It got conflated because there are multiple global examples to where the constitutional change that passed was equally broad and has created a situation where you cannot sneeze in your back garden without first asking a first nations corporation for permission and paying the tithe. I'm not saying that some form of financial reparations should be ruled out, but landing it on the heads of people who purely through accident of birth grow up in a former colony is not going to fly. It ends up in a circular argument every single time. Perhaps the British crown should own their crimes and shoulder the financial burden of making things right? Certainly no questioning the lineage of those responsible there.
bandario
joined 1 year ago
recognising the original owners of the land in our constitution was really all it was meant to do
Without any detail about how these processes would actually work, this seemingly common sense statement is fraught with danger. This has been rightly recognised by those most likely to encounter legislative change around land management and compulsory engagement with indigenous groups. As you move outwards from inner city suburbs, the percentage of no voters increased and this should not surprise anyone at all...that doesn't mean country folks are racist or that they don't care about first nations issues. It means they are far more likely to have been caught up in the absolutely disgusting mess of previous government attempts to put a framework around cultural heritage issues or challenges to private land ownership.
The guarantee of 'an indigenous voice to parliament' completely failed to elucidate how this could possibly hope to deal with the fractious state of existing first nations groups who can not and will not work together or settle disputes over borders. Obviously this is a problem originally caused by colonisation and forced encampment, but it's not easily put to bed. Right now where I live there are heated battles raging over native title claims; over boundaries and which family groups are the rightful representatives of each tribal group. 4 or 5 districts that cannot decide on who is the rightful native title claimant, all with various corporate backing fighting tooth and nail with a view to securing the imagined wealth of being ratified as the original inhabitants of one patch of dirt or another.
This is where it ends up:
This wasn't some mining company looking to explore for gas or resources...it was a group of people trying to carry out a waterway restoration project. To help undo damage to the land. They were asked to pay 2.5 million dollars to the Whadjuk Aboriginal Corporation for the privilege.
That CEO has since been rightly removed, but you get the picture. There are so many corporate groups out there just rubbing their hands together and hoping to turn this ugly mess into a gravy train. I have first hand experience dealing with these situations and it has been absolutely heartbreaking. White solutions to black problems seems to just lead to more exploitation and fresh wounds.
About 6 months ago we had some cultural heritage training delivered at work just as public discourse around 'The Voice' was starting to ramp up heavily. There were about 100 people present across a few sessions and I think they were extremely powerful for some people. Some minds were changed on a few issues and the facilitator was absolutely fantastic. Towards the end of the session I was absolutely shocked when that facilitator who obviously cares deeply about first nations representation told our group that she and her family would be voting against the referendum. Her statement was concise and to the point: "How can a single indigenous voice to parliament represent hundreds of groups who do not agree with one another?"
Obviously she is caught up in the aforementioned ongoing disputes, but I dare say after the heartbreaking presentation about generational trauma inflicted by white settlers trying to solve indigenous issues, she made almost 100 no voters right there.
To be perfectly honest I am completely disgusted by the way this proposal was handled from start to finish. IMO the Labor party has taken the olive branch offered by the Uluru Statement from the Heart and stomped it into the ground for attempted political gain.
They grabbed a divisive wedge issue and took it to a referendum with no real plan for how it was going to work. They failed to illustrate a workable framework or demonstrate what was going to be put in place to compensate private landholders for restrictions placed on development of the land they have purchased.
It feels as though we just set reconciliation back about 40 years, picked the scab from every wound imaginable...and for what? My heart breaks for indigenous Australians right now. They've just been told by the entire country that we don't care about them. That hurts, because there's simply no way that is the case. Again, our first Australians have been let down by a tone deaf white government that believes so hard that 'they know best' that they were prepared to put indigenous people on the gallows with a smile and forced the Australian people to pull the lever by keeping them in the dark and not presenting the full legal framework that would draw from that constitutional change.
It's fucking gross.
Are you suggesting we should reinstate the glory of the British empire?
If I rode my bike to work, my shift would be over by the time I got there. I'm really starting to like the idea of biking to work.
They probably should question them. Even something as seemingly benign as Paracetamol is not without its issues if used too often, or after alcohol. It can do serious harm. Most medicine can.
Another fun medicine fact. Australia banned the sale of pseudoephedrine from store shelves quite some years ago to try and reduce domestic amphetamine production. Ever since, all of the major pharma brands have sold phenylephrine based cold and flu medicine as a replacement. Our Therapeutic Goods Administration recently found that this preparation is no better than placebo. We're talking about a billion dollar industry that has been knowingly selling snake oil for ten years.
I guess what I'm saying is a healthy dose of skepticism and knowledge seeking should be applied to anything you are putting in your body or exchanging money for. The pharmaceutical industry are not saints. They're just as driven by profit incentives as every other business.
I was at an xmas party one year where the workshop boys did this with an upturned 44 gallon drum. It was the loudest bang I've ever heard. I thought we were under some sort of attack.
They expected the drum to launch a little but what actually ended up happening was the upturned metal bottom blew off and launched a LOT punching a hole in the workshop roof. It's a miracle that nobody was hurt (their hearing probably was). Somehow they didn't get fired.
I don't buy it. Probably just creepily physically restrains her whilst forcibly sniffing her hair and telling her how beautiful she is.
I had hoped you just missed a decimal point but it seems you did not.
I've lived on the coast of Australia most of my life, but I moved a good couple of hundred kilometres inland last year. I'm really looking forward to having waterfront property again pretty soon.
Hell, it's already too hot for human habitation here most of the year. I might as well enjoy the view before I croak.
My money is on a devout Jewish gentleman offended that women had some kind of representation anywhere.
It certainly isn't specific.
Who will this person be, claiming to represent the interest of 200 distinct language groups? What laws will be made?
It's little wonder it failed. You and I can't even agree and it seems like we're ostensibly on the same side of the issue.