Josephus: The aboriginals would have suffered the same fate under the Spanish.

No, It would have been a lot worse. The Spanish & Portuguese when they colonized killed all the men & forcibly married the women, converted them to Catholicism. Those that refused were killed. If you go to Malacca, The Philippines or South America you will find that the indigenous people nearly all have Spanish or Portuguese names. In Aboriginal terms there would have been no Aboriginals left because the Aboriginal Gene is a Caucasian Sub-race.

Josephus: SteeleRedux,
Your claim some identify,"the blacks of Australia were the lowest race of savages known to exist, the connecting link between man and the brute creation". Is the height of your offensiveness.

Putting it that way, I suppose it is. I couldn't find that bit. Are you are referring to my earlier post?

< The Aboriginal people landed here in three waved as far as can be ascertained. 80000, 50000 & 30000 years ago. When they landed it was still the early Stone Age. No improvement in Living Conditions or Technology was made from that time to the present, in fact they were slowly going backwards.>

Regardless of PC, It is what it is. The Aboriginals in Australia where still living as they were 800000 years ago. Actually this is good study for Anthropologists.

Are Aboriginal people better off now, having been lifted out of the Early Stone Age ? i.e. people as intelligent as anybody else, but condemned to the most primitive way of life then known to the world ?

I was mildly surprised to read that W. E. H. Stanner, one of our finest anthropologists, commented, after nearly fifty years of research, that he didn't know of a single Aboriginal person who had gone back out into the bush, once they had experienced the outside world, principally its ration system. The right to do just that is still available, as it always has been: let's see how many of the Indigenous Industry elites will choose to do this in the future. Perhaps as few as have ever done so in the past. Or fewer - but can you get 'fewer' than 'none' ?

So on balance, would it have been better for the British to blockade the continent of Australia and keep it 'inviolate' from the marauding of any other imperialist power, right up the the present ? Would that have been possible ?

Or would it have been better to deny Aboriginal people the human right to join the rest of humanity, after 80,000 years of isolation ? To learn from the rest of their fellow-humans, to share experiences, to travel, to see the wonders that their fellow-humans have been devising all these years ?

The Greens and the other 'virtuous' people would, of course, say no.

Joe

It appears that we're looking at quite a divisive
debate that's still not settled because there seems
to be no clear answer for what date Australia Day
should be moved to if such a decision was ever made.

Well, at least it's still a live debate and people appear
to be willing to engage in that debate.

Aaaaargh ! I always have trouble with double-negatives, especially when I'm off on some flowery rhetorical track:

"Or would it have been better for Aboriginal people to exercise their right to re-join the rest of humanity, after 80,000 years of isolation ? To learn from the rest of their fellow-humans, to share experiences, to travel, to see the wonders that their fellow-humans have been devising all these years ?

"The Greens and the other 'virtuous' people would, of course, say no."

Yeah, that's better.

Joe

As usual, the subject has descended into a slanging match. Some people are simply using the topic to disagree with and attack other individuals. You were asked what you thought about AD, not how nasty you could be to people who think differently. You childish idiots know who I'm talking about.

Guess what people, I have not detected any push to alter Australia Day or push for a republic. I get around quite a bit to pubs, clubs, shopping centres and so on, and i do not hear people saying we need to change the Day.

Frankly it is all bull,the greens want something for publicity and the left media has taken it up, making out it is a big issue. There has been no reputable polls done and the only supporter is a Liberal polly in WA, whom no one has heard of.

There are far more important issues we can debate,such as why do we keep bringing people here from groups that cause trouble and will not accept our social values and why do we have such a high immigration rate anyway? It lowers our living standard, makes queues longer, reduces parking spots and raises the price of housing for young people.

No forget the bull about Australia Day changes, like a bad smell it will blow away.