All Australians should read this statement from Indigenous leaders, regardless of how they voted
Have you read the letter? Not one of the many articles summarising it, or analysing which bits were taken out in the drafting process, interesting as this information may be. The letter itself, three pages, 12 points, addressed to the prime minister and all federal parliamentarians, unsigned but described as being the “collective insights and views of a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, community members and organisations who supported ‘Yes’.” The leaders who were until last night engaged in a week of silence. To be fair, if you are not on social media, you may not have seen the full thing. Already, Senate estimates has engaged in a round of bickering, as Coalition senators complain about not having personally received it, as if they could not easily get their hands on a copy. If you haven’t, go read it now – I have linked to it below. After voting against the gracious request laid out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart – a one-page statement most Australians didn’t even bother to read – reading this statement is the least we can do.
A Statement for Our People and Country.
There is little I can add to this searing, stunning open letter, lest I be guilty of trying to summarise it myself. But it is rather unfortunate that the people who most need to read it are the people least likely to do so. As the letter states: “The truth is that the majority of Australians have committed a shameful act whether knowingly or not”. Indeed, much of the country seems blissfully unaware of what they have done, happy to ignore the pain they have inflicted – and much of the media seems happy to let them.
A Statement for Our People and Country.
After a week of listening to non-Indigenous politicians and commentators discuss the meaning of the referendum outcome, will Australians read this letter? It doesn’t seem likely. Already, The Daily Telegraph has run a poll of its readers, declaring that 95 per cent have “rejected” the open letter – it’s unclear how many of those voters would have read the letter in full, without finding it on social media. After all, if you learnt of it via The Tele, you’d be led to believe that Indigenous leaders had attacked “No” voters, accusing them of racism. Why bother reading it?
A Statement for Our People and Country.
Those who are unwilling to read it, unwilling to take five minutes out of their day to hear what the mouse has to say to the elephant, may want to think about why.
A Statement for Our People and Country.
GOOD OPINION the cost of war
|
|
|
|
|
|
“There’s no difference between an Israeli life and a Palestinian life if we’re talking about innocent civilians on either side of that barrier. We condemn Hamas for taking those innocent Israeli lives and we want to make sure that no more civilians are lost in Palestine in unfair circumstances.”
| |
| |
| |
|
Labor frontbencher Murray Watt joins those calling for an end to civilian deaths in Gaza, echoing fellow minister Ed Husic’s calls for a “de-escalation” over the weekend.
|
| |
|
|
BAD OPINION A real Fund Guy
|
|
|
|
|
|
“My superpower is that I am rich. So I am useful to him, right?”
| |
| |
| |
|
Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt boasts about giving Prince Charles money, as secret tapes shed light on his private dealings. Pratt, a self-described “big sponsor” of Sky News, kept former PMs Tony Abbott and Paul Keating on a monthly consultancy retainer – a stark glimpse of how influence is bought and sold.
|
| |
|
|
7am Podcast Thomas Mayo on what follows the Voice
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Mayo, one of the most prominent “Yes” campaigners for the referendum, is still reeling from its defeat. But after observing a week of silence along with other Indigenous leaders, he’s had time to reflect on the campaign’s loss and on his own regrets. Today, author and contributor to The Saturday Paper Thomas Mayo on what went wrong, who’s to blame and what comes next.
| |
| |
|
| |
|
|
The Policy 52 weeks paid parental leave Recommended
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce has made a series of recommendations, including extending paid parental leave to a full year, and reiterating calls for the childcare “activity test” to be scrapped. The government has been vague in its response, citing the usual lines about budget pressures.
| |
| |
|
| |
|
|
