Our highlight today is from Ireland’s love poems edited by A. Norman Jeffares.

I Wish My Love Was A Block Of Wood

I wish my love was a block of wood
and I was a burning coal,
I’d hold him in my warm embrace
And roast his wee arsehole.

Anonymous

G’day you mob,

When a microphone is aimed at a speaker into which the signal picked up by the microphone is fed, an electronic loop is created. The result is a squeal known as feedback. Jimmy Hendrix used this effect to great effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53JpbrxM7O0 The pitch of the sound depends on the frequency at which the signal travels around the loop. Thus a shorter loop results in a higher pitched sound.

The same principle applies to electronic devices called oscillators but instead of audio frequencies, these generate radio frequencies that sally forth into the ether as electromagnetic waves. Higher frequencies still and you get light.

“ and we all know what happens when two mirrors stand face to face… a strange and infinite loop…” (the fellow being infinitely looped is Orson Welles in a scene from Citizen Kane)

Another way to describe this is to invoke the Russian Egg Principle or some images derived from Chaos Theory.

Feedback is also used to describe what happens in conversation.

Those wonderful people at the AFN (Australian Facilitators Network) are an infinite source of mirth and inspiration:

“… Excited to be co-hosting a class on ‘How to host intercultural conversations’…Will be relevant to any kind of facilitation work and we’ll be sharing practical tools from Adaptive Leadership & Deep Democracy & drawing on knowledge in the room. (I told you, feedback is everywhere) …we are both really passionate about creating spaces for people to reflect on, develop new insights & gain useful tools to support people to feel more confident & effective when they work inter-culturally …I’ve just returned to Melbourne after 12 years living and learning in and loving the desert and the top end of the NT…”

I am also excited, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdt0SOqPJcg (Good Vibrations…. Giving me the excitation). I’ve suddenly worked out how I will be able to usefully and profitably occupy myself in my retirement. Using the Russian Egg Principle, I could end up hosting classes in how to host classes in how to host intercultural conversations.

Dr.Seuss: “…a bee that is watched will work harder you see. So he watched and he watched, but in spite of his watch that bee didn’t work any harder not mawtch. So then somebody said “Our old bee-watching man just isn’t bee watching as hard as he can, he ought to be watched by another Hawtch-Hawtcher! The thing that we need is a bee-watcher-watcher!”. Well, the bee-watcher-watcher watched the bee-watcher. He didn’t watch well so another Hawtch-Hawtcher had to come in as a watch-watcher-watcher! And now all the Hawtchers who live in Hawtch-Hawtch are watching on watch watcher watchering watch, watch watching the watcher who’s watching that bee…”

Thus within an expanding universe there is an expanding facilitators network. And an expanding justice system. And an expanding police presence. And an expanding prison system. All social loops generating feedback, ever more feedback (the noisy squealing type).

In Yuendumu’s Baptist church Napangardi read out from the Warlpiri bible (from 1 Peter 5. 1-7). Some extracts:

“…Nyurrurla jaajikingarduyu wiriwiri warrawarra-kangkalu-jana Kaatu-kurlangu yapa yangka jiyipikingarduyu-piyarlukuja kajana-warra-kanyi jiyipi nyanungunyangu…”

“…Warrki-jarriyalurla Kaatuku kujanya, kula talaku, lawa…”

“…Kuja kankulu-jana yapa warrawarra-kanyi jaajirla, kulalujana kulungku jinyijinyi-mani, lawa…”

“…Nyampunya wangkaja Kaatuju Payipulurlatju:

“Kaaturlu kajana yapaju mamparl-pinyi kuja kalu-nyanurla pulka-pinyi wiri-piyarlu. Kala nyanunguju ngurrju yapakuju yangka kuja kalu-jana yapa-patu-kariki wurdungu warrki-jarrimi”

Napangardi’s reading in Warlpiri was followed by her husband Jampijimpa repeating it in English:

“…Just as shepherds watch over their sheep, you must watch over everyone God has placed in your care…”

“…Let it be something you want to do instead of something you do merely to make money…”

“…Don’t be bossy to those people who are in your care…”

“… In fact, everyone should be humble towards everyone else. The scriptures say:

“God opposes proud people, but he helps everyone who is humble”

Myself I don’t go to church, but it has always struck me that the Warlpiri people who regularly attend the Baptist church are also heavily involved in Warlpiri spiritual matters.

I’ve since become aware that so much of what is written in the Bible perfectly fits the Warlpiri worldview. To be a “good Warlpiri” is synonymous with being a “good Christian”

As a non-believer I struggle with such concepts as the Holy Trinity. To Warlpiri people the Holy Trinity is a cinch. Their Jukurrpa (a cosmology most inadequately translated as “The Dreamtime”) is chock a block of sacred multiplicities.

As my mother used to say:
Ik ben niet protestant, ik ben niet Katoliek,
Maar toch ga ik naar de kerk voor de mooie muziek!
(I’m not Protestant, I’m not Catholic, but still I go to church for the beautiful music- In Dutch it rhymes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM2kbogwgBM

And, why not, another version from my all time favourite singer….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NshR2v2Pqgg

See ya’s

Frank

Kid arrested and jailed, knuckle dusters and a knife.

Dear reader, by now you are all aware of the recent dangerous terrorist plot unmasked in Melbourne’s north. Allegedly a teenager was reported to have been loitering near the shrine prior to Anzac Day. He was in contact with a villainous fourteen year old in London. He was involved as a pawn in INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM. For the past four months, in the interests of public safety he has been locked behind bars. Though a magistrate threw this case of INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM out, and criticized the security forces, police, ASIO, FBI, Dr Who, the boy was denied freedom for four months. And we can all rest assured that he has learnt his lesson. Clearly these actions prove that the security forces are up to the game, and any other young Turk, (although they are esteemed allies) should know that we have no tolerance for extremism of any kind. Furthermore, we must recognise that this kind of extremism, carrying a knife and being in the possession of a pair of knuckledusters is just the thin end of the wedge. Good thing then the that we’re safe for now from extremists. Corralling this ne’r do will discourage others of mischievous intent.

But, I’m seriously worried, I have been told by none other than Cecil Poole, that he, (during metalwork classes at school) and his cohorts manufactured knuckledusters, to the horror of their teacher. Their motive, ‘For the fun of it”!! Gladly I can say that no child is encouraged to do metalwork these days, nor anything that requires hands. That’s all done by 417 visa holders. Kids don’t do metalwork anymore. Training is now intent upon turning us into functionaries, and we’re much safer for it.

Dangerous behaviour. In the 50’s and 60’s it was common, normal and acceptable for kids to shoot rabbits with a .22 or even, (as shown) a Blunderbuss.

Billy Carts! Another example of Dangerous behaviour . Banned!!

Dangerous use of Hills Hoist in the 60’s. Dangerous Behaviour!!

I am still deeply disturbed about this young hooligan who was jailed for four months with a pair of knuckledusters and knife exhibiting villainous and terrorist intent. I’m deeply confused. When I was fifteen, way back in the mid seventies, I possessed an air rifle. I would delight in shooting starlings, blackbirds and sparrows. It was a reign of terror imposed upon introduced bird species. When I bought my first air rifle I took it home on the tram. The cadets did the same with their rifles. Old knockabout .303‘s. I also enjoyed the use of a twenty two rifle, we shot lots of rabbits, and then would gut them with a knife. Odd weekends at the tip, scrounging for stuff, burning tyres throwing bricks at old telly’s, good harmless fun. Manufacturing billy carts. Dangerous billy carts, and bikes with no brakes. On the train it was obvious that some of the tech kids1, (now superseded) possessed ‘nun chuckers’. I wasn’t sure what a nun chucker was, though I did know it wasn’t a person who threw nuns about. But I felt imperiled. It was a fear of the unknown. The sharpies may get me with their nun chuckers, in my summer uniform, navy shorts and white walk socks, they sneered at me. They were cultural terrorists. We also enjoyed an awful lot of fireworks. For twenty dollars you could buy enough crackers to go all weekend, blowing up letterboxes, cracker guns, and rockets, to be aimed horizontally at passing cars. But the highest order weapon was the Shanghai. Everyone had a Shanghai, (local idiom, also described as a ging or more mundanely, a catapult.) You wouldn’t be seen dead on a weekend not having a shanghai hanging out your back pocket. Our favourite source material was a windmill down at the old dam, It had a really tough wire that was still pliable, perfect for lacker bands, (rubber bands), or as Cecil tells me, they used tyre rubber, clearly demonstrating that fabled capacity for improvisation common amongst our agricultural fellows. So on the face of this poor bugger in the northern suburbs, we were all potential terrorists.

An example of the pasty faced inside-doors boy. Most likely to be fiddled by a Catholic Priest.

But you see we weren’t. This kind of behaviour was NORMAL and ACCEPTABLE then. Now, all of it is regarded as anti- social. I don’t think there were any shootings back then, no food allergies, no ADHD, and not much in the way of obesity. We were too busy being outdoors having fun. That’s all banned now!! The only buggers left indoors were clearly being fiddled with by Catholic priests. What an unhappy society we are now! Even the Catholic priests have lost something. And our Kiddies are ALL INDOORS! Stuck on COMPUTERS!! But as they keep telling us, we’re safe.

Look at it in more worldly terms. Capital has won over Labour.

And the Wowsers, and safety do-gooders have closed down fun for kids.

To the kid in the northern suburbs, look what WE can do to you!! Is the lesson well learnt?

Shocking news. Australia leads the world in Species Extinction.

We should mention we are grateful for the assistance offered in writing this piece from the former leader of the opposition Mr Mark Latham. (COMPETITION: pick where Mr Latham has helped most – Prize will be a personal handshake from Mr Latham)  And indebted to his decision to take time off from the Melbourne Writers festival at about 4.30 Saturday, and make a beeline for the publishing officers of Messers. Cockburn and Poole.  (COMPETITION: pick where Mr Latham has helped most – Prize will be a personal handshake from Mr Latham)

The last of the Tasmanian Aboriginies. Most probably killed off by their inability to adapt to the saviour of mankind and humanity into the twenty first century. COAL

Dear reader, once again we feel compelled to tell you the shocking news. Australia leads the world in species extinction. I suppose it’s like alcoholism and the ravages of ice addiction. Once taken hold, the habit is unstoppable. Extermination defines our culture. It is intrinsic to our national character. The Tasmanian Tiger, the numerous parrots killed by wind turbines, the Tasmanian Aborigines, (well at least the less troublesome original ones), the obscure marsupials. Not a day passes where we must stand ashamed as another species of rare marsupial, reptile or amphibian passes into oblivion.

In this respect we, as editors, have a duty of care to inform you, the general public, you were mistaken. All of us, (that’s you on the computer, and you on your phone) were deluded by the fallacy of conservation. But now, from the mouth of the respected Treasurer who HATES wind-farms, renewables and any emergent economical coal challenging technology, (nay technology itself) we hear that one of the mainstays of the Australian economy, (akin to the kangaroo itself) is threatened. Extinction looms unless drastic steps are made NOW!!!!!

Environmental Activists. Vigilante activists employing LAW to destroy the future of Australian menial jobs.  And the “Australian way of life’!

The mining industry, only recently saved from extinction through the ditching of the proposed ‘evil and unfair’ mining tax is under severe threat once again. This threatening is un-Australian. The mining industry needs our help. We saved it from the certain death imposed when some lefty aparatchiks thought perhaps a mere percentage of their enormous wealth should contribute to the commonwealth, and society. Quite rightly, they made their point. They got rid of Rudd.They killed the car industry when the dollar was up to buggery. And now, in spite of all they’ve done to turn manufacturing, education and technology in this country into a wasteland, they are threatened again. But this time not just by disgruntled greenies, but a hideous instrument of oppression. THE LAW!!

The accursed skink. Not worthy of preservation. Nor was this species ever mentioned in Genesis or the story of Noah and the Great Flood.

The Aborigines have nothing on the persecution suffered by the Mining Industry. Miners are truly persecuted, and unless we change the law and make it impossible for these greenies to shut another australian industry down, we are all going down the gurgler. Not a bloody skink, or a frog, nor a parrot, nor a moth, but an entire industry. And they know what’s at stake. Better to fuck the Great Barrier Reef and kill tens of thousands of tourism jobs, because COAL is right on the big picture. This mine will be the biggest in the world. It will employ almost a thousand people. And it will make a score of people, maybe one, very very rich. He’s already a billionaire, but he needs more. It’s critical to HIS Survival. And that person is imperiled. If these pinko greenie bolshie basket weaving lefties get their way they will not only damage the coal industry irreparably, but we might see the huge profits, the despoliation, the pain, the wasteland denied to that one man. Mr Adani, mate to all aussie politicians who visit him WILL be extincted!!!

Change the law. This must never ever happen again!

Fuck the eco system!!

Fuck the planet!

Fuck everyone!

Coal is good for humanity but better for Peabody shareholders. P.M in discussion with expert on Clean Coal Technologies. P.M;”Jeez mate will this coal sewer work to make Australia  truly an effluent society’? Expert:’No worries mate you want jobs, this can cater for BIG JOBS! It’ll ensure that once and for all your prophesy is correct that ‘as P.M you’ll be the suppository of wisdom”!  Jeez mate if you don’t mind me saying, you’re looking like you need to do a big job right now”. P.M: ” nah mate it’s these suspenders that go with the fluoro vest lent to me from his personal collection by my mate the Minister for Educashon, Chrissy Pyne”.

Because this coal mine is so important to our standing as a nation. It lets the rest of the world know once and for all that we are the number once eco system and endangered species fucker upper of the world. Stand proud Australia. Stand proud lone trillionaire. And stand proud that there’s good blokes like Joe, Barnaby, George and Tony who will fuck us all over to demonstrate that not only we’re open for business, but when it comes to getting fucked over no-one is a bigger fucker-er-upper than you fucken good mates in the Liberal National coalition. And anyone, (taxpayers, scientists, lawyers, academics, conservationists, general public, thinkers) who don’t agree with us, (law abiding citizens), are a pack of lefty soft cock fuckers.  Youse can all get fucked!!!

I love this country. And I’m so bloody glad Johnny Howard, (A Great Australian) got the ball rolling to make us narrow, insular, defensive, anti intellectual, insecure and happy to fuck up everything to short termism and fear. We’re open for business. And it is  Gods will to be small minded.  Amen.

Coming soon….Australia, are you still sleeping?  What we really need now are tax breaks!!!

Our beloved leader. Dear Treasurer, the Rt. Hon. Mr Joe Hockey steps out in style at the Gay Mardi Gras. Exquisite costume provided by the Education Minister Mr. Christopher Maurice Pyne. From his personal collection.

Passive Complicity applauds Joe Hockey for the enormous lengths he is going to to make Australia great again. He understands that Australia is made up of LIFTERS and LEANERS. And there is no doubt Joe has his shoulder to the wheel, leaning right in to get that forward motion, moving forward. He understands what is AUSTRALIAN and what is UN-AUSTRALIAN. How fortunate we are to have him as treasurer, surely sometime soon he will be recognised across the globe as the “World’s Greatest Treasurer”. Mr Hockey understands in ways that the ‘fair minded observer’ (employed to evaluate the behavior of Trade Union Royal Commissioner, Nissan Cedric) could only dream of.

For too long, Mr Hockey says, we Australians have lauded fairness above all. This fairness has only kept us down. This commitment to fairness has stultified our growth, has frightened industry, innovators and capital away from Australia. Surely it should be obvious to all that “Jobs and Growth” are the only important things in our narrative. And jobs and growth will only come if we can transfer the burden of state onto those lazy leaners. Yes, people we need to understand, as Mr Hockey does, that progressive taxes are actually a hinderance to “Jobs and Growth”, that it is regressive taxes that actually fuel “Jobs and Growth”. We need understand that progressive in the tax sense is actually regressive for “Jobs and Growth” and that regressive in the tax sense is actually progressive for “Jobs and Growth”.

Our Treasurer. Awake to the Budget Emergency.

Further Mr Hockey has not been accorded the recognition due to him for his victory in the battle of the BUDGET EMERGENCY. In his self deprecating manner, he’s not the sort to blow his own trumpet on this, but surely it is a trumpet worth blowing. This is an extraordinary victory for responsible budgetary management, a victory won on behalf of all Australians despite many traitorous Australians working hard against it – Take note Labor and Cross Bench politicians. Mr Hockey has killed the Budget Emergency stone dead, so much so that we have not even heard of it now for nearly a year. There are other areas too where Mr Hockey has shown his patriotic colours. It was he who first alerted the public to the grave danger we faced from Wind Farms, it was he who persuaded our Prime Minister to join him in denouncing this insidious evil.

Our children will thank him for this, and thank him for the gift of coal, and the sensible change to our aid budget, where now we give coal to nations looking to copy the west rather than money to some airy fairy touchy feely third world project.

Our dear Treasurer. Not a smirk, but digesting the tough medicine that is economic rationalism.

Mr Hockey has also helped the major driver of our economy (after coal mining), that is property development. That all australians should be able to own their own home is a given. And that the people who sell property should pay less than half the tax on their profits than wage earners is so obviously a stimulant to economy that it beggars belief that some question it. Dear Joe, we are proud of your efforts so far, and we would love to help you more. Maybe you can give us dot point responses to those who suggest so cruelly that it is you who are Un-Australian by your regressive taxation policy, your support of negative gearing, your ongoing support of tax concessions to superannuation, the coal industry, mining and the tax avoidance practice of multinationals.

Our dear Treasurer. ‘Australia is open for BIG BUSINESS’. Responding to a question related to tax reform and opportunity for the ordinary taxpayer.

Joe Hockey – Patriot. We salute you.

A high performance couple. A high performance moment,”Phew, i think she’s just opened her lunch” James and wife.

Amazingly, though several have been asked, it has been suggested by the publisher, Mantac and Jackson, that we, the esteemed duo of Cockburn and Poole make a contribution to the most excellent book, “Enhanced” the autobiography of the celebrated footballer James Hird. This superb tome (rrp 25.95), promises to be the perfect Christmas stocking filler. To ensure once and for all that James, celebrated footy icon stands head and shoulders above the rest. To rise, inviolate above a team, a code, a nation when all around was so ingloriously dragged through the quagmire of infamy, innuendo and filth.  James’ closest advisor, none other than his adored wife, has contributed several chapters to this book.  Each chapter is an enduring testament to an an undying love. Chapter 4, ‘for love nor money’. Chapter five, ‘stand by your man’, and chapter six, ‘down and out on less than 2 million a year’..  This ecstasy of perseverance will stand as a tribute to a man who never flailed, never failed and never let his principles stand above the team, the code, and the relative mean standard.  And what a standard to fill..

The basic facts are undeniable. An illustrious career, two premierships, Brownlow medal, clubs best and fairest and the all Australian, (against Ireland no less) champion.

Tony and Essendon. Cut from the same cloth!

James is very goal oriented. It has often been said that it only takes one individual to change the destiny of society. Some people are destined to look large on life’s’ stage.  Cecil Rhodes, (the Colossus) for example proved by sheer force of ambition a legacy that lives on and on.  Proven through such illustrious alumni as our Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Being annointed for greatness is very much at the core of greatness itself.  Others are just made that way, cut from a different cloth, and predestined to achieve greatness by just being.

The New Look James Hird. ‘These performance enhancing products are 100 percent natural and pure’

‘Illustrious’ would be damning with faint praise, but this career spanning decades, is just a footnote to the potential career that lies waiting in the wings.  James is a proven performer, there can be no doubt, and although not a Rhodes Scholar, has achieved far and beyond what is expected of a football player. A role model, a mentor, an example to kiddies the word over. True, the past few years haven’t been easy. But the road to success is dotted with potholes and it makes a bloke like Jimmy just that little bit more determined to get there in the end..

James is made for television.  A new career awaits.  With the excitement that only television in the modern age can bring.  James has advised us that very soon he will be presenter of his very own food show.. ‘Cooking up a Storm’.  James will demonstrate, the delicate arts of cooking up the most unusual concoctions, exotic locations and a retinue of television celebrities will ensure that his culinary delights will sustain heightened performance and Logie wining action..  James has also offered to be the compere of ‘Border Patrol’.  In this stunning expose, James will alight from a helicopter to pursue cars laden with lethal, intoxicating and exotic drugs.  The purveyors of this filth will be sentenced to a slow torture watching repeats of James’ Brownlow speeches and the entire stock of video footage of the irrepressible, Mrs Hird.  Fascinating stock footage, and then, there’s more!!!  James will be compering in this years Iron Man competition from the stunning beaches of the Gold Coast in which his performance enhancing prowess will be put to the test in an exhilarating series of superlative athletic performances.  Product endorsement will be provided by James the new frontman for Nutrimetics………and from our sponsors ‘Stimulatron’, we shall be seeing James as product ambassador.  There’s an offer from the worlds biggest pharmaceutical company to make James the frontman for ‘Energex’, the worlds first hypodermically injected sports supplement.  There’s rumours that James may yet be the frontman for Australia’s next team participating in the ‘Tour de France’.  Already recent offers have been made by exclusive Chinese businessmen for the pioneering substances that James trialled, and sadly we are to report that quantities of Rhinoceros testicle, Coelacanth lip and Panda brain are in short supply.  But luckily with new gene technology synthetic substitutes are being prepared for mass manufacture.  And all come with James’ product endorsement , “all of these products are 100% pure” . There’s an old proverb, “Pioneers get arrows in their back”.  St James has prevailed and may these arrows turn to ornaments as he, pioneer in medicinal substitutes leaps onto a broader world stage. We have penned a jingle for St James. This blog, fittingly marks the global release.

‘Hooray for St James… Who prevailed an preferred,
Hooray for St James, who remains undeterred,

Passive Complicity Congratulates Mr Lionel Fogarty
Mr Lionel Fogarty, whose work regularly features in this blog, has last evening awarded the Kate Challis RAKA Award.  This award for Indigenous creative artists has been made available through the generosity of Professor Emeritus Bernard Smith, eminent art and cultural historian. The prize was established to honour the memory of his late wife, Kate Challis, who was known in her youth as Ruth Adeney (RAKA is an acronym for the Ruth Adeney Koori Award). In the Pintupi language RAKA means ‘five’ and in the Warlpiri RDAKA means ‘hand’, and both meanings are particularly apt for a prize to be awarded in a cycle of five years to individual artists – novelists, poets, musicians, painters and playwrights – whose ‘hands’ are the basic means of creativity.

The $20,000 award is offered annually, the 2015 award will be offered to the best book of poems already published and written in English.  Mr Fogarty received his award for the anthology Mogwie Idan: Stories of the Land

A GLANCE
Lay my days away
Yaburuhma women’s of my past
The grunting mission present futures man
Says tongues are tightening by the home spun political
Nods of a hovel give in to them, who take your lands and personally.
The ego of eggs stubborn in breed
Was changing for higher educating.
Now big business wants us to fluent
Our decades to come, with job on job to have blown a canon
of literary.
Give annotated struggle, so brilliantly our new collection of young
can respect
Lifetime work as get it done now.
Important poetry is proper when poors are significant in praise.
Give recognised voices of us by our flighted publicities
The grunted mothers wants are needed
Those grunted Fathers wants are needed
Melt no plans when matrix
The writer is a lyricism
Say what on my tongue, be from we
Done or said it, lay my days away grunted

Lionel Fogarty 2013-07-01

Japanangka was arrested for “drinking in public” and subsequently died on 21^st May. Excerpts from the Coroner’s report:

“…died in a Darwin Police watch house cell, on a concrete bench with two strangers he had been housed with that evening…”

“…He was not causing any disruption before or during his arrest and at all times he was polite and cooperative…”

“…although the offence carried no term of imprisonment, Kumanjayi was handcuffed in public, placed in an iron cage in the back of a police van, transported away from family and friends, presented at the watch house counter with his arms still handcuffed behind his back, searched, deprived of his property, sat down and made to take his shoes and socks off and detained for some hours in a cell built to house criminals…”

“…In the last years of his life Kumanjayi didn’t work. He was always sitting down with the old people, having a cup of tea and talking to them. He also spent time with the young people. He would sit under the tree and the young people would see him and come and sit down. He talked to them and shared stories that had been told to him. We would call this tree, “the tree of knowledge.”…”

The “tree of knowledge” is less than thirty metres west from where I sit writing this. It is a large Athel Pine, classified In accordance with the Weeds Management Act as a: Class A weed “to be eradicated in all areas of the NT”. Where it stands, the possibility of it spreading are zilch. Over the years we have saved it several times from the tree police.

Six weeks before Japanangka died I introduced him (under the “tree of knowledge”) to a tourist called Joshua. Japanangka told Joshua about the Battle of Jericho in some detail. When I emailed Joshua about Japanangka’s death he replied: “What a sad news… he was such a gentle and knowledgeable person. I’m so sorry to hear this… “ This after a short single meeting.

The NT News under the headline “Booze law not to blame: AG”, reports that the NT Attorney General “has rebuffed criticism from the NT Coroner over his government’s controversial Alcohol Mandatory Treatment policy and paperless arrest laws saying two indigenous people who died in custody would have otherwise died in the “gutter”. What gutter would that be? [Remember? “…transported away from family and friends… “]

The AG is furthermore quoted as saying:

“…was brought to  Darwin to receive medical attention but instead went on a “taxpayer funded binge”. “Over the last 50 years the Australian community has shown enormous good will towards Aboriginal people” “Despite enormous  efforts…little has improved…” “Aboriginal lives will not improve until they , like anybody else, choose to improve their own lives individually”

In the Alice Springs News a prominent Alice Springs councillor wrote a lengthy comment criticising the Coroner. An excerpt:

“…the same kind of thinking that in the past has seen serious offenders, murderers, rapists, receiving lenient sentences and returned home to communities simply because they were of that origin without the slightest regard for the hellish effect that outcome had on those trying to live a normal peaceful civilized life within those communities.
The Coroner is requesting the removal of paperless arrest because they capture more Aboriginal people than other Community members, this apparently being discriminatory and divisive. Has it occurred I wonder to the Coroner, that these same laws may also “protect” more Aboriginal people, more women and kids from the results of drunken behavior?…”

[Remember?: “He was not causing any disruption before or during his arrest”]

These are the attitudes of those that have the power over and control life in the Northern Territory.

To paraphrase Xavier Herbert: “Poor Fellow my Territory”

Amazing Grace… how sweet the sound…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G72NucLEGM

Tony and friends… the sunken ship? You guessed it… Australia.

Dear reader, it’s time for some reflection. We’ve decided not to talk to you about the depressing state of things in the Federal Parliament. Rather we thought in the interests of decency we should present this fine adaptation of what actually happens in the next cabinet meeting… You’ve heard about no business being on the agenda. All those peripheral issues being solved… It helps to have tick sheet..

Aboriginal reconciliation. On hold (indefinitely)

Renewables. On hold, (indefinitely)

Marriage equality. On hold, (indefinitely)

Imagination. Suspended

Terror. Great progress, (ongoing)

Jobs. On hold

Coal. Great progress, (ongoing)

Prisons. Great progress, (ongoing)

Health. On hold

Housing affordability. On hold

Tax reform. On hold

Environment. Great progress, (ongoing)

Education. On hold

WW2 Era kitsch. poignant though

So in summary there’s nothing to talk about in cabinet. The boats have been stopped and that’s all there is. And of course we needn’t remind our readers, that there are 1500 promised jobs with the new Carmichael Coal mine, (on hold) whilst some 20,000 have been lost in the renewables industry. So lets celebrate the Abbott Government in the tradition of those famous WW2 era posters. Instead of canines we’ll use a snake, a shark, and octopus and crustacea. The shark represents the P.M, the snake, the rump conservatives, and the piano playing octopus, none other than Rupert Murdoch.. The crustacea, the core constituency. You can change the characters around about but ultimately it makes no difference. But as you can see, they’re all having a gay old time!!!

The Dehavilland Diprotodon

Diprotodon Mark I during Melbourne flyover Anzac Day 1935. Note early prototype Wacket Wombat trainer aircraft as escort.

Perhaps the most ambitious project undertaken ever by the fledgling Australian Aircraft Industry, the Diprotodon, represented the very latest thing in thinking and technological advancement. Developed by de Havilland’s Australian subsidiary at their Fisherman’s Bend plant the Diprotodon was conceived in response to the perceived threat from Russian naval units, then believed to be on patrol in the Pacific. There was also a perceived threat from German naval units rebuilding after the debacle of Versailles, and Japanese naval units and air defence units operating near the New Guinea protectorate as the Empire of japan became increasingly agressive in its approach to foreign policy. Subsequent Defence White papers also influenced design pointing to a perceived, (though considered unlikely) threat from New Zealand, the Dutch Empire in Java, the potential for expansion and conflict between the British Eastern Fleet, the American Pacific Fleet, the forces of Tonga, and several gunboats stationed to protect the Portugese enclave of East Timor.

The Dirotodon’s main offensive armament. A 50 mm Q.F Gun adapted from a Mark 1V Tank in fuselage mounted sponson.

Faced with such manifest danger the PM, The Rt Hon Joseph Lyons responded to the defence white paper with the initiative to develop an ‘air battleship’, equipped with cannon, a platoon of marines, and the very latest in air defence and long range capability.. The result, the Diprortodon, was destined to become an astounding success.. The specifications and consequent brief called for a large transport and maritime intercept aircraft with good range and durability that could transport at short notice either a platoon of troops or a squad of light horsemen with horses to trouble spots within the region. Considerable effort was made to ensure that the Diprotodon could respond quickly, attack if required, and then requisition whatever units were captured as prizes and return with a prize crew to home waters. It was durable, being fabric and duralinium covered, boasted significant power with six Bristol Jupiter radial engines adapted from the very successful HP 42 Argosy and possessed possibly the most powerful gun platform then developed with the inclusion of two 50 mm QF mark 1V male tank guns. Then in surplus at the army proving ground at Puckapunyal. Thus equipped each aircraft deployed a considerable rate of fire power, with the capacity to carry upwards of twenty six fully equipped troops, or a dozen horses.

Alice Springs 1936. Local children encouraging native children to board Diprotodon for resettlement. Ingenious use of Spare Diprotodon tyres to roll undesirables to waiting aircraft.

A precursor to the modern Gun-ship. The first action undertaken by the Diprotodon was when no 1 squadron RAAF was commandeered by the Western Australian government for land clearing. Ensuring that troublesome natives were removed from pastoral leases. Similar work undertaken by the Queensland and Sth Australian Government entailed the repatriation of natives from pastoral and mining leases, and on the odd occassion use by the flying doctor service in transporting a remote community to Darwin for quarantining. The first aircraft to be used in the invasion of its own territory. Ironically the main offensive armament was seldom used. One notable instance being the use of both forward firing tank guns in cloud harvesting over a drought affected areas of Sth Australia, and the only occasion when bombs were accidentally released during a ceremonial fly over, on an orphanage in Port Adelaide..

Preferred passenger posture during long hop flights. Blindfolded and bound to a stretcher for maximum comfort.

The squadron was mothballed in the late 30’s and briefly recommissioned in 1942 where they performed sterling service on anti submarine patrol between Cape York and New Guinea. In this role they were successful in locating and sinking three submarines, two corvettes, a minesweeper, and destroyer. The subsequent court of enquiry into the sinking of allied ships in friendly waters determined that the Diprotodon bombsight was inaccurate and liable to prismatic distortion, resulting in mis-identification and failure. The last aircraft of this type, was briefly re deployed during the Malayan Emergency as a transport and was lost when it crashed at the sewerage plant adjacent Point Cook at Werribee. The crew given full military honours, their spirit enshrined as an epitaph recorded in the squadron history: ‘lost but underterred’.

Dehavilland Diprotodon Specifications

Crew: 2

Capacity: Up to 24 fully equipped troops 12 Light Horse

Range: 1200 miles Performance; Cruising Speed 140 mph @ 15000 feet

Powerplant: Four Bristol Jupiter radial engines

Armament 2 x 50 mm Q.F Mk 14 tank guns 24 .303 Lee Enfield SMLE Rifles