The penalties for the unauthorised possession of wildlife in the NT are high - for an individual the maximum penalties range from $65,000 to $130,000 and are of course much higher for corporate offenders.
Bedrizzled with rain he sits without a move; Among the rippling waters he sits without a move. Bedrizzled with rain, a reddish glow overspreads him; Among the rippling waters a reddish glow overspreads him. The sky is clouded with water-moss; The sky sends down scattered showers.
To my mind this Income Quarantining is a bit like the old days when they used to put Aboriginal people under the “dog license", where they had to grovel to the government for permission to do all kinds of things. People need to stand up and say “No, this is not right for Australia. What kind of country are we living in?”
I’ve been working with really strong community members, people who have been given well-deserved authority and respect by their communities and who have been completely overlooked by governments. I just cannot understand why this government continues an approach that completely disengages communities and individuals. Particularly when you look at the cumulative impact of that continual disengagement and the return to the top-down approach. Eventually the government must finally realise that this approach just isn’t working.
Most of the people working for the intervention are Kardia (non-Aboriginal) - there is not much work for Yapa from the Intervention – most of those jobs go to Kardia people. When they come in with all their flash new cars, flash Toyotas, that makes us feel down. What the Yapa are thinking is that all the Kardia are "moneyfaces" (that they only care about money). And some people think like it was a hundred years ago and is still happening now.
Two years ago Kevin Rudd, in what appears to have now faded into a largely symbolic apology to Aboriginal Australia, told the nation that: …symbolism is important but, unless the great symbolism of reconciliation is accompanied by an even greater substance, it is little more than a clanging gong. It is not sentiment that makes [...]
I wandered downtown earlier today to catch up with some friends & countrymen at the Prescribed Area People's Alliance Rally outside the John Flynn Church in the middle of the Alice Springs Mall. The main theme of the Rally was to celebrate - in an ironic sense - the second anniversary of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's "Sorry" speech to the Australian Parliament.
There are some days that you’d prefer to be digging a ditch than to be a public servant. Particularly if you were one of the members of Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin’s FaHCSIA staff that turned up to the New South Wales Parliament House on the last Thursday of January to face a grilling [...]
Right now it seems that the meaning of “philanthropic”, in South Australia corporate and government circles at least, is a work in progress.
David Winderlich: I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t disclose how much they are spending on sportsmen like Lance Armstrong - unless of course they are ashamed of it. But there is also the fundamental question that is paramount in any democracy - which is transparency - why shouldn’t people know these things - what is secret about it? I think the general default position is that everything should be open unless there is a good reason for it not to be.
