Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture 2015. “You can keep your gold. We just want our land back.”
Vincent Lingiari knew who he was and that this land held him close to its heart. “You can keep your gold. We just want our land back.”
Joe Hockey was right – Adam Giles’ push for NT Statehood is a joke
NT Chief Minister Adam Giles may be looking for a new career in stand-up comedy with his latest "Statehood" routine. Joe Hockey was laughing like a drain and I nearly drove into one. Here is why ...
Abbott’s white paper for the black tropics: Boon or boondoggle?
"Developing North Australia" is, somewhat surprisingly, a curate's--or perhaps in this case a failed seminarian's--egg. Good in parts and in small measure. But as Longfellow said, "When she was good, She was very, very good, And when she was bad she was horrid."
Getting hot, sweaty and happy at the Rayella Band album launch at Elliott, NT
Mark Raymond is a deserved legend in these parts. He is an ex-copper and lead singer of the great and sadly retired Kulumindini Band, who made three great albums (one with the best title - "You're Not Useless" - I've heard in a while) in the late eighties and mid-nineties. Kulumindini gave us a long "tuning-up-song" intro and then launched into their greatest hits and more. The crowd, as they say, went wild.
The loudest bird in the world? The Blue-winged Kookaburra, Dacelo leachii
These guys just don't give a shit, and have a great time doing it. I don't know if this species is the loudest bird in the world but I reckon even the FA-18s from the nearby Tindal RAAF base would be hard-pressed to cut through the Blue-winged Kookaburra's cacophonous clatter at close quarters.
Vale Leigh Bruce “Tracker” Tilmouth. A man of word and deed
"Labor likes pet niggers, and I'm counted as a pet nigger. I'm allowed to mow the lawns, but I'm not allowed up on the verandah." Tracker on his struggles with pre-selection for the Senate in the NT.
Gulag Territory – how the NT leads the world in indigenous incarceration
Gulag NT spends more money per capita on Police and Corrections than any other Australian jurisdiction. It costs $100,000 per year to house each adult prisoner, and $200,000 for each juvenile. The present CLP Government has just opened its new Superjail (originally commissioned by the previous Labor Government) at a cost of $1 billion-plus. The Attorney-General has said it will ultimately cost the taxpayer $1.8B and take 30 years to pay off. It is the largest-ever NT Government outlay for a capital works project. Meanwhile, the present Government regularly makes significant cuts to education and health services. The Superjail is built to hold 1100 prisoners and is already close to full, so it won’t be long until another will be required.
My first Crikey piece. “Tony Jones has a big night out in Darwin”
"Lateline and Tony Jones are up for a Walkley Award. Nothing could be more disgraceful in Australian journalism. The fact that this program has been nominated undermines the Walkley Awards … I think it is an absolute disgrace that he is invited here for the media awards on Saturday night." Syd Stirling, Deputy Chief Minister, NT Legislative Assembly, 19 October 2006.
The NT gets an “F for FAIL” on remote community education
At one of the COAG working party negotiations that I attended one state representative remarked that there was no point giving any funds to the NT because they wouldn’t deliver the goods and that the close-the-gap target could be achieved by focusing on the Indigenous population in the eastern states alone. Let’s not make this chilling black humour a reality.
Failed statehood. Is it time for an(other) NT intervention?
As Rothwell notes, the good tax-payers of the Australian south-east fork out around $4 billion a year to keep the NT running. Divide that number by the 220,000 people in the NT and the figure is around $18,000 per head. "Thanks and it is your shout!!"