicians in Canberra did not know how young girls and boys in custody are treated.
If Chief executive of Sisters Inside Debbie Kilroy was not surprised, Dr Bath said the government was warned well before the tear gassing of six boys in 2014 that action had to be taken.
Pat Dodson also was not surprised.
IMO Nigel Scullion reaction was appalling and he should be removed from office.
Matters Not would likely be correct, if you read the comments in the NT MSM…..
However questions need to asked that have little to do with this particular program.
Questions such as why the ABC can uncover these stories, (cattle, kids, kooris…..) and the governments who control the north of our continent, WA, NT and Qld, are oblivious to the facts.
“No. Not me! Never saw it before………”
What I do believe is that if they were left to their own devices, the enquiry / Royal Commission would be into how the ABC got the video and story.
Good work ABC, but expect a funding cut for 4 Corners.
Is soph mrAbbotts sister?
Not sure that there aren’t people lacking empathy everywhere.
However, the NT does have a significant Indigenous population and something like this may lose them votes within that community.
I don’t think one can presume that none of them vote for the current government. I’m not sure that we can presume that they’d all think that the current government was still worth voting for.
I’m certainly not sure that any of the people who’d go, “Yeah, give it to ’em!” wouldn’t already vote for the current government.
,but arsetraya is a successful multicultural society malcolm said so only a few days ago!
Anyone wonder why the LNP wants to cut funding to the ABC?
Brilliant as usual Rossleigh!
Clean livin, most Australians look at what’s happening in the USA re black and white ‘relations’ and are appalled because it’s on the TV and all that (and often involves guns and the like). That it happens in Australia (most evident in the remote areas of the North – and without the armory) escapes their attention because they are not exposed to same.
But I think that we need to dig far deeper and try to develop some ‘principles’ to guide (and evaluate) all types of human behaviour. Perhaps we could start with the assumption that humans should treat (all) other humans in the same way as we ourselves would like to be treated? (I am told it’s the basis for morality.)
Rossleigh, political alignment in the Northern Territory almost defies logic. It’s almost as incomprehensible (to me at least) as Aboriginal politics everywhere. What I am suggesting is that politically bashing Aborigines in the NT resonates with their ‘base’.
On even a ‘bad’ day, Hanson could be the next Chief Minister if she so chose. Not that I want to give her any ideas. And besides, she is already on a good wicket re the AEC funding of $1.2 M.
This from Newmatilda today – and the one name included stands out – Marie Christensen – make of that what you will.
“The victimization of Aboriginal children has been well documented in the work of historians. Live children were reported to be ‘pitched onto the fire’ at massacre sites. Traumatized survivors were found after such assaults on their communities’ campsites ‘in the bush, alone and apparently deserted’, and were either enslaved as laborers or concubines by settlers, or dispatched to institutions such as Normal Schools.
Conditions in such institutions were often perilous. In just one instance a four-year-old child, Cassey was beaten to death by Marie Christensen, Matron at the Myora Mission Station in 1896 after refusing to bath in the sea.”
Australia has form in his sort of thing. Think about it Queensland …..”beaten to death by Marie Christensen…” one hundred and twenty years ago – so what has changed in the right wing political rhetoric coming out of Queensland today?
Phil, yep Queenslanders have not been kind to Aborigines. Massacres here, there and everywhere. But at least there’s some still here. Many more (in a comparative sense) than in NSW and Victoria.
But Queenslanders have always been a bit slow. ? ? ? ?
We are still trying.
Australian reality television has just got very ugly… welcome to little Amerika!
Indeed Matters Not – I concur – no Australian state can pretend to being any better – the nation should hang its head in shame – but my main point was the surname of the Matron of the Myora Mission – Christensen!!
What the hell ever happened to rehabilitation? Why is there no genuine desire to help offenders become better people? Why this gleeful, brutalising, revenge-based system? We’ve known for centuries that it doesn’t work. Numerous studies have shown that genuine help and respect go a large part of the way to reforming people and helping them back into society as good and useful members of the community. So why is that continually discarded in favor of the broken system that creates monsters? Both the abused and the abusers become monsters as a result.
This desperately needs reform. Our systems of imprisonment need to catch up with the 21st Century instead of lagging so far behind, still in the 19th Century!
If it is argued that there isn’t the money for it, then I’d point to the millions of dollars lost in property damage and theft and the incalculable value lost in damaged lives of victims, abused prisoners who will become worse because of the system, and the guards and police who become monsters in administering abuse to their captives. There is more than enough money and human value there to make it worth it. But we all know why change is so slow in coming. Most people are deeply broken. They LOVE revenge. They positively salivate for it. They need to wake up to the fact that we should repair damage instead of making it worse.
Yes Phil I get the connection. Re Myora, this was the territory of the Noonuccal tribe well remembered via Kath Walker (aka as Oodgeroo of the Noonuccal). Her poems are worth a read.
She was a remarkable lady. Spent some time with her at Myora Springs on ‘Straddie’ before her death.
http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_great_women_kathwalker/index.htm
I watched 4 Corners last night and again today (I only watch tapes) and was appalled and noted also there were many calling for the ‘heads’ of the perpetrators. Sounds reasonable. Just like there were calls for soldiers involved in Nazi death camps to also be subject to the ‘death penalty’.
But I think the ‘problem’ is much deeper than that. While most people agree that soldiers MUST obey orders, one can’t fail to see the downside. The individuals who engaged in those acts of ‘terror’ in that detention centre seemed as though they believed they were just ‘doing their job’. Something that they did each and every day. It was normal. It was ‘common sense’. If the ‘boongs’ misbehave, they have to be taught a lesson. And so on. ?
While I am horrified I am also somewhat sympathetic to the perpetrators.. After all they were just following orders. What’s wrong with that? ?
I imagine they believed their ‘intentions’ were justifiable. After, all they shut the little ‘f*ckers’ up. They made them ‘behave’. They achieved the desired ‘ends’.
But maybe the ‘problem’ is more complicated than that. What ethical system (intentions or outcomes) that will be employed by the Commission will soon be on display.
Matters Not – if you can be “somewhat sympathetic” to the perpetrators of that violence, then mate, you leave me cold – stone motherless cold.
“Just following orders” – are you being ironic? If you are not then you have my utmost contempt.
If, on the other hand you are seeking to project a ‘balanced’ view, then I say to you – it is impossible using that approach – there is no balanced argument. There is rot at the top – it is an intellectual and moral decay that permeates our political class and filters down to the operatives who themselves haven’t the courage to say no – they are craven cowards no less.
Voting is not enough as we can clearly see, and they know it – the same bastards always end up at the top. The solutions must come from other ways of thinking and other means of organising.
I imagine that most Australians haven’t ‘been to the Northern Territory’ and therefore have no idea re the day to day living. It can be quite a shock.
Two decades ago, my wife and I arrived in Katherine (late afternoon) after having driven from Mt Isa (yes it’s one hell of a drive in one day, but at that stage I drove a V8 Statesman and did a lot of ‘low flying’ when there was no speed limit – but then in my early 50s I was young and stupid). Booked in. Headed for the nearest bar on in this particular Hotel/Motel to quench a raging thirst. Aborigines (very, very ‘black’ in that part of the world) here, there and everywhere. Was refused service and escorted out by the manager.
Advised to go to a bar within the enclosed Hotel/Motel ‘compound’. Did exactly that but was again refused service because I was wearing thongs and I wasn’t wearing trousers – just shorts. I complied – shaking my head. After a few beers, ‘sleep’ seemed in order. But it was not to be. The bottles being thrown against the wall, the females screaming, the police sirens, the ambulances, the fights –
It was an awakening of sorts.
Phil. I like to explore ‘issues’. There’s always so many ‘dimensions’.
I was most amused to learn that the reason Mirabella didn’t win, according to herself included the following: the left wing media, GetUp, unions and Melbourne feminists. However, included in what Sophie didn’t mention was: the National Party running a candidate against her, her campaign faux pas of a $10 million hospital that Wangaratta didn’t get plus pushing Independent Ms McGowan into a bush in her rush to get in front of the camera. Then there was Mirabella’s complaint that the Liberal machine wasn’t supporting her (probably with very good reason).
As a local, I wonder to myself which unions. Not one single piece of union ‘propaganda’ entered letterboxes which differs from two letterbox drops from ‘anonymous’, address traced to Liberal Party Headquarters Victoria giving a ‘horror’ list of things Ms McGowan didn’t do in..but might.
Not once did I spot a Melbourne feminist and why would they be hanging out in Wang’ or ‘donga anyway? The pastries at the Beechworth bakery perhaps.
Phil, in years to come I suspect (and hope) Australia’s treatment of asylum seeks will be condemned. In your considered view, who should be held accountable? Perhaps, the Parliament, the Government, the Opposition – (a bit difficult in a practical sense) or maybe the Minister (whose escape clause will be along the line of I was just implementing government policy) or maybe the members of the Border Force? You know, the individuals who engaged in physically removing such refugees from point X and delivering them to point Y and who can reasonably claim ‘I was just doing my job’.
Over to you. I await your ‘solution’ to the dilemma of who should be held accountable re those who give the ‘orders’ and those who ‘obey’.
Gee Carol if you can’t spot a Melbourne feminist. Then there’s no hope. Here’s a clue. They look like humans. They walk and talk, They have one head (unless they are from …)
Just jokin …
The CLP have the same philosophy as the L&NP and the LNP IT is a four party government, all of whom put “people” a distant second place to “giving” tax payers money to corporations, e.g. in health their main purpose is feeding public money to pharmaceutical corporations, the ‘patient’ is always their secondary concern.
Matters NotJuly 26, 2016 at 11:01 pm
Phil, in years to come I suspect (and hope) Australia’s treatment of asylum seeks will be condemned.
Doctors to launch High Court challenge against detention secrecy laws
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-27/doctors-to-launch-high-court-challenge-against-detention-secrecy/7662836
Looks like that the excrement hit the fan
Former workers within Queensland’s youth detention centres are claiming to have been sacked for speaking out about violence inside the institutions.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-27/youth-detention-workers-claim-violence-covered-up-in-queensland/7663580
The Royal Commission will be a complete waste of money and time if the recommendations are not implemented.
In Australia we do not rehabilitate ,we punish, and HOW, makes me ashamed just to live here. The world is watching, yet again, this is how we treat Aboriginal children and teenagers. People, even some politicians express their horror, and conveniently forget that it has been happening for years; they act as if they just found out…!
The abuse of asylum seekers in detention was not causing sleepless nights for many; now they are almost forgotten.
“The Royal Commission will be a complete waste of money and time if the recommendations are not implemented.”
Agree, Freethinker, money and time will be spent; for awhile we’ll write and talk about this cruelty, then we’ll go back to our punishing ways.
Mirabella is throwing a tantrum (still) that the peons DARED to vote her out in 2013 and is now continuing the tantrum after they gave her a not so subtle shove this time around. It’s easier to blame everybody else for losing rather than admitting that you are a nasty, spiteful, and petty person with a born to rule mentality.
Hint for Rupert: I’m available to be a “commentator” like Peta. You are ever so nice Rupert and I would like to work for you Rupert.
While Turnbull was quick out of the blocks in announcing a Royal Commission, perhaps he was too quick. It might have been better to wait until the Terms of Reference had been written. Now ‘expectations’ are ballooning at a rapid rate with calls to investigate far, far too much. There’s bound to be disappointment.
Turnbull’s lack of judgement will again be on public display.
Our society is going down the Tubes. When a group like the Conservatives are only focussed ideologist on their doctrine The social fabric falls apart. They follow American Tea party style politics to the letter. They are like drunken sailors in charge of this ship. And stupid ones one’s at that. So much money wasted on crap and nothing for it’s people. George Brandis has zero empathy. If Abbott was in power they would have covered this up.
Turnbull said “We need to understand how it was that there were inquiries into Don Dale (youth detention centre) as a place where there had been allegations and claims of abuse … that did not produce the evidence that we’ve seen last night.”
What a load of crap. Here is a report published in 2015 that details every bit of what was shown on Four Corners. They knew alright…they either didn’t want anyone else to know or thought it was just fine and dandy to treat kids this way. Exactly the same sort of secrecy that is allowing asylum seekers to be tortured.
http://www.childrenscommissioner.nt.gov.au/publications/Childrens%20Commissioner%20DDYDC%20-%20Report%20to%20Minister%20170915.pdf
And here’s another
https://correctionalservices.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/238198/Review-of-the-Northern-Territory-Youth-Detention-System-January-2015.pdf
Thank you for “The biggest misunderstanding of democracy since the Greeks invented it and excluded slaves and women.” I will be quoting that, with due acknowledgement, the very next time someone at the club tries to pull a fast one at a General Meeting.
KL, re the linked Report. It’s entirely possible that the NT Chief Minister wasn’t aware of that Report or if he was, he mightn’t been across the detail. If he was, then one would think he would have warned Turnbull to tread carefully.
Fact is, the treatment of Aboriginal youths in the Northern Territory is not ‘sexy’ in the political sense. Most of the locals couldn’t give a rat’s. They have had enough of the behaviour of Aboriginal youth. Turnbull is now possibly stuck with an RC that might have little info to gather because the work has already been done. What is clear, the politicians failed to act.
The Terms of Reference will have to be considered very, very carefully. Who will be blamed for not acting? And who will fund the recommendations? The Feds?
Your revelation here, Kaye, is brilliant as usual. How do these matters get swept under the carpet for so long? No wonder the ABC is under threat of extinction from the Coalition.
As for Malcolm’s judgement, Matters Not, this has been addressed in the Murdoch press. They, too, think he has been too hasty. On the other hand, it could be said – if the matter is well known – that he has been too slow. Certainly the Murdoch press would have said he was too slow if he had not called for a Royal Commission, such is their contrary nature.
Meanwhile, another one of those morally superior Murdoch hacks has suggested some solutions to the problem of these recalcitrant NT children: take them away and get them adopted – or stop the women from having children. You know: no contraception, no dole. Bromide in the water.
What is it with these twits from the Murdoch empire?
What I would like to know is…Will Mirabella get her gig at ASC back?
Wun Farlung, as I understand it, Sophie’s second language is Greek. Now a French speaker might be a more appropriate appointment. But then again, think of the expertise that will be lost from the Board. ? ? ? ?
There is a political aspect to the cover-up. From the NT news….
Cabinet approved the use of those horrific restraint chairs. And in that same environment, Cabinet backed changes to the bail act designed to put more young petty property offenders into detention.
If Cabinet did not know about the treatment of kids in Don Dale — if the Chief Minister did not know — they must still shoulder some of the burden here. John Elferink has been allowed, unchecked by his colleagues or his leader, to serve as the Territory’s proverbial judge, jury and executioner.
He’s in charge of the child protection system, the justice system and the corrections system. The problems in each of those systems have been compounded because each is run according to Elferink’s singular and self-righteous agenda.
After the February 2015 coup attempt, Chief Minister Adam Giles and Elferink came to an uneasy truce. The result was the Attorney-General and Corrections Minister exerted almost total authority over his areas of responsibility.
That was a political necessity, required to keep the CLP wing in tact until the election. But the consequences of allowing Elferink to dictate these policies, which have drawn national condemnation, must be owned by Giles and the rest of the Cabinet.
While they must shoulder some culpability, it’s Elferink who will ultimately be remembered as the man responsible for a regime that tortures children, responsible for a regime which the Chief Minister said yesterday harboured a “culture of cover up”.
His appearance on 4 Corners was a train wreck. And it explains why he’s been a train wreck as a minister.
He seemed to think that riding out to Don Dale on a Harley Davidson, and offering the reporter a ride, would make him look cool.
That’s the action of a man utterly convinced of his own infallibility, who colleagues and staffers say is unwilling to listen to advice.
Elferink’s biggest problem has always been that he believed himself to be the smartest person in the room.
But he has always lacked the empathy, and the perspective, to be a decent or effective politician.
http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/former-corrections-minister-john-elferink-allowed-to-serve-as-the-territorys-judge-jury-and-executioner/news-story/466e9d4565b9f00bcd2622d3fbbd884f
Kl, read the letters to the editor in your link
Yep. Some would believe that nonsense.
Election campaigns in the NT are hilarious, given the stupidity of the claims made. At the time of Mabo, it was all about how the ‘Abos’ would take over your land and how they would stop you fishing in their rivers and the like.
Matters Not, just like the asylum seekers would take OUR jobs, but also at the same time be dole bludgers. Aussie men are also fearful that their women would be raped by these ‘animals’. And the biggest worry; they’d finally take our HOUSES…I don’t know how…?
MN,
I can find out the validity of that claim because it was my sister-in-law who produced the Four Corners story. She also won a Walkley award for the story “Unholy Silence” that precipitated the RC into child sex abuse by the clergy. I am so proud of her. She really is making a difference.
Indeed! ‘Double-dippers’. One and all.
Seriously, it doesn’t have to make any sense, just throw it against the fan and let the punters make of it as they will. QED. And it works. ? ? ? ?
KL, there is no chance that the ABC’s Budget would stretch to that extent. Then there is the ‘ethical’ dimension.
PS, you have good reason(s) to be proud.
I just rang her. Of course the money is bs. She said the boys were all motivated by not wanting this to happen to any other kids. She spoke to them yesterday and told them they should be proud because their courage is going to make a difference. She said the boys were stoked (in a monosyllabic kind of way) and that Dyllan’s lawyer is applying for bail/parole?? for him today. I asked how she was and she said about a week ago she was really struggling but the result has made it all worthwhile. I worry about her – she has done some tough stories.
Kaye I think your sister-in-law is probably going to get another Walkley award for this! Good on her. And thank goodness we also still have the ABC able to investigate and report in this way. For once I give Turnbull points for actually making a decision all by himself in calling for a Royal Commission immediately. However, its obvious that limiting it to that one facility would be ludicrous Im glad to see Gillian Triggs and many other groups calling for the terms of reference to include all places where children are detained, in Australia’s name. If Malcolm could ensure this happens, he might find himself redeemed in the eyes of many.
I can’t help thinking Turnbull has deflected a royal commission into banking and/or asylum seeker abuse by rushing into this one. He has shown with the companies that he held senior positions in that making personal wealth at the expense (and misery) of Australian small investors and the environment (Goldman Sachs) has been of greater importance to him than equality or care for disadvantaged. You need to think like a Liberal politician to really understand their motives.
It is easier for him to control the terms of reference so that they do not extend to NT juvenile detention. Yep, keep it focused on just a single institution to limit their damage…
If it had not been released into the public view then Turnbull and other cronies would have gone on with business (ruining the country) as usual but because it now become a major news item he has discovered that he is “shocked, appalled, stunned” that such things are happening in our gulags. Mind you with the election looming in N.T. anything like investigations, royal commissions, etc will be delayed for as long as possible. Lip service announcements will flow like crap from a cow with diarrhea.
As a teenage lad in the 70’s, I know I was scared of the Institution for Boys, Tamworth. I was warned about the beatings. Didn’t stop me from occasional shoplifting,stealing milk and telephone box money. Only got caught for shoplifting – those chocolate dollars.
It would seem I should have been a lot more scared of the juvenile justice system than I was.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/school-for-killers/
It doesn’t surprise me that NT is 20 years behind more modern practices. Not that the modern practices appear to be that good at rehab either.
Kronomex,
The real tragedy is that all this WAS released for public view. People just didn’t pay attention.
Remember this story from last year?
“Police are currently investigating a number of allegations in relation to the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre,” Elferink said, without adding further comment.
Earlier this week 15-year-old Indigenous teenager Travis told a youth forum that while he was in Don Dale, the staff made young people fight each other for entertainment, rewarding the winner with food.
Speaking with the ABC Travis said, “you get Coke and a chocolate once a week. So, boys, they wanted that a bit more than once a week, so workers would make them fight and stuff and do stuff that kids usually wouldn’t do just so they could get it.”
Travis also said that staff members filmed a detainee eating bird faeces and sent the footage to people via the messaging app Snapchat.
“There was poo sitting on the ground one time and a young fella got dared to eat its shit and they videoed it and put it on Snapchat to all their friends and they gave him a Coke and a chocolate.”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/allanclarke/guards-allegedly-use-snapchat-to-film-indigenous-teens-eatin?utm_term=.rpjNqDOd4#.fs1KDYPO8
FFS I just heard Adam Giles say these incidents happened under the former Labor government.
Kaye, of course it happened under Labor. Don’t forget the LNP mantra: “It’s all (always) Labor’s fault.”
Scullion’s response is the response of every comfortable politician sucking from the teet of public life whatever their persuasion from the Lib/Lab Dinosaurs.
Reprehensible language when we ALL know the magnitude of human suffering.
Scullion, the dickhead.
PS I’ve lived in the NT for 13 important years of my life…
… and I know nobody needs to decline to those depths of political and socio-economic delusion.
Poor, Sophie Pit-Bull… being treated just like she treated the public… odd that!
And the RC into NT… what a lovely distraction from the economic woes about to engulf us because of the Ruling Rabble’s incompetent inertia on policy.
Love your masthead photo
Mirabella , b bishop and Abbott, smirking as the castigate Gillard,
Where are the now, drilled bored and f—ed in that order
Ain’t karma grand