Banjo “can you show any practical advantages?”

Exactly… made similar comment in response to a post by (I think) bushbred yesterday… re the Samoans not bothering to remove a sign regarding the previous British Colonial authority.

Bushbred “Anyhow, if New Zealand honoured the Maories with a permanent place in parliament with Canada now being ditto, what harm would it do for us also to be the same?”

Maybe because the Maori population rates as 14.6% the total population of New Zealand
http://www.socialreport.msd.govt.nz/people/ethnic-composition-population.html

And First Nation, Metis and Inuit total 3.75% the population of Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada

whereas, Aboriginal population of Australia represents 1.15% of the total
http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/free/pnpv7n4/v7n4_3price.pdf

So in short, Maoris are 13 times more populous than aboriginals and thus, 13 times more deserving of a place in parliament.

Although, personally, I find such “secured representation” a disgusting denial of the values idealized in the concept of “universal suffrage”

Leigh: << There is no way that aborigines could ever called ‘civilised’. >>

More ignorance from Leigh. Suggested reading:

Warner, W. Lloyd (1937) "A Black Civilization: a Social Study of an Australian tribe".

Leigh, Morgan et al,

From: The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | Date: 2009 |
civ·i·li·za·tion

• n. the stage of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced.

; the process by which a society or place reaches this stage.
; the society, culture, and way of life of a particular area: the great books of Western civilization.
; the comfort and convenience of modern life, regarded as available only in towns and cities.

and

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

culture with a relatively high degree of elaboration and technical development. The term civilization also designates that complex of cultural elements that first appeared in human history between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago. At that time, on the basis of agriculture, stock-raising, and metallurgy, intensive occupational specialization began to appear in the river valleys of SW Asia. Writing appeared, as well as urban centers that accommodated administrators, traders, and other specialists. The specific characteristics of civilization are: food production (plant and animal).

ie. civilization is an advanced culture. Having a culture does not imply civilization.

Candide, I am a professional historian. My I erefer you to the debate of the 1950 to 1970 regarding the founding of Australia. 'The founding of Australia' by GEd Martin 1978. Convicts were settled in NSW for the dual purpose of finding some where to get rid of them from the UK as well as the possibility of NSW being a source of Naval Stores. Other European countries didn't come into it.
Cheers.

Col Rouge, not many thanks for your uneducated inhuman hardhearted opinion.

As one who has worked with and played country sport with the human beings you despise so much, must say as a historian, I believe your rightist attitude is not much different from the personalism which brought on extremist politics like Nazism.

Also as one who has gained Honours in the Humanities, one could certainly find plenty of educated people to back me up.

Must close by saying, Col Rouge, that it is not only you I've got my
sights on, but the bulk of my so-called Aussie mates as well.

From BB, Buntine, WA.

Col Rouge, you are a bit of nomad yourself, have you ever spent enough time in these various countries, to inform you of the respective countries history of being.
Not that many rightwing thinking people bother!