How is it that the Uluru Statement from the Heart is even slightly controversial? How is it that the request for better listening which shapes the request for ‘Voice’ is found problematic? I have brought these Australian perplexities with me this week to the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. Time and again, it is Continue reading »
Indigenous affairs
The bail reform bill tabled in the Victorian parliament this week seeks to undo some of the worst parts of the Bail Act, which was condemned as a “complete and unmitigated disaster” in the coronial inquest into the passing of Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson in 2020. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers Continue reading »
The outcome of the Voice referendum will affect Australia’s reputation – a fact voters should consider, writes John McCarthy. Sometime towards the end of the year, we will vote on a referendum about whether to change our Constitution to establish an independent Indigenous voice to our parliament and government on matters which affect the lives Continue reading »
It has been overlooked during Garma festival that, under current policies, global warming would render aboriginal lands in central and northern Australia unliveable and the top-end a nuclear target… In his classic book The Fate of the Earth speaking for humanity Jonathan Schell describes the horror of a full-scale nuclear holocaust where human beings and Continue reading »
We need to return to respectful dialogue. We are facing a critical test of Australian democracy and the resilience of the peaceful infrastructure of the public sphere and civil society. There is more at stake in the current Voice debate than simply which side will prevail. What is at issue also is our capacity as Continue reading »
White Australians like to think of themselves as an egalitarian and frank people, despising pretentiousness, while basking in a reputation for larrikinism and mateship. But this is all a front, papering over a culture that is deeply racist, excessively masculinist, and incorrigibly populist. Indeed, from its very beginnings, white Australia has been a morally backward Continue reading »
Campaigners for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament believe the referendum may be just 75 days away, and have urged supporters to step up, and be “loud and proud” in championing a yes vote. Many universities and health organisations are doing just that. This week the Australian National University hosted a panel Continue reading »
Last week the Productivity Commission released its draft Review of the National Closing the Gap Agreement. The National Agreement on Closing the Gap was launched with a lot of fanfare in July 2020, promising a new era of reform and a ‘genuine’ commitment of governments to work in partnership with First Nations peak organisations. Rather Continue reading »
A reading of history, including the genocide and forced exile of the indigenous Crimean Tatars, debunks apologias for the Russian annexation of Crimea based on the support of the local Russian majority. David Higginbotham’s recent article “Cognitive Dissonance in Crimea” suggested that the public has been hoodwinked into accepting some kind of false narrative about Continue reading »
It is time for the Australian citizenry and First Nations to resume their rightful ownership and custodianship of the land’s eco-geology. The present inequity between the country’s wealthiest yet internally feuding family and the nation’s struggling working and homeless poor is obscene. As judged by the Gini coefficient, inequity is increasing in Australia and is Continue reading »