What?
'A strong opposition in Parliament'.
How twisted can one get?
A strong opposition in Parliament!
I suppose I shouldn't complain, I have been wishing for a hung Parliament that was stifled from making any more stupid time wasting laws.
So as stupid a comment as it is, with these crooks and thieves at the helm, and I mean ALL of them, aka The Govt, the best outcome for us all is if they spend the rest of the Govt's existence fighting with each other.
Yeh, I can live with that.
What a treasonous thing to suggest, that a govt was elected, but because some dis-agree they hope the opposition is strong, strong enough for what?
Obviously to object and kill any bills that did not fit their mantra or agenda.
Oh, your a sick lot.

Foxy,

Just about every identity group can claim eons of existence.

The one thing that I can guarantee is that the moment that there is any suggestion that the anthem can be changed, all these groups will come out from the woodwork and eat eachother in trying to insert their agenda.

Secondly, no one is afraid that refugees will take their jobs, rather that they will sit on their backsides and absorb $bns in welfare. The legal immigration of 190 000 p.a. of hard working skilled immigrants receives little resistance.

SM,

Reading all the commentary both here and in the
media it does appear that some of us are suffering
from cultural amnesia. Some of us have managed to create a
strong sense of patriotism around a country that was
never ours in the first place, whilst simultaneously
excluding those who wish for freedom in a new land.

As pointed out earlier the argument that we pay lip
service towards inclusion without living this reality.
That is part of our history. We only have to remember
The White Australia policy. Which was government policy.

Today we say that Australia has plenty to offer those
who wish to come here but in reality we do lock down
our borders to exclude refugees.

Australia was built on stories, Indigenous people use
narrative to explain the formation of the world.

White settlers used ballads and legend to create their
own new persona.

What originated as a prison colony of
Britain's "undesirables"sent to the god-forsaken ends
of the earth, morphed into stories of the -
rugged outdoorsman, the resiliant farmer, and -
salt-of-the-earth men and women forging a new nation
despite great hardship.

We're proud of our history as "underdogs who came good."
We embrace the perception that we are warm and welcoming,
happy to give anyone a "fair go."

Yet somewhere along the way this narrative did become,
has become, - justification for exclusion. White Australia
appears to have become so entrenched in the self-serving
narrative that we believe there is no longer room for
others.

The political strategy of manipulating our cultural
narrative to "distance" asylum seekers has been employed to
full effect in recent years, allowing conservative
parties to work fear of terror, economic decline, and
impinging multiculturalism to their advantage.

The mistrust of refugees has been a key agenda for
conservative governments - these have been unchallenged
and have bi-partisan support of the mistreatment of
refugees.

Therefore it should not be surprising that there are
voices being heard that are objecting to the words
of our current anthem and are demanding change.
Whether this will happen the people shall decide.

ALTRAV I have noticed, your posts when I first emerged from self imposed exile have changed
Unhinged and insulting once
You put in real effort
And they are much better, let us face it they could not have gotten worse
However you continue to judge other contributions, fair enough we judge yours
Do you think your views are STABLE enough to use as a platform to tell us most of us are stupid?

Belly, thank's for your criticisms and comments.
Unlike what most may think, I do respond to 'reasonable' demands.
I must confess, I have toned down my rhetoric slightly, but not totally because I have 'seen the error of my ways', but because I realised that, as others have pointed out, we are never going to change well entrenched beliefs and opinions.
Mostly though, I realised that the sad truth is that PC has begun infecting certain people including those who oversea OLO.
I understand that they too are constrained by the threats of the same few terrorists/activists who are pushing PC.
I am disappointed that I am 'forced' to not freely express something if and when required to do so, for fear of getting reported by the very people I am criticising.
I hope you can see the irony in that too.
So it is that even though I have 'toned down' my language, I cannot turn my back on the truth.
As for being 'stable' enough to call most people stupid.
I can only quote from the evidence.
My language is based mostly on expediency, most would say, laziness.
I can cop that criticism, I've always written or spoken in the shortest quickest form I can to simply save time and get the message across quicker.
For example, I was 'recently' pulled for using the word 'abo'.
I have explained many times already, these were standard speak during my up-bringing.
So words like 'wog', 'skip', 'abo', were words of endearment from those we knew.
But a call to arms from those we didn't know.
I and most other 'wogs' took it on the chin, or responded in kind.
Good friends used to call me 'ding'.
Enemies would call me 'dago' or 'wog bastard'.
Anyway, thank you for your kind words and the time you have taken to convey them.
On a more jovial note, don't think I won't pull you up in the future, if I see the need.
Hang on to that smile.

Dear Belly,

National anthems bring out a whole range of
emotions in people as we can see from this
discussion. That's why it is an interesting
subject and would make for a good thesis
at uni for someone. There are various
anthems with various words and meanings.
Many people have been known to shed tears
as they sing. They evoke all sorts of
emotions and often they unite us rather
than divide us.

However, we're currently discussing the
objections that have been raised by our
Indigenous people to some of the words
in our anthem and the explanations given from
their point of view.

We don't have to agree with what is being raised.
The relationship between our Indigenous heritage
and the country's British heritage has been a troubled
history, and as troubling as it will be for the
foreseeable future, these two things are the heritage
of Australia.

There is no denying it. It is the reality and it is
the truth, no matter how much white Australians might
want to ignore it or black Australians might want
to reject it. Whatever the mutual denial of the past,
the future must be one of mutual recognition.