Month: May 1993

The following are some major events and policy issues on Aboriginal affairs.
1967 referendum: Gave Aborigines full citizenship rights and gave the Federal Parliament power to make laws with respect to Aboriginal affairs, if necessary over-riding the states.

1972-75: Major boost to funding for Aboriginal programs under Whitlam Government with varying success at reaching targets. Push for land rights.

1976: Fraser Government passes Northern Territory Land Rights Act. It enables Aboriginal people to claim unalienated Crown land in the NT provided they can show a connection to the land through usage and sacred sites. Land vests in a land council which can never sell the land.
Continue reading “1993_05_may_absumm”

The anger at the appalling statement recently by Collingwood president Allan McAlister that as long as Aborigines “”conduct themselves like white people, well, off the field, everyone will admire them” should now be channelled into constructive change.

The reason for the poor record of Australian rules is a combination of its Melbourne base and the nature of psychological warfare in sport.

Psychological warfare has always been part of sport. Undermining your opponent through taunts and muttering is part of the sport from the highest to the lowest. Often the crowd joins in, and the crowd can be worse than opponents.
Continue reading “1993_05_may_absport”

Canberra is joining in. The Legislative Assembly commissioned a study of what Canberra would and should be like in 2020, using a pun on twenty-twenty vision.

It is to issue the third of four quarterly reports on Monday. The first was a quick demographic projection. The second was some 300 pages on recycled paper. Third will perhaps be as long and will come down a few days after a information technology academic, UC’s Professor Mary O’Kane, called for more government data to be available electronically.

IT is the bore-word for Canberra’s future, along with tourism. If that is the case it is a shame that history is becoming so easily disgraced. It is a shame it is being replaced by sociology and “”communications” and other mumbo-jumbo, because history can tell us so much about the future.
Continue reading “1993_05_may_2020”