Dear Shadow Minister,

Yes we know. You've signed up for an ideology and given up
your willingness to think for yourself.
Evident everywhere.

Coming from someone who can't explain why she supports left whinge gesture politics, that's a little rich.

I've signed up for reasoned debate, not Left whinge dogma.

Even history taught in our schools is taught according to idealogical leanings.

For example, it is touted by those of leftist leaning ideas that our kids
should be taught about " Invasion day"because it s the truth.

On the other hand if it is pointed out , that the only thing here when the English arrived
was bush, and the whites are responsible for the building of the advanced society that Australia is today. That the English at that point in history already had towns, streets,
courts of law, advanced musical acheivements and all the superior attributes of an advanced civilisation. That, although it is also a fact of history,must be suppressed
and not spoken of.
This is being selective in the teaching of facts to suit a political agenda.
So, is it any wonder that our media cant report fact, when our schools cant teach it
without censoring it.

Dear CHERFUL,

Be careful or Shadow Minister may accuse you of being
a "Left wing whinge."
What he doesn't seem to realise is that -
Right wing or Left wing, they're both part of
the same bird. :-)

Happy New Year to you and yours from me and mine.

Hi Shadow,

On the question of a treaty between colonialists and indigenous peoples I am somewhat ambivalent. As for a modern day Australian Treaty, until something is on the table for discussion, and one can hear argument from both sides, I am ambivalent about that as well.

On the question of the 'Treaty of Waitangi' I believe Lieutenant Governor William Hobson who was given the task of establishing a treaty between the Maori people and the British Crown was an honorable man, as were all the colonials involved. Hobson arrived in the Bay of Islands only a few days before the signing was due, without a treaty in hand and no knowledge of the Maori language or experience at treaty making. He did have with him some other treaty style documents etc, which he used to draw up his document with the help of his secretary James Freeman, possibly an early cut and paste job. The first draft was reviewed by James Busby, I mentioned him before, and was rejected out of hand on Busby's advice, as being something the Chiefs would not accept. The redraft was given Busby's seal of approval.
The immediate problem then was Hodson did not have a Maori language translation. The missionary father and son, Henry and Edward Williams provided Hobson with a written translation, the two were proficient in the local language, having been in NZ for many years. The translation was reviewed by Busby and he proposed a couple of word changes. The result was that there were now two treaties, the English version, and the Maori version (most chiefs signed the Maori version). The major point of contention to this day is the word "sovereignty" as found in the English version, and the Maori word for "governance" found in the Maori version.

The moral of the story is "be careful of what you write."

Paul,

The issue I have with the idea of a "treaty" is that some people believe that it is a magic bullet, that will in one fell swoop fix the education problems, get kids into school, provide jobs in remote communities etc. None of this will occur, no one wants to set up businesses in remote communities where there is no market, no skilled labor, and where crime is rampant. Kids of alcoholic parents will still not go to school, and teachers and medical staff will still have to be paid a fortune to go to these remote communities.

The original topic was of False news, what is it, and is it possible to control without damaging the right to free speech.

My contention is that anyone that reads "news" on one man blogs, facebook or Twitter needs to do with some level of skepticism and cross check the information, as these tend to have half truths, omissions and sometimes outright lies.