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The Forum > Article Comments > Dealing in hypocrisy - The 'art' of doing violence whilst preaching against it > Comments

Dealing in hypocrisy - The 'art' of doing violence whilst preaching against it : Comments

By Jocelynne Scutt, published 26/6/2007

John Howard's plan for Aboriginal Australia can't work, so why is he doing it?

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To understand the architecture of John Howard’s policy you need to know the architects. You also need to recognize that several important steps have been taken over the past decade to arrive at this emerging blueprint for a new Aboriginal Destiny.

The Federal Government’s refusal to say Sorry ended Reconciliation;
The Government’s 10-point Plan undermined Native Title;
This was followed by denial of the Indigenous Right to Self-Determination;
The Abolishment of ATSIC;
The assault on Indigenous Self-Management and Autonomy;
The isolation of Indigenous leaders who do not support Assimilation;
The cultivation of a New Conservative, Pragmatism
And finally, a plan to change communal ownership of Aboriginal Lands.
Posted by Rainier, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 6:01:28 PM
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There is no artistry!

The proposal is as racially malevolent as it is democratically shrewd.

Non-aboriginal Australia, by and large, would seem to find any notion of indigenous malcontent intolerable, probably because it flies in the face of its unquestioned sovereign integrity.

A brief slice of modern Australian history: The 1865 enactment of Queensland’s Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act was established specifically for children under fifteen who were neglected or convicted of an offence. A neglected child was defined as any child who wandered about; frequented any public place; slept in the open air; had no home or settled place of abode; dwelt with a reputed thief or drunkard; was supported wholly or in part by charity; or any child born of an aboriginal or half-caste mother. Without a warrant, a constable was empowered to arrest any aboriginal child and a court composed of two or more Justices could order the child to be removed from his or her mother and placed in an industrial or reformatory school, including registered missions.

Let us strike, for argument's sake, aboriginal or half-caste mother and insert 'church-going' parent. That is, any child under fifteen born of a church-going parent can be arrested and removed from their parents and placed into an industrial or reform school, which serves to process the explicitly despicable 'church-going' characteristics out of the child. Not quite as ineradicable as aboriginality, but hopefully sufficient to illustrate the point.

The 1897 Queensland Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, established reserves (geographically isolated enclaves) to which Aboriginal people were forcibly removed by designated Aboriginal Protectors; civil servants, police and missionaries. Purporting to protect them from the ravages of European immorality and disease, reserves effectively operated to separate Aboriginal people from colonial consolidation and also to limit the reproduction of part-Aboriginal offspring, the so-called ‘half-caste menace’, which was seen at the time as a threat to an ‘ideal’ white Australia.

Prime Minister Howard's proposal effectively steals the next generation of aborigines, through the military establishment of homeland refuges, from the politically expedient removal of intergenerationally abused parents.
Posted by Neil Hewett, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 7:45:31 PM
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As I said on another thread on this topic, while there are some major differences between this tawdry pre-election effort at 'wedge' politics and the Tampa issue from the last Federal election, what they have in common is that they both appeal to the pervasive and implicit racism of the majority of the Australian electorate.

The Rodent knows this, as does Harry Potter. Anybody who's taken in by the Rodent's newfound concern for Aboriginal people is either a racist or a fool, or both.

Of course we need to nurture Aboriginal children and protect them from harm, but I very much doubt that sending in the cops and soldiers in a hastily planned stunt is going to achieve this in any lasting way. Both the timing of this sudden emergency (after 11 years of Howard indifference - or indeed hostility - to Indigenous issues) and its linking to Land Rights should be seen for what they are: cynical political ploys that once again appeal to latent Australian racism in the lead-up to a Federal election.

Is that dog-whistling I hear? From some of the comments here, it seems to be pretty effective.
Posted by CJ Morgan, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 8:25:47 PM
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If you don't know Howard by now you never will.His record on children,health,education and indigenous Australians is there for all to see. Whats this all about? Howard cares about nothing and no one and never has.Look at his statements and voting record since he entered parliament. This is a humiliating episode in Australian history for all involved. I agree with Rainier and anyone else who has no first hand experience butt out.
In my opinion this is a hugely complex issue requiring buckets of compassion,effort,time,money,motivation,commitment and understanding of an order not possible from this insular and immature government.It requires strength of character and nurturing to overcome the broken hearts and despair in our indigenous fellow Australians.
Howard has used and preyed upon the weakest and most vulnerable in Australia to advance his adgenda of staying in power.
There are no winners from such a cynical approach to governance and responsibility towards people, particularly those that do not have our access, skills or advantages. Those with mental health problems, forced to live on the streets, might also be taken into consideration.
However in all of this sorry and sickening political grandstanding Rudd has failed to show anymore character and leadership than Howard or Beazley. He has adopted the small target approach.Watch as his ratings, rightly, go down.
Bruce Haigh
Posted by Bruce Haigh, Thursday, 28 June 2007 12:55:41 AM
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I am a welded on ALP member have always been one, I sometimes fear the left of my party more than this Government.
And the further left of Labors left? my personal boogy man!
Why? do not judge a human on his/her bank account , not on the IQ having a brain and using it are two different things.
Real children women and yes adults suffered last night, not just in the northern territory.
But in Aboriginal community's Australia wide, yes in white community's too, but not in the massive numbers ,not neglected for so many decades.
Noel Pearson offers hope the thread author offers nothing but more pain for real people.
I question not that we are acting but why it took us so long, I question the very lefts once claim that all people should be treated as equals, nothing less is acceptable for this saved no longer left, lefty still.
And election night is still goodbye John Howard night for me, but he has won some respect for this very late action.
Nothing matters more than ending this nightmare.
Posted by Belly, Thursday, 28 June 2007 6:42:25 AM
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This whole issue has been politised by the Prime Minister, the author of the report Rex`Wild QC has been reported as being critical of the Prime Minister's knee jerk reaction. Rex Wild is reported in The Age today(http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pms-got-it-wrong-on-abuse-plan/2007/06/28/1182624002936.html) a suggesting a subtle approach. This matter will be still being dealt with well and truly after Mr. Howard has retired from politics.
Hopefully this is a lesson to governments of all persausions that where infrastructure is allowed to languish that social dysfunction can be an outcome.
Posted by ant, Thursday, 28 June 2007 8:01:45 AM
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