Hasbeen
You are right Bill O'Chee was a perfect answer to racism.
He proves beyond a doubt that irresponsibly and self centredness knows no racial boundaries.

His antics raised the issue that Parliament pensions were beyond the reach of being counted as a assessable asset in legal disputes like a marriage dissolution. The likes of pensions for the you and I ARE.

I remember the instances of his avoidance of his ex-family responsibility despite a lucrative parliamentary pension and a well paying job. Their care (disabled child), housing handed over to the welfare system.

Oh yes there was the attempt to avoid the body corporate fees on his luxury Gold coast apartment.

Where is your anti free loader BBQ guests now when it involves a an ex-country party senator? (sorry I must not call the country party, the Country Party...naughty corner for me...again [sigh]).

Good example though.

Dear Forrest,

I'm glad that you found the poem useful.

It still gives me goosebumps.

When will we ever learn?

Country girl,

Para phrasing Martin Luther King Jr example "We will remain racist untill we can meet a person for the first time and ten minutes later remember the person but not their race".

Squeers is unfortunately right. "I'm not racist but." is a dead give away. In your case implied.

The mere fact you note a person's race, ethnicity, gender or such generalisations etc indicate you rank their individuality to a lesser importance. Therefore you are prejudiced (racist) you simply are less obvious about it.

We all have personal issues about the unknown, different(not like me).

The key is what you do about it.... try an hide it with faux liberalism ( the infamous but implied or explicit)Or acknowledge it and work to overcome it...Activate the frontal cortex more (reason centre of the brain.

For the record, I have these undesirable failings too, I just choose not to feed or luxuriate in them.

What Rainier said. While I'm sure that most racist Australians genuinely think that they aren't, their words and actions (or lack thereof) demonstrate otherwise.

Country girl is to be applauded for her proactive stance regarding Korean backpackers, but her exclusive employment of them is as racist as if she refused to employ them because they are Korean, as Squeers points out.

Also, she is conspicuously silent about the anti-Aboriginal racism that is rife in the district in which she and I both live.

What makes a racist ?
If you called a white person a useless layabout there would be no responce.
The same label to a black person and you are racist.
How can you begin to understand what is racist or not racist.
Where are the rules, I think the rules are in the person digesting the said words.

I have always deplored the way some writers criticize other writers, rather than the content of the statement or the question. I've noted that at least six of the writers who responded to my question, did not attempt to answer the question concerning how proactive they were to reduce Australian racism. The word proactive means to take action. What are these writers actually doing physically to change the racism that exists.

There were misunderstandings too of what I am doing. I am not an employer. My husband and I are too old to farm our land, so we operate our large home as a B&B during the winter/spring months and as a hostel for Koreans during the summer/autumn harvest months. I choose to take people of one race so that I have a harmonious home without squabbles. The Koreans seemed to me to be the most despised racial group amongst the backpackers who work in this district, so being a bit of a Joan of Arc I set out to fight their battle for them.
One person can make a difference, but one person can't fight every battle or right every wrong.

Territorial squabbles are over something as simple as who had the right to use a refrigerator shelf. If all the people concerned can speak the same language they can sort it out without bringing such issues to me.

It was nice to be welcomed back as a contributor. I read most forum posts most days, but don't wish to enter into slanging matches, hence I seldom respond.