It ain't that easy

from Hinze/scratch media

There is, of course, much that could be written about the latest "Emergency Response" kerfuffle from the Hot Air House in Canberra, but that cartoon sums up a lot of it.

Have been meaning to get around to write something intelligent and articulate about the whole sorry mess for some time, but have been a bit "off colour" of late [no pun intended], and besides, there is a vast wealth of information elsewhere, is readily available - and has been for the past 100 years or so. The Howard government has been well informed for the past 11 years, and has systematically ignored .. if not actively worked AGAINST any solution.

One of the reasons that have been spurred into posting something about it is a TV Program that Premiered last night. The first of a six part mini-series.


The Circuit. SBS TV [click here for details]



Cannot recommend "The Circuit" highly enough, certainly a "clash of cultures" in more ways than two. Located within the magnificent scenery around Broome, Western Australia. Tight, almost documentary scripting and photography. Superbly subtle, tightly controlled performances.

Where did all these brilliant performers come from?? Could only recognise two names, and count three or four "white" faces.

"In the Outback, the Law is never black and white" or so says the promo. My only "criticism", if I could call it that, would be that it - or the first episode, at least - is heavily biased toward the aboriginal cause .. but that is not a bad thing, in this day and age.

The sad part about it is that it IS on SBS, and as such, will probably not be seen by "the majority" who are mostly glued to the crap and commercial americanised polystyrene waffle of Channels 7, 9 and 10.

Hate to say it, my hope is that Kevin Rudd watches it before John Howard and "Cap'n Bligh" Brough get to see it and have a "road to the polling booth" conversion similar to the "climate change" one. Though come to think of it, the "Emergency Intervention" came before the screening of "The Circuit" .. perhaps they had a preview and decided to do a "pre-emptive publicity strike".

Will also reprint this "comment" found on the Feministe blog, as I think it deserves a further airing. Would have liked to get permission, but there was no "link-back" to any email or blog. Hope that Debbie doesn't mind.

• Debbie Chow Says:
  June 25th, 2007 at 5:03 am

" I am from Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory.

The most important thing to realise is that this is an election year and the Prime Minister is miles behind in the opinion polls. He has tried every trick in the book to close the gap with the Opposition party. This Invasion of Aboriginal communities with a paternalistic moralistic crusade is purely an election stunt - to win votes - the emotive issue of doing good for abused aboriginal children.

The Prime Minister, Mr Howard was in fact well aware of the problem. A senior Aboriginal leader spoke to him face to face 5 years ago and told Mr Howard that there was endemic child sexual abuse across Northern Territory aboriginal communities and, asked for help to fix the problem. The Aboriginal leader said the Prime Minister simply ignored her and the issue. Mr Howard’s sudden crusade because of his ’shock and horror’ is simply a cynical act - he has known all along, and ignored it.

Most Aborginal Communities are ‘dry’ no alcohol at the behest of elders. So the baning of alcohol is problematic. There may be black market alcohol and drugs causing problems - so that would be a simple policing issue. Scrapping the permit entry system just makes it easier for smugglers, it is counter intuitive and really indicates that Howard’s intentions are not what he says.

It is important to understand the ideology of Mr Howard. He was a man that once wanted to abolish the minimum wage. He is closest to Margret Thatcher and GW Bush in that he and his cabinet are extreme right and Christian to go with it. So they have this sense of hardline right-wing moral superiority over everybody and everything. These people are often intimidating, aggressive and threatening.

His plan for these communities is quite obviously short term - 6 months, until the election and almost no thought has gone into providing solutions at the systemic level that involve Aboriginals. Which is madness. These types of problems are not solved by grandstanding, authoritarian, moralistic, bombastic crusades.

There are only two plus sides to this 1. it should for a while halt any continuing abuse, whilst there is a continual police presence 2. is raises the issue to the forefront of the nation. And thank God the Opposition leader has taken up the issue and suggested an national ‘war cabinet’ thus making an issue of national importance with national input [the Howard govt in making their plan did so in secret and consulted almost nobody, except maybe their notes from the 1950s].

If Mr Howard wins the election you can be sure his plan is to move Aboriginals out of communities into gerneral town/city society freeing up their resource rich land for mining.

But above all this exercise has been a desperate atempt to buy votes. Mr Howard’s govt and big business are in a frenzy that they cant close the gap in the polls. These people will go to any extremes to win this election.

Mr Howard’s Industrial Relation laws, brought in 14 months ago - also breach fundamental human rights and were instituted without warning. Big Business love them because they all rights away from the individual - they are ironically called WorkChoices. "

Neil Whitfield has further background.

Addendum: Monday night. Have just been following through on some of the links in Neil's article, and noticed that Jim Belshaw has a post referring to the use of members of NORFORCE in this "intervention" and has noticed that few people have commented on the significance. I did notice, but sort of "took it for granted". Read the link. Australia has a peculiar Army in many ways, which has gone through, and is still going through a transformation from the traditional "hobnail, grunt and gunbarrel" type of military toward a more "we're here to help ( but can bite if we have to)" sort of organisation (probably greatly assisted under the auspices of Peter Cosgrove) . That, of course, does not mean infer that ANY of them are soppy sooks, but read the last few paragraphs in this story. We do have our "pointy end".

There is much that I'd like to write about "our" military, but don't have "inside knowledge" nor as much time as I'd like. There is nothing that have read or heard, so far, that does not make me extraordinarily proud of them.