You must have forgotten anzac day

I've never understood why Australia chose the day they invaded a sovereign country in a war they had no place participating in as its day of remembrance.

If the Aboriginals want to go back to the bush, and stop receiving free education, free healthcare, welfare payments and government housing, they'll never have to hear about Australia Day ever again.

Seriously sick of this white guilt era, where we have to feel bad and lift up the minorities just because its the current year.

Time for us all to move on and live happily together in this country, not find reasons to be upset with each other based on centuries old transgressions.

It was of strategic value. nothing personal

No but I don't expect a reasonable discussion about this issue. This annual day of whinging is fucking nonsense. It's the same divisive bullshit every year which only hurts our chances of reconciliation/closing the gap between indigenous/non-indigenous. Some of my issues if we're all for venting:

1) I get that the 26th is probably not the best day for a national celebration. I would have no qualms about moving it to be more sensitive towards our indigenous people. However, my view is that changing the day will not change a damn thing.

2) We cannot continue to be made to feel ashamed for the actions of 50+ years ago. Would you make Germans born in the 90's feel ashamed about the holocaust? Of course you wouldn't, nothing they could do will heal the wounds of generations past. Expecting people to feel shame for something outside of their control is playing a cruel victim card and is frankly pathetic. If the indigenous people who take issue with the anglo-saxons of Australia want to be treated with respect, taking every opportunity to criticise literally everything will not serve. Progress will only be made by finding middle ground. Instead we have generation after generation with a chip on their shoulder. Sad but true. Make all the excuses for it that you want but at least admit that progress is a two way street.

3) Media (Stan Grant comes to mind) are so fucking stereotypical on this issue. If you read the news at present every white Australian is a racist, sexist drunk and any sort of national celebration is offensive. This sort of nonsense is divisive and counter-productive.

4) Yes 'we' (our anglo-saxon forefathers a few hundred years ago) took land from aboriginals. What are we expected to do about it? Fuck off back to England. This nonsense needs to stop too. What are we meant to do about this?

5) Why are we not allowed to celebrate being Australians? This should be a day where regardless of age, gender, skin colour, religion etc. everyone who calls themselves Australian thanks their lucky stars that our country is pretty stable at the end of the day. We're not without our issues but it's not hard to find countries that are far worse off. We should be thankful for that.

Can't people just get on with life rather than making any kind of celebration into some form of drama? I am so sick to death of every kind of celebration of anything being a chance to out PC every other person in the country.

This. I'm so sick of being told i'm racist/sexist/bigoted because I carry on with my life and don't spend my day's feeling guilty for decisions and actions I cannot control/prevent.

Who has said you personally are racist/sexist/bigoted "because you carry on with your life".

Total strawman.

Acknowledging govt policies of eradication, and recognising the damage done by them, is not unreasonable.

As is understanding why indigenous Australians would find it hard to celebrate 26th January.

Who has said you personally are racist/sexist/bigoted "because you carry on with your life".

Total strawman.

Acknowledging govt policies of eradication, and recognising the damage done by them, is not unreasonable.

As is understanding why indigenous Australians would find it hard to celebrate 26th January.

No one is asking you to personally feel ashamed. All that is being asked for is recognition and acknowledgement of what actually happened.

The fact is most Australians would be totally unaware of the arsenic in the flour, the smallpox infected blankets etc.

Also, the policies of decimation only really stopped in the 1970s. And the people that suffered under these policies are well and truly alive today.

No one has said we shouldn't celebrate Australia - just that 26th January is probably not the right day if you want indigenous Australians to be valued.

Look on the Brisbane Times website. They are saying we shouldn't.

Why We SHouldn't Rejoice on Australia Day

Nothing like some sweeping generalisations to highlight inequalities :roll:

As i've said all along, it was terrible what happened to these people but other than change the day of national celebration, what can we do? Pay them a shit load of money? Create opportunities for them not afforded to others in the workplace? Pay for remote communities which are unsustainable? Provide extra education resources at the expense of others?

Edited by bethfc: 27/1/2016 06:21:47 PM

Speaking of sweeping generalisations - using one article to say we are being told not to celebrate Australia Day???? hahaha

If you are asking what can we (as a society) do - first thing I would suggest is to actually engage indigenous communities on where money goes.

Just because Abbott came out and said remote communities are unsustainable, doesn't mean it is true. Rather than just unilaterally deciding this and kicking people off their land (which I understand hasn't actually happened yet) we should be engaging in conversation with the indigenous groups themselves as to how best to do things. The other point is that those townships largely exist due to the govt creating them when they forced indigenous populations into them!

The problem is we still have a very paternalistic top-down approach. The only difference is that in the past it was malevolent, whereas now it is more benign. But still, we (the govt) just decide to do things without actually treating the indigenous populations as equal partners in determining their future.

The fact is, indigenous Australians fall behind on nearly all measures of health, education etc. Large improvements have been made, which indicates resolving the issue is possible, but there is still a huge gap.

Indigenous Australians are only about 3% of the population, so it isn't a large cost to taxpayers in the grand scheme of things.

We still see indigenous Australians as a problem that we need to fix, rather than the partners who can create their future if they are enabled thru appropriate support. I know that last sentence sounds a bit wanky, but I hope you can see what I am getting at...

I just copied the one that pissed me off the most, I wasn't aware that I needed to validate myself with posting the other 200.



Wasn't it a result of Howard encouraging indigenous Australians to return to their tribal lands in an effort to be a good guy?

Common sense would dictate that if you're providing services to a small population in the middle of nowhere that the service costs would be astronomical. Providing power/water/sewerage etc. for 10 people who live in a remote area is going to be a nightmare.



A big issue is the remote lifestyle of a large percentage of aboriginals. I do wonder what statistics would be like if you compared remote non-aboriginals to aboriginals.

Educating people outside towns/cities is hard and always will be.



Didn't we spend like 2billion a decade ago on an intervention which failed miserably? Fixing these issues/maintaining remote communities isn't pocket change.



Yeh I see what you're saying but the government isn't trusted by indigenous people (I don't really blame them) so partnership is almost a pipe dream.

I legitimately have no idea how we (white Australians) will come together with aboriginals.

This is what will happen if you have gay marriage it will continue opening pandoras' box of Political Correctness

the fuck did he get a snake from

Turnbull unaware of radical migrant plan

The federal government has distanced itself from a leaked document setting out tougher checks on migrants and refugees.
Source: AAP
5 FEB 2016 - 6:33 AM UPDATED 52 MINS AGO

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he is unaware of a proposed plan to ramp-up security monitoring of refugees and cut direct access to permanent residency.

The ABC's Lateline program has obtained a copy of a draft document marked "sensitive" which makes a number of proposals to keep extremists out of the country.

"In the first half of 2016 the minister for immigration and border protection will bring forward proposals to reform the visa framework and remove direct access to permanent residents to better align visa and citizenship decision-making with national security and community protection outcomes," the document reads.


Visa changes spark rights concerns
Australian Human Rights Commission and several refugee legal centres will appear before an inquiry into changes to complementary protection visas.
The new measures include better ways to assess the suitability of migrants, as well as a revamped citizenship test and pledge.

It flags greater use of intelligence to weigh up the risks of each individual from the pre-visa stage to "post-citizenship conferral".

The document says it is expected some of the 12,000 additional Syrian refugees being brought in to Australia "will bring issues, beliefs or associations that lead them to advocate or engage in politically motivated or communal violence".

It singles out the Lebanese community as the "most prominent ethnic group amongst Australian Sunni extremists".

Mr Turnbull said neither he nor the immigration minister had seen the document, so he could not vouch for its status.

"As far as future policies are concerned, I can assure you that in terms of people's rights, that there is only one class of citizenship in Australia," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

All citizens had the same rights but they also had the same obligations.

"One of those obligations is obviously to obey the law and so that applies whether you were born here or whether you took out your citizenship last week," he said.

The government has a comprehensive system of checking the identity and backgrounds of anyone seeking asylum or permanent resettlement.

Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said it was of great concern if the document was deliberately leaked as a "kite-flying" exercise.

"I think this is a dangerous document," he told ABC radio.

The proposal headed down the path of putting in place a discriminatory immigration policy akin to the White Australia policy of the 1950s.

"If we take the leap that every Sunni Muslim is a potential terrorist that is an appalling step to take," he said.

He said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had to disavow the proposal.

Amazing they'd try this sort of thing after the ABF random search farce last year.

The shine is definitely coming off old Malcolm. A completely unprincipled and ineffective leader doing the tories in his party's bidding.

I agree he is capitualting to the extremists of his party on key issues...why spend over $100m on something that could be done one sunny afternoon on the hill?

Listen carefully to his interviews and he is clearly a thoughtful and articulate person who doesn't simply spout some personal ideology and pretend everyone is with him. On The GST issue for instance he isn't saying it will certainly be policy but is putting it out there to discuss but with certain conditions it must achieve...that he readily admitted looked unlike to meet considering how complicated it would be. I can't say I agree with his policies and I don't see myself voting for him but I like how he respects the office he holds.

Islamic schools funding to be cut

Dafuq are there islamic schools in the first place?

This is Australia isn't it?