Oliver,

I don’t know the circumstances of the publication of Pat O’Shane’s letter by the Taipei Times, but it was not a Letter to the Editor. It was an open letter to Kevin Rudd, which was published in article (or op ed) form. Its length would not have been an issue, at least in this case. While I agree the writing is very emotional and poorly organised, it is publishable. Having worked in publishing myself, I know that if a piece of writing is topical, poor quality writing is unimportant as a copy editor’s job is to bring it up to an acceptable standard.

The issue remains that Aboriginal identities like Pat O’Shane and others, who have been outspoken in the past on these issues, are uncannily silent in the Australian media at the moment. Hopefully, this may change over the coming days and weeks. If not, we should be asking why.

Philo obviously lives in a political fairyland where the recent "culture wars" - in which Hirst was a lame but enthusiastic protagonist - or wedge politics don't exist. Perhaps he should pay more attention to current events and less to Bronze Age mythology.

Fortunately, unlike the shameful Tampa and 'Children Overboard' versions of the current political stunt, it looks like this one will come back and bite the odious rodent. Unfortunately, it looks his replacement won't be a great deal better.

The author gave examples of his students claiming unemployment benefits while studying at his course, and got so tangled by bureaucracy, ended up having to take on casual work. In his sneering tone, he gives away his bitterness towards his own students trying to ride the system to get what they want.

People in need do that. This includes Aboriginal people, migrants, and pensioners: a penny here, a free lunch there, and its called survival. The academic author and journalist forgot exactly how much of a hypocrite he is.

Some academics, like this author, are the biggest bludgers of the system of them all. In Australia, there are complaints from students being ripped off from all over the world, that greedy self-righteous professors are arrogant, lazy, and careless.

The figures on such academics are disturbing. Over 30% are engaged in private consultation business on top of their Tertiary salaries, which range from an average of $60Ks to $80Ks. They get paid well and suck it all in greedily. How do they do it? Delegate the work to their subordinates and then do work in journalism, business consultation and so on while claiming to be researching for their Universities.

Some University staff are the biggest bludgers of this country and this author not only loses credibility, his subjective interpretation is coloured by prejudice. He gives no figures, statistics or real references to ground his argument. He allows us to turn the spotlight back on to him.

When it comes to people scamming taxpayer's money?

Who the hell does he think he is?

What do their children do when they have their heads in the clouds?

I know many academics and most of them have dysfunctional families and children who find party drugs, grog and gambling problems. Now, where do we send the army?

Bloody ‘ell Rainier that’s a dirty post.

You and I have been pretty much onside on this forum, but I do object to that sort of purely disgusting personal attack, with no attempt made to address the debate.

And CJ Morgan’s effort is almost as rank.

One of the really big advantages of Howard’s approach is the scale of national and international attention that it has generated. Unlike all past attempts, the scrutiny is right on, and will remain on. This should ensure that there is no backing down or pulling back on the effort. It should ensure that if the first efforts are not too successful, they will be redoubled. It should ensure that the issues get dealt with no matter how long it takes.

To ChrisC:

Be careful when you quote self-appointed spokespeople from Mutitjulu. Often all is not as it at first seems.

There is in fact absolutely no absence of "healthcare, youth services, education and basic housing" at Mutitjulu, despite what certain propagandists would lead a gullible public to believe. As for "who will interpret for the military?" the answer is that the qualified interpreters could do this, just as they did at the meeting yesterday.

As for "How do they propose keeping alcohol out of our community when we are 20 minutes away from a 5 star hotel? Will they ban blacks from Yulara?", the answer is clearly "no", as the licensed outlet at Yulara is not permitted to sell takeaway alcohol to non-guests. The writers of this statement, if they were locals, would have known that very little of the alcohol which causes so much trouble at Mutitjulu comes from Yulara or Curtin Springs - it comes down from Alice Springs in the cars of Mutitjulu residents who on-sell it at inflated prices to their fellow residents.

Rather than spending their time "begging for an alcohol counsellor and a rehabilitation worker so that we can help alcoholics and substance abusers", the alleged authors would be better advised organising their fellow residents to do something about the illegal grog-running which breeds the addictions.

John Hirst blames the welfare state on LIBERTARIANS. But surely he should blame social democrats. LIBERTARIANS have never promoted the welfare state. LIBERTARIANS point to the government imposed minimum wage and other obstacles to employment and social integration as the cause of economic failure in such communities. LIBERTARIANS point to the mess created by government intervention in both the social and the economic sphere.

Perhaps John Hirst meant to chastise left-wing CIVIL LIBERTARIANS. Unfortunately he has blamed LIBERTARIANS for a belief system that belongs to SOCIALISTS. He needs to sharpen up on his understanding of political genealogy.

http://australianlibertarian.wordpress.com/