on what was happening in Australia before 1788
Josephus,
Never ! Didn't anyone ever tell you that this continent was called Nirvana before the bad settlers renamed it Australia ?

2) Identifying as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

3) Being accepted as such by the community in which you
live or have lived.

Foxy,
yeah, right ! At a time when they're desperately trying to build up the numbers they'd give the ok to Snow White to identify as an Aborigine !

Dear Indyvidual,

All three criteria have to be met in order to qualify
as an Indigenous person. The government makes the rules.

The government makes the rules.
Foxy,
These rules were made under the proviso that integrity was used to determine the requirements, alas !

The Voice is contentious proposal that is actually ‘hard to defend’ as it is prima facie racist and goes against Australia’s long standing commitment to equality for all, and our one-person-one-vote form of liberal democracy. It is a policy that will ultimately (after implementation of the Uluru Statement, Treaty and Truth-Telling) lead to co-sovereignty within Australia - two separate ‘states’ and differing governance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people and the rest of Australia - as has happened in New .Zealand, the example that Albanese , in one of his rants, said we should follow.

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Dear ttbn,

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To avoid any misunderstanding, perhaps I should explain the reason for my surprise at seeing The Australian publish an article in which the former MD of the Australian Christian Lobby grossly misrepresented the Voice project in racial terms.

Please be assured that it is not, as you suggest, because I wish to “insinuate that The Australian is racist”. If I had good reason to think that The Australian was racist, I would clearly say so.

Nor do I take inspiration from any of the sources you indicate (politically conservative religious organisations, the Greens Party or the Communists).

The Australian newspaper article came to me as a very pleasant surprise. I saw it as an all too rare and totally unexpected manifestation of freedom of expression (of an author) as well as the freedom of the press.

While I thoroughly oppose and condemn the racist ideas and theories expressed by the former MD of the conservative Australian Christian Lobby, I just as thoroughly approve and applaud his right and the right of The Australian newspaper to express them.

I regret the unavowed censorship of so many publications and media, not just in Australia, but throughout the so-called “free world”. I also regret the discrete auto-censorship of so many authors and would-be authors.

I dearly value my freedom and independence, ttbn, and do my best to avoid any outside influence. And though I see myself as an ordinary person, I notice that I share some of the sentiments and ideas of people like George Orwell and Noam Chomsky as well as a few others.

Here is George Orwell on the freedom of the press :

http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Animal_Farm/english/efp_go

And here is Noam Chomsky on freedom of speech :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?=VjoAmkonH50&ab_channel=TheOriginsPodcast

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