Rupert defamed! Outrageous charicature of Lord Rupert as just the puppeteer. HE OWNS ALL THE PUPPETS!

Dear Rupert. We are shocked at some of the commentary coming out of the bleeding hearts, the lefties, the do-gooders. They are defaming you. And it’s just sour grapes cos we know though you’re fabulously wealthy, you’re sticking up for ordinary Australians. That’s why we read the Australian AVIDLY. It offers sensible and simple solutions to quite tricky problems. It’s a source of constant reassurance, to those of us who are deeply worried about CHANGE!.

Your critics suggest you are a dictator, and the community is sick of your ‘winner take all fascism’. How dumb can they be?

One of your former knights has gone full out in trying to discredit you. That’s just ungrateful. We know you’ve worked hard. And it was your own dad you had to kill in order to become the most powerful Jedi Knight in the Universe. And why? Because Sir Keith failed to DESTROY the evil ABC. It is your destiny Lord Rupert. See the job is DONE!

Lord Rupert as a young man with Sir Keith who failed to kill the ABC when he had the chance.

Sir Menadue is a bit like Sir Tone of the Santamaria. He called News Corp a ‘rogue organisation”. He claimed you’re trying to get the Australian government to change media laws so that you can own Channel Ten. That’ll leave just the tiny outpost of Fairfax and castle ABC. Fairfax is weak, and the ABC you have in your thrall. Reliable reports from inside castle ABC suggest there’s more Murdoch knights in it than journalists. Keep at it, and the ABC will fall. It’ll be 1453 again. Cleansed of the ABC you can get onto more important things and steer away from dangerous leftist politics. It’s all in keeping Mitch Fifield’s “two policy strategy”.

‘Beer and Circuses’. Good beer is getting harder to find and when the family has had enough of cooking shows and reality tv, (Sky News) they can all enjoy the fun of the circus.

Menadue must be tried. He is a Quisling. He said this (with minor editing) within the ramparts of Castle ABC;

Lord Rupert in communion with his father, before the fateful decision that in order to destroy the ABC he had to kill HIM!

“The Australian government should resist any attempt to expand the media power of the news organisation which already controls 60 or 70% of the metropolitan media in Australia. It is a disgraceful organisation. Step after step [Murdoch] seeks favours from government to promote his rent seeking. Channel Ten is in voluntary administration and one of its billionaire backers, Murdoch’s son Lachlan, is in the box seat to buy the network if the media laws are changed to allow it.

In recent decades his organisation has become a disgrace. It’s trampled on democracy in three continents, it’s damaged the media enormously in three countries.

A Great Admirer of Lord Rupert.

It’s an unfortunate and tragic pattern, the damage that Murdoch is doing around the world. I think it’s a tragedy that a person who looked as if he would be an important contributor to a new, open style of media has turned out to produce such a dreadful rogue organisation such as News Ltd.
He is recently, of course, a supporter of Trump, a supporter of Theresa May, a supporter of Brexit; he supported the Iraq invasion and still justifies it. He’s a climate sceptic; his organisation has been accused and convicted of phone hacking and there is serial sexism at Fox News in the US.
It’s an appalling record for an organisation but of of great concern for me is the way he uses governments. Murdoch is; the great rent seeker, using his influence to change media laws in Australia now, just as he did in the 1980s when he used “political persuasion” to get the Hawke Labor government to “gift him” him the Herald and Weekly Times in Melbourne.
He is now seeking in the UK amendments to complete his $20bn takeover of Sky TV. It’s interesting to me that his papers in Australia and elsewhere are always attacking what they call welfare bludgers and single mothers yet he uses governments more than anyone else I’ve ever known.
News Corp publications liked to “rip apart” activists and organisations who might be critical of them, including GetUp, the Australian Press Council and the ABC. They are not content to dominate mainstream media; they just want to silence organisations that might be critical of them.”

What rot. We’re with you Rupert. Your cause is above politics. It’s doing what’s right for ordinary Australians. And judging by the level of political debate. Very ordinary indeed.

Ira Maine is back!

The metaphysical poet, Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was Chilean Consul to Spain  when General Franco and his Nationalists, in the aftermath of their failed coup d’etat, laid siege to the Spanish capital, Madrid, in 1936. Franco’s Fascist armies, which included Legionnaires, North Africans, Italians and Germans, found themselves pitted against a determined Republican opposition which was  commanded, extraordinarily, by Russian generals!

Franco of course, was not alone. All over Europe, in Britain , France, the Netherlands and elsewhere the predictable rabble of Blackshirts and Brownshirts strutted,  celebrating the German ‘Aryan’  economic miracle whilst the rest of ‘degenerate’ Europe continued to  suffer the horrors of the Great Depression.

Neruda, before the Franco business  and  already a well established poet, lived in the Madrid suburb of Arguelles;

 ‘…with bells and clocks and trees…..My house[he says] was called

the house of flowers because in every cranny

geraniums burst; it was

a good-looking house

with its dogs and children.

Remember, Raul?

Eh, Rafael?

Frederico, do you remember

 from under the ground 

my balconies on which 

the light of June drowned flowers in your mouth? 

Brother, my brother! ….’

 Neruda here is remembering how things were, before the siege, before the bombing, when fellow poets sat with him in the ‘…good-looking house…’ amongst the geraniums and laughed and drank and sang. I have not yet discovered who ‘Raul’ might be, but ‘Rafael’ is surely Rafael Alberti, a great friend of Neruda and a towering figure in twentieth century Spanish letters. Without question ‘Frederico’ is Frederico Garcia Lorca, poet and dramatist and ‘…under the ground…’ because he was murdered by the Nationalists for both his anti-fascist views and his homosexuality. His grave has never been found.

At the beginning of this poem called ‘I’m Explaining a Few Things’ the poet asks;

‘You are going to ask; where are the lilacs?

And the poppy-petalled metaphysics?

And the rain repeatedly spattering

 its words and drilling them full

of apertures and birds?

I’ll tell you all the news.

I lived in a suburb

….with bells 

and clocks and trees…’

Here is nothing his audiences might expect. The poet does not, cannot  have this poem;

‘…speak of  dreams and leaves

and the great volcanoes of his native land…’ 

as his more recognisably romantic work undoubtedly would. Instead, he is going to give you the news.

This poem demands something other than the otherworldly technicalities of the metaphysical. The bombing of Madrid took away everything Neruda saw as representing ‘…the sharp measure of life…’

‘…Everything

 loud with big voices, the salt of merchandise,

pile-ups of palpitating bread.

The stalls of my suburb of Arguelles with its statue

Like a drained inkwell in a sea of hake;

Oil flowed into spoons,

A deep baying

Of feet and hands swelled in the streets,

Metres, litres, the sharp 

Measure of life,

Stacked up fish,

The texture of roofs with a cold sun in which

The weather vane falters,

The fine, frenzied ivory of potatoes,

Wave on wave of tomatoes rolling down to the sea.

And one morning, all that was burning….’

There, in a few lines, miraculously, an astonishing evocation of the bursting, bustling joyous love of life that deserves no horror, no war, only continuance and celebration.  Neruda cannot help himself with his ‘…drained inkwell in a sea of hake…’ glorious, splendid stuff and deeply reminiscent of Clochemerle  and the films of Jacques Tati.

Yet…

‘…one morning the bonfires

leapt out of the earth

devouring human beings

and from then on fire,

gunpowder from then on,

and from then on blood.

Bandits with planes and moors

Bandits with finger rings and duchesses,

Bandits with black friars spattering blessings

Came through the sky to kill children

And the blood of children ran through the streets

Without fuss, like children’s blood.

Jackals that the jackals would despise,

Stones that the dry thistle would bite on and spit out.

Vipers that the vipers would abominate.

Face to face with you I have seen the blood

Of Spain tower like a tide

To drown you in one wave

Of pride and knives.

Treacherous generals,

See my dead house,

Look at broken Spain

From every house, burning metal flows

Instead of flowers.

From every socket of Spain

Spain emerges

And from every dead child a rifle  with eyes

And from every crime bullets are born

Which one day will find

The bull’s eye of your hearts.

And you will ask; why doesn’t his poetry

Speak of dreams and leaves

And the great volcanoes of his native land?

Come and see the blood in the streets.

Come and see

The blood in the streets.

Come and see the blood

In the streets!

END

This last few lines is almost too much, a screaming, appalled, unbearable demand, from a mind broken, made mad by the blood and the butchery.

‘Come and see the blood in the streets!’

There’s no room here for the philosophy of mind, of being and knowing, the transcendental, the abstract.

There’s only, in Joseph Conrad’s words;

“…the horror, the horror…’

Today’s dispatch is  ‘Leaves’.  Originally dispatched on 5 September  2016

ਚੰਗਾ ਸਵੇਰੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਦੋਸਤ

I once heard a radio interview with Barry Humphries on his return to Australia from his long self-imposed exile. Had he noticed any difference? “Leaves” he replied. He reminisced on his childhood in the leafy suburbs of Melbourne, and how there no longer was the smell of burning leaves.

I was born in occupied Holland. My fully bilingual (Dutch/German) father, committed many acts of resistance both active and passive. One such passive act of defiance was to name me after FDR. In his retirement he had an almost perpetual little fire going in an incinerator in his back yard in leafy Nunawading. I guess his burning of leaves was his version of Amnesty’s flickering candle. I can’t recall his little smoking fire being extinguished on total fire ban days. An act of passive resistance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CZBNwMy578  Elton John, Candle in the Wind

When we were in Canada I became aware of Canadians becoming dewy eyed about “The Fall” (Autumn). During an all too brief period the leaves turn into brilliant colours and then fall onto the ground. Back then I regarded this emotional attachment to coloured leaves with ethnocentric derision.
Now, I think there is something poetic about a nation regarding coloured leaves with quasi-religious fervour. No Union Jack for Canadians. No Sir! A maple leaf on their national emblem. An act of passive resistance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pliihF6gkiI …. Passive Resistance…Graham Parker

Put the demographics away, the directors and consultants have the final say
Hired in, take home all the ones who missed for souvenirs, for their kids to play

Passive resistance! it’s all programmed by programmers
Passive resistance! you’re just a nail underneath their hammers
Passive resistance! and it breaks my heart to know there’s no heart in them

I have started reading Kieran Finnane’s book, “Trouble (On Trial in Central Australia)”

In the Introduction she describes the Alice Springs Courthouse. This from page 2:

“…Lately graffiti has appeared on the footpath in front of the entrance stairs, small letters stencilled in black: ‘This is the front line.’ It says. It’s discreet enough for nobody to bother scrubbing it out. I’d like to know who did it, and what kind of battle they think is going on inside…”

I’m only assuming that this graffiti may well allude to the same as I alluded to when I named these missives Musical Dispatches from the Front, the so called Frontier Wars.

These wars were never declared nor have they ceased, albeit they continue under such euphemistic labels as ‘Closing the Gap’ and ‘Stronger Futures’.

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 was meant to be some sort of ceasefire (“The Invasion stops here’), yet the assimilationist behemoth rolls on.

As Mahatma Ghandi said:

“ They do not know, that a subtle but effective system of terrorism, together with an organized display of force on the one hand, and the deprivation of all powers of retaliation or self-defence on the other, has emasculated the people and induced in them the habit of simulation ….”

In the chapter titled ‘Warlpiri versus the Queen’ Kieran Finnane astutely observed that when it came to ‘cultural matters’, without exception, Warlpiri witnesses refused to ‘play the game’.

Passive resistance in action, no fifth columnists to be seen. Warlpiri solidarity was solid.

As I’m typing this Dispatch, at the Yuendumu Health Clinic opposite, I hear a leaf-blower fire up. This is a punctual ritual which takes place five days a week with quasi religious fervour.

A non-Warlpiri person clears the paths around the clinic of fallen leaves. It isn’t rocket science.

The question arises: “Why isn’t an unemployed Warlpiri person given this task?” I myself ethnocentrically posed the same question.

When Warlpiri people are asked what do they want, they often reply “A job” (…and induced in them the habit of simulation…), which is what the questioner likes to hear.

Yet often when jobs become locally available, the organisation offering the job doesn’t exactly get run over in the rush.

Warlpiri intellectuals realize that self-determination is of far greater importance than menial white-fellow jobs.

As for the leaves at Yuendumu Clinic, the question which should be asked is: ‘Is it imperative that the leaves should be blown off the paths?’

I think I know the answer….

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l4nVByCL44

Franklin Delano Baarda

Malcolm is rooted.

He’s a middle of the roader. A Nowhere man. A piece of history. And why?

The anger of the Righteous. Tone defends society from liberalism.

Tony says. Tone’s another christian, with strong values. According to the latest census, the vast majority of people identify with no religion. But Tony is quite right, no one listens to irreligious people. Malcolm aint irreligious. He just aint religious as Tony is.

Tony you can rely on. Malcolm is wishy washy. And in our last conversation with Tone, he reckons he heard a voice from above. None other than the voice of the patron saint of conservative Catholics everywhere. Yes indeed, Saint Bob of the Santamaria spoke to him and said. “ Tone, nows your chance, Malcolm is a fuckwit. He’s what buggered up the Labor party in the first place’. (Though Tone reminded the angel Bob that Malcolm was in the Liberal party and it was your eminence Bob that rooted Labor). They embraced, in as much as you can embrace with the true spirit of eternal truthfulness to Rome and the oligarchy of very old men, in keeping Australia on the line.

Saint Bob of Santamaria. Patron saint of the IPA

Tone, then received the holy sepulchural chalice of God’s anointment. Only he could be vested with this anointment. An anointment from Saint Bob himself. The anointment is written in stone. It says; ‘No poofters. No lezzos and no people who don’t even know what fucken sexuality they are in the first place should ever be MARRIED’. Tone, then promised, on his knees that he would carry out Saint Bob’s holy vision and pursue any dodgy bastard down avery fox hole and expose them as shirt lifters, freckle punchers and kiddy fiddlers.

Christopher Pyne is the collateral damage. Chris is proof perfect that ‘Charterhouse Rules’ don’t apply. Tone only knows Rafferty’s Rules. Anyone with a phone is only one phone call away from making big bucks for Lord Rupert. Doesn’t matter who you are, you’re on God’s telephone, straight to Rupert.

They must never MARRY

Course, Tone has no trouble getting his message out, he’s got the IPA. For those unfamiliar with contemporary political discourse, IPA is not a beer. It’s an Institute set up for like-minded people. Who believe in God and the certainty of being absolutely RIGHT. And they’re united, in a vision for Australia. Just like Saint Bob. A guiding unifying principle. The principal of HATING Malcolm. It’s a biblical hate. Because for all intents and purpose Malcolm, like Cain is one of THEM!! And he has betrayed THEM!!

And they have been betrayed by the Australian people. The latest census comes as a lightning bolt from HELL. (We like to mix our metaphors at pcbycp). The biggest religion amongst Australians in the latest census is NO Fucken religion at ALL. Saint Bob, the IPA, and Tone know what to do. Fight for the Right! This is a watershed moment in Australian socio-political history. This census is a repudiation of God-botherers, cranks and nut-jobs to infect the body politic. It must be crushed. And how to crush it? Close down the Bureau of Statistics. It worked with climate change, Why stop there?

Kev listens in on as PM and Pyne twitter over Grinder texts. Kev will report directly to Tone via Lord Rupert

Destroy the Federal Liberal Party. And in doing so achieve PEACE in our time.

And give Tone the contract.

To pick up the Pieces.

You’ve gotta be clever to appreciate humour.

We cannot compete with our highly paid politicians for laughs. The latest from New Daily’s, Rachel Eddy requires no editorial comment, the words say it all:

Peter Dutton models new ” Border Force” uniform.

‘Aspiring Australian citizens could soon test their English with a series of “politically charged, inaccurate and inappropriate” questions on coal, the Climate Council has warned.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton last week announced that changes to the citizenship test would include a controversial “stand-alone English test involving competent reading, writing, listening and speaking”.
The reading task contains a passage that appears to be in favour of “clean coal”, while acknowledging climate change is driven by human activity.
The passage is accompanied by the questions  in this link

Not only amazing, but able to stymie intelligent debate and bamboozle foreigners who wish to live in G.O.C ” Gods own Country”

Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie described the exercise as “beyond belief”.
“It is completely inaccurate and inappropriate,” Ms McKenzie told The New Daily.
She said the section included “politically charged, incorrect, biased subject matter that has completely suspended any notion of the truth”.
The sample test, used by the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and written in 2009 contains several controversial passages.
One such paragraph reads: “Defendants [sic]of mining point out that, environmentally, coal mining has two important factors in its favour. It makes only temporary use of the land and produces no toxic chemical wastes.”

Dear reader,this is GOLD! Goodonya Peter, and thanks must be given to the architect of neo liberalism the English world over, Lord Rupert. He has bought us to this. The credit is his alone, and Peter as one of his standard bearers must be proud. Though he will need tutoring in eloquence if he’s to fill one of the sinecures on offer when he “ retires”. He is cureently in talks with Andrew Robb and Joe Hockey. Two ex pollies who’ve made retirement PAY.
But the final word is from our own Ira Maine, who puts the narrowness into a very specific pidgeon hole, marked, “intolerance’.

Mrs Dutton tests new English requirements to “would-be” Australians in a foreign country.

‘Unbelievable, Surely not…

Rupert worried that higher literacy standards may erode his readership

This  is simply a perfect demonstration of how, in any society, gentle forms of Fascism are introduced into our ways of thinking. This insidious infiltration could not happen in any normal circumstance; it would be rejected out of hand. Yet ours is not a normal circumstance. Ours is a time when people from Africa and elsewhere are being driven from their homes, even their own countries, by bullies, thieves, bandits and rogues. Their landing on our shores provides our two bob Hitlers, our  shameless Fascists with a perfect line of easy prejudice with which to inflame the more ill-informed elements of our society. This is precisely the strategy of lies employed by UKIP and Nigel Farage in the Brexit business which has resulted in the Teresa May election debacle and which will almost certainly accelerate Britain’s plunge into political oblivion.
Our politicians, sadly, don’t seem to realise that, with the rise of the disgracefully treated Corbyn in Britain, Macron in France and the ridiculous neo-prat Trumpery in America, the disastrous adventure of neo-liberalism is finally over.

Our mob, our Australian political mob, as if nothing had changed, as if it was still the rip-roaring, demented eighties, ludicrously  keep on trotting out the same, lunatic,’economic’ message. As if the bankruptcy of the West had never happened.
God help us but their arrogance, their chutzpah, their political Fascism, will be the death of us all’.

Ira.

Ira Maine.

Best comedy is always played with a straight face, Julie’s Oscar deserving performance at the unveiling of the “Glorious Julie Bishop Foundation”.

It would be mean spirited to begrudge the latest pay rise for our Federal politicians. They work bloody hard. When they’re not using the pay rise to augment their portfolio of negatively geared investment properties, they’re up to their armpits receiving gifts from donors, lobbyists, and the big end of town. Some of these donors might even be Australians.

Proposed “Glorious Julie Bishop Foundation’ Poster to be displayed in all Coalition offices.

So it’s hard cheese for the donors of the ‘Glorious Julie Bishop Foundation’ to have any respect for the people they’re channelling money into if they’re paid a lowly salary. And Joe Hockey himself would have to repudiate his vision for Australian egalitarianism; ‘get a better paid job’, if he was awarded the pay packet of a menial, a pecksniff, or just another middle manager. These are tough times and we know at pcbycp that well-paid politicians are there because we get more bang for our buck. WE get truly great value. And it pays.

Lord Rupert, indicating just how much he pays politicians to do his work.

We were speaking to Rupert just the other day and he reminded us that now senior bureaucrats who do nothing at all except officiate, can get paid more highly then the PM. And it makes it increasingly difficult to offer cash incentives to get things done. And on top of all this is the widening inequity between politicians, and the departmental heads who alone get paid way beyond Prime Ministerial salaries, for running the post office, running employment schemes or doing non Governmental agency work like running charities and church organisations that pay absolutely no tax. They’re the heavy lifters, and politicians salaries are way out of wack.

So spare a thought. Though ordinary people’s wages haven’t risen in decades, the cost of living has gone through the roof. Spare a thought for power company executives, (whose salaries are incidentally over the top, but they deserve every bit) who rent-seek and send consumers broke. They all have expensive lifestyles to uphold, and the taxpayer must appreciate the sacrifices made, in order to achieve greater efficiencies.

A demonstration of bi-partisanship in Australian Politics. Sam Dastyari, reluctanty reveals gift given to him by the ‘Glorious Julie Bishop Foundation’.

To the general public it seems curious that we pay our politicians at all. Like Mr Robb, they can get 800 k per annum as a flunkey for just for signing a trade deal. There’s much more money to be won in lobbying for Chinese state owned enterprises if you can’t pay off the swimming pool the beach-house, and the Ferrari on a paltry 200k parliamentary salary. But there are offsets, by being a politician you keep a standard, and ensure that us, the electorate, know that the system is in satisfactory working condition.

Even the “Glorious Julie Bishop Foundation” understands this, and as Sam Dastyari will tell you, it pays to have your ear, or hands, pocket, suitcase, close to the ground. That’s what keeps politicians in touch with ordinary Australians. Some of them, even wander into very public places, (Banks for instance) to oversee their offshore investment accounts. It is here that they mix with ordinary people. It’s reassuring to know that the pillars of the Australian economic dream, (the banks) are in furious agreement. The politicians we elect should stay as far away from dangerous “progressive” policy as humanly possible. And work towards the goals WE all agree on.

More growth, low wages and lower taxes.

And freedom of choice.

Lionel Fogarty’s Selected Poems 1980 – 2017 was launched last night in Bella Union, Trades Hall, Melbourne.  The fine academic, Philip Morrissey write that Lionel “Fogarty would agree that he is in a conventional sense unlettered. Initially he wrote down the poetry he heard or visualised in his mind, but he couldn’t read his own writings once he had written it down.  In order to communicate this poetry he had to ‘learn’ English with the aid of a dictionary.  It could be said that ‘he learned Engilsh backwards’, starting with poetry and moving back to grammar rather than vice versa.  His poetry is constructed from the weight of words and silences rather than in recognisable syntactical or metrical units”.

This is the first poem in this new anthology.

Insane Go Away, Sane Come Again

Rock you belong to?
Sand we want you?
Land you know now
Words we are afraid of
Animals you’re sane
Skies eyes sees
Clouds cry can’t see
Sees mostly easy but uneasy
Short and long life
Strangled around earth
in four ways
Soon will make us sane.
Ongoing rock, sand, land
whites betrayed living sands
Animals, skies, clouds, seas
whites must go away.
You      we      me
Earth shouts now
Four ways
oppressed people
Unity
in rushing four winds

G’day friends,

Words are easy, words are cheap
Much cheaper than our priceless land
But promises can disappear
Just like writing in the sand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7cbkxn4G8U (Yothu Yindi- Treaty)

On the other hand “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” Martin Luther King Jr.

The Intervention (Northern Territory Emergency Response) happened a decade ago. That indefatigable group ‘Concerned Australians’(CA) invited Harry Jakamarra to speak at a forum/conversation in Melbourne on Thursday 29^th June. Jakamarra urged me to come along and speak. I expressed my reluctance to “be yet another white-fellow talking about Aboriginal matters in front of an audience” Harry won me over by appointing me as his cultural advisor!

I know the vast majority of recipients of the Musical Dispatches will not be able to attend (I like to think most if not all Dispatchees would like to attend). Just in case you can, attached is the relevant CA flyer. The good people at Arena Magazine (likewise indefatigable advocates for Aboriginal rights) are also holding an event in Melbourne on 21^st  June. Their flyer is also attached.

To preach to the converted is far from being futile if the converted come away from the conversation better informed. I hope this will be the case.

You’re all welcome to attend.

Frank

Guns and Roses …. Welcome to the Jungle…..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg

BROCHURE

A Conversation with NT Aboriginal Elders and Community Leaders
10 YEARS OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION
& WORKING TOWARDS TREATIES

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” Martin Luther King Jr.

Forum & Discussion sponsored by ‘concerned Australians’ cA

Facilitator:  Jeff McMullen AM – Journalist, former Foreign Correspondent and Filmmaker

Introduction: Jon Altman AM – Research Professor in Anthropology at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University

Northern Territory Speakers

Josie Crawshaw – Descendant of the Gurindji, former ATSIC Commissioner, founding Member of the Aboriginal Provisional Government, and participant of the recent Uluru Convention

Harry Jakamarra Nelson – Senior Elder and custodian of the Warlpiri people, North West of Alice Springs with friend and peer Frank Baarda – long term worker and resident of forty years in Yuendumu

Elaine Peckham – Apmereke-Artweye woman of Mparntwe and custodian of Alice Springs and surrounds

Yananymul Mungunggurr – Djapu woman, Elder and custodian for Gurrumuru, outspoken advocate for improved education and spokesperson for Yolgnu homelands (TBC)

Message from Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM, senior Elder and Dhurili political Clan Leader of the Yolngu people of North-East Arnhem Land

In 2007 under the Howard Government Aboriginal peoples’ lives in the Northern Territory were suddenly and brutally traumatized. Labeled the ‘Northern Territory Emergency Response’ or ‘NT Intervention’ the policy was later expanded in 2012 by the Gillard Government for ten years and rebranded as ‘Stronger Futures’. These imposed Government policies have caused widespread havoc and disempowerment amongst First Peoples’ communities in the NT, breached human rights and United Nations guidelines, and were not consented to.

The policies are failing. Aboriginal land rights have been weakened and the Gaps are widening.

The people have long called for this LEGISLATION TO BE SCRAPPED. 

The sovereignty of the clans and First Nations Peoples must be recognised and respected. 

There has been a resounding call for substantive reform and PATHWAY TO TREATY/IES.

RSVP: To Pia at cA info@concernedaustralians.com.au by 26^th June

Facebook event (please like and share) at https://www.facebook.com/events/1416115268445355/

Dear reader, after the appalling Grenfell apartment block disaster it is encouraging to see that something “concrete” is being done to redress the paucity of planning, safety and good governance in the construction and maintenance of residential high rise apartments.

PCbyCP were privileged to be invited to the media conference at No. 10 Downing Street. The PM’s press secretary, (Sir Algernon Lick-spittle OBE) proclaimed; “a new openness”. And we were pleasantly surprised to receive a show bag, and some very nice gifts courtesy of the parliamentary sub committee for affordable housing. A task group recently set up by the “Tories who really really care about poor people”sub committee.

P.M’s May -Day. She really cares about poor people.

The P.M, looked grave when she fronted the lectern. Before talking, there ensued a long pause. She looked up at the assembled throng and then shuffled some papers. She ushered in Sir Algernon who pushed a trolley piled high with building reports, inspections and policy documents. She turned to the audience as he struggled to place them all on one long bench. With a perfuctory wave he was whisked away, and the PM spoke.

“You see, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, what you have behind me is the sum of just one years, deliberation by the parliamentary sub committee into dodgy building practices. And this committee, I chaired. It’s a shameful indictment upon our neglect of the poor, the homeless and the refugee’s who sought shelter in our public housing. They died for our neglect, and I can tell you, the pound stops here! Something must be done to ensure that this NEVER happens again!!”

A roar of enthusiastic applause followed, and whilst the PM beamed, she thanked her parliamentary colleague. Then sipping on a glass of Perrier, she turned to the audience, and continued:

‘Therefore it gives me great pleasure, to throw all these reports, recommendations and studies into the bin. We will not waste any more time on red tape, and exhaustive enquiries. Enough is enough!!

THE BABEL!

It is my great pleasure to demonstrate a new business model for public housing, and a new commitment by our government to get things RIGHT. May I unveil, (Much laughter) courtesy of the Murdoch Institute, the newest model in public housing. And I’ve gotta tell you it is entirely made of STONE. I’ve got a burning (much laughter) desire to unveil this and even our most ashen-faced critics, (more convulsive laughter) will find this one just stokes ( uproarious laughter) the public desire for fairness and equity. May I (more laughter, and fanfare of opening bars of Hope and Glory) present the FUTURE!

Detail of Ground floor penthouse apartments under construction, detail indicates swimming pools, gaming lounge and excercise gym.

To prove BRITAIN is the envy of innovators and thinkers post Brexit the world over. We bring you the BABEL. The BABEL is the first integrated universal socio-economic mixed housing project in the world. Its 356 floors give unparalleled comfort and security to both the filthy rich and the dirt poor. And as a consequence of the disastrous Grenfell Tower conflagration we can offer penthouse apartments, pools jacuzzis and tanning lounges on the first fifty levels.  That’s for the very rich. Their investment will partly finance the project and be SECURE. Above them, levels will be will be devoted to middle class aspirationals. They’ll get the same level of comfort, on a reduced scale without security of tenure. And for the top 165 floors will be for the ultra poor, and  the homeless. They’ll have magnificent views and the performance enhancing benefit of steps. The upper floors have no lifts! Thus incentivising them to strive and be worthwhile citizens. We’ve reversed the cycle of inequality and given the dirt poor aspirational goals. And, we’ve put them ON TOP! ( thunderous applause) And in doing so provided them with Safety and Certainty that they know we care. And will ensure, for ALL OF US that they appreciate the stated order of things that contribute to a healthier SOCIETY’!!!

Sir Algernon Lick-Spittle OBE inspects multi level housing block courtesy of; ‘the Tories who really really care about poor people sub-committee’

Pm steps off podium and embraces Lord Murdoch, (God Save the Queen played loudly by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Band)

Supreme Court of Victoria.

Fascinating news from the legal profession. The Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue, QC, representing Health Minister Greg Hunt, Human Services Minister Alan Tudge and Assistant ­Treasurer Michael Sukkar, told a packed Supreme Court; ‘that the Ministers regret their statements, but will not apologise for them’.

We cant blame them. The Ministers were confused. They believed that the highest court in the land was not the Supreme Court, nor the High Court, but the Australian.

The three ministers

The Australian did, after the inevitability of serious criminal charges offered a full apology. But the Ministers would not retract their accusation that the Victorian judiciary were conducting “ideological experiments”, and “divorced from reality”. In light of so called “ lenient “ sentences handed out to would-be terrorists. The two terrorists are adolescents. One would think terms of five seven years would be enough for being stupid. And we cannot comment on the “stupidity” of sending them to jail to make them “ better” terrorists.

So the Court has deferred a judgement and we wait in stunned silence to see whether the Ministers will go all the way and repudiate the ancient principle of separation of powers. Bit like the ancient principle of the separation of church and state. Bit like the ‘No means No’, which part of the ‘No’ don’t they understand?

Helpfully from Sydney Criminal Lawyers comes this useful advice for those about to front the bench.

Over the portal of the Victorian Supreme Court. An inspiration to Minsters who read from the “book of Murdoch”

WE suggest the Minsters, follow the instructions very carefully. They are lawyers, but not all lawyers are so good at comprehension. It makes them more human. We’ve added supplementary, commentary in italics.

‘Writing a letter of apology can help persuade the court to treat you more leniently when you are being sentenced for a criminal or traffic offence, (or just being stupid)
A letter of apology shows the court that you realise the seriousness of your charges and are truly sorry for your actions. ( because they demonstrated your profound ignorance of the law)
There is no magic formula to writing a letter of apology. It should be from your heart, so a lawyer can only guide you generally.
However, here are a few basic tips:
Address the letter to ‘Your Honour’. (unless his name is Rupert)
Make sure it’s typed or that your handwriting is very neat. ( get a journo from the Australian to do it for you)
Make sure it’s signed and dated. (ensure the date is post Magna Carta A.D1215)
Say why you’re writing the letter eg: ‘I am writing this letter to express my sincere remorse for my irresponsible (stupid) and dangerous actions’.
Accept full responsibility eg: ‘There was no excuse for my actions and I accept full responsibility for what I’ve done’.
Say something about yourself, eg ‘I’ve worked hard for many years and never been in trouble with police. I’m a family man with two young children and would never want to be a bad influence on them. I recognise I have been a bad role model through my conduct’.
Say something about your arrest, eg ‘I was arrested in front of my friends and family, which was humiliating. I had to tell my wife about this and face her disappointment’. (and it may affect my parliamentary pension and ancillary perks)
Say something about steps you’ve taken since the offence eg ‘Since this incident, I have (spoken to my counselor, psychologist) or (undertaken research) or (undertaken the Traffic Offender Program, or studied law properly) and I have come to understand the impact upon the community of my decision to (buy drugs, or drink drive or being stupid) and the danger to which I exposed myself and others’.

Lord Rupert. Wrote the book of Murdoch. Compulsory text for all Coalition ministers.