This was never about how good, bad or funny Bill Leak was compared with other cartoonists; it was about freedom of speech, something sadly lacking now in Australia.

Trust the Left to get off the subject to take the heat off their obvious negative attitudes to free speech.

Dear ttbn,

Does labelling people give you a sense of superiority?

Or do you only recognise just the one point of view?

'That' site that conditions the opinion of the leftist, the so-called 'Matilda' site (they have a hide to use a name that is reminiscent of an Aussie icon while they are so down on everything Australian), is trying to revise history and is dumping on the dead body of Bill Leak.

Now for the reality,

"JE SUIS BILL LEAK!
The notion that parents in indigenous communities must take more responsibility for their children is not particularly controversial – it’s a point often made by indigenous leaders such as Noel Pearson and Warren Mundine. Mundine, who is also a former national president in the Australian Labor Party, has defended Leak. ‘If the allegations are that [Leak] has incited racial hatred, I don’t support that at all’, Mundine said. ‘[The cartoon] has a black police officer and it’s opening up a debate. Cartoonists have always been in-your-face – and that’s definitely in-your-face.’

However, extraordinarily, the complaint against Leak was encouraged by the commission’s race-discrimination commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, which will most likely prejudice the commission’s investigation. A government entity has effectively told people to be offended and will accordingly be investigating. Yes, Leak’s cartoons are often offensive.

That’s what a good cartoonist does. They highlight topics of debate through confronting, hard-hitting and pointed imagery. If you fall foul of their pen, it can be tough. Leak recently portrayed same-sex-marriage activists as the ‘WAFFEN-SSM’, made light of domestic-violence leave, and poked fun at fat, bald and transgender people to highlight the importance of freedom of speech. And that’s the key thing here: the freedom of Leak and others to draw and say anything they like."
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/je-suis-bill-leak/18882

The similarly inappropriately named 'Australian Human Rights Commission' and its truly nasty, manipulative head, Gillian Triggs, have been found out where the QUT students and Bill Leak are concerned. The far leftists are fighting a rearguard action to re-write history notwithstanding the emergence of facts concerning those cases.

How typical of the amoral Leftists, while the loved ones and friends, Australia too are still grieving.

Dearest Foxy,

I don't know anybody who would have interpreted THAT cartoon as being " ..... a bit simplistic to condemn Indigenous people as a whole from a position of affluence, privilege, and middle-class comfort."

Anybody who has worked or lived in any Aboriginal community, anywhere in Australia, would immediately recognise the butt of that cartoon, and it certainly wasn't "Indigenous people as a whole." Not women (well, not many women), but certainly (the minority of) blokes who never work and spend all their money on grog and drugs, and (again, a minority) beat the daylights out of their women.

But, given that the victims of such behaviour may actually constitute a majority of people in more remote communities, then perhaps your call to in-action works effectively " .... to condemn Indigenous people as a whole from a position of affluence, privilege, and middle-class comfort."

Think of the victims, dear Foxy, the women and kids, and to hell with the perpetrators.

Bill Leak was brave enough to do so, again and again, even putting his life on the line. A real feminist, a real anti-racist, and a real human being.

Love,

Joe

leoj,

I'm surprised at your post. And you a warrior for "Freedom of Speech,"
or is that only if it agrees with your viewpoint?

I've stated earlier that I loved Bill Leak's work.
Some of it made me laugh out loud. But then I'm not
Aboriginal and I wasn't looking at his work from
their perspective . Amy Mcquire (an Aboriginal woman)
wrote an article in New Matilda from an Aboriginal
perspective. It's worth a read.
Being Left/Right/Centrist or Green in this case should
not make one iota of difference. All you need is an
open mind and "Freedom of Speech." Right?
Or should that be Left?

http://newmatilda.com/2017/03/15/amy-mcquire-on-bill-leak-respecting-the-dead-doesnt-mean-you-have-to-ignore-their-racist-legacy/

I can't see why Leak's controversial cartoon is in any way a justification for removing 18C.

Some were offended by it and some were not, but 18C didn't stop him from publishing it and he wasn't charged as a result.