Australia to Apologize to Aborigines

SYDNEY, Australia — The new Australian government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will apologize for past mistreatment of the country’s Aboriginal minority when Parliament convenes next month, addressing an issue that has blighted race relations in Australia for years.

In a measure of the importance Mr. Rudd attaches to the issue, the apology will be the first item of business for the new government when Parliament first convenes on Feb. 13, Jenny Macklin, the federal minister for indigenous affairs, said Wednesday.

Ms. Macklin said she had consulted widely with Aboriginal leaders, but it was still not clear what form the apology would take. However, she said the government would not bow to longstanding demands for a fund to compensate those damaged by the policies of past governments.

The history of relations between Australia’s Aboriginal population and the broader population is one of brutality and neglect. Tens of thousands of Aboriginals died from disease, warfare and dispossession in the years after European settlement, and it was not until 1962 that they were able to vote in national elections.

But the most lasting damage was done by the policy of removing Aboriginal children and placing them either with white families or in state institutions as part of a drive to assimilate them with the white population.

A comprehensive 1997 report estimates that between one in three and one in 10 Aboriginal children, the so-called stolen generations, were taken from their homes and families in the century until the policy was formally abandoned in 1969.

“A national apology to the stolen generations and their families is a first, necessary step to move forward from the past,” Ms. Macklin said.

“The apology will be made on behalf of the Australian government and does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people,” she said.

Marcia Langton, professor of Australian indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne, said the apology was a good first step, but she added that it was hard to see where the government’s program would go from there.

“There can’t be any next step without a compensation fund,” Ms. Langton, who is also one of Australia’s most prominent Aboriginal advocates, said Wednesday.

She said she suspected that the apology was aimed more at pleasing the core voter base of Mr. Rudd’s Labor Party than Aboriginal people themselves.

“It’s difficult not to be cynical,” said Ms. Langton.

The previous government of Prime Minister John Howard, which was convincingly beaten in elections last November, had refused to apologize to the Aboriginal community for past wrongs.

“There are millions of Australians who will never entertain an apology because they don’t believe that there is anything to apologize for,” Mr. Howard told a local radio station last year.

“They are sorry for past mistreatment but that is different from assuming responsibility for it,” he said.

Many of Mr. Howard’s critics believed that he was unwilling to apologize because it would open the flood gates to potentially massive claims for compensation.

Ms. Langton estimated that some 13,000 members of the stolen generations still survive.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up some 2.5 percent of the overall population, but many eke out an existence on the margins of society.

Life expectancy for Aboriginal people is 17 years lower than the rest of the country; they are 13 times more likely to be incarcerated; three times more likely to be unemployed; and twice as likely to be victims of violence or threatened violence.

Successive governments have been wary of intervening in Aboriginal affairs, and many blame policies implemented in the 1970s as part of a drive to empower indigenous Australians for further marginalizing them.

The permit system, which bars outsiders from visiting Aboriginal communities without the permission of community leaders, has come in for particular criticism. It was designed to preserve indigenous culture, but critics say it has created ghettos and is partially responsible for an environment in many communities where alcoholism, violence and child abuse have become endemic.

A report issued by the government of the Northern Territory last year uncovered widespread evidence of child neglect and sexual abuse. The report triggered a wide-ranging and controversial intervention by the Howard government in the territory, which included removing the permit system from the Northern Territory and mandating that half of welfare payments could only be spent on food.

The Rudd government has committed itself to reviewing the intervention, but it has yet to come up with a comprehensive plan. Many indigenous Australians are distrustful of government interference in their lives, and although the plan for an apology has been broadly welcomed as an important symbolic step, designing acceptable practical measures will be more difficult.

Embedded Video

Australian Leader Ratifies Kyoto Pact

by REUTERS

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia’s new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, took the oath of office on Monday and immediately signed documents to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, ending his country’s decade of opposition to the global climate agreement.

The move isolates the United States, which will now be the only developed nation not to ratify the agreement which sets binding limits on developed countries to curb the carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

“This is the first official act of the new Australian government, demonstrating my government’s commitment to tackling climate change,” Rudd said in a statement.

Climate scientists said the development was a major step for Australia and sent a clear message to Washington.

“This has given America no excuse now. They are now the only country who won’t ratify Kyoto, they are the ones most responsible for the problem and they are not living up to their responsibility,” said Barry Brook, professor of climate studies at Adelaide University.

Rudd, 50, led the centre-left Labor party to victory at the November 24 election, ending nearly 12 years of conservative rule, by promising a new generation of leadership and committing to sign the Kyoto pact.

The former conservative government refused to ratify Kyoto, saying it would unfairly hurt the Australian economy with its heavy reliance on coal for energy and export income, while countries like India and China were not bound by targets.

But a new report from the environment think tank the Climate Institute, written by government and university scientists, found that Australia’s economy could easily cope with strong cuts in greenhouse emissions.

It said growth would fall by only 0.1 percent of gross domestic product annually if Australia set a target of 20 percent cuts in emissions by 2020 and aimed to be carbon neutral by 2050.

“Leading the way on climate is an affordable, prudent and achievable investment,” Climate Institute chief executive John Connor said on Monday.

Shortly after Rudd was sworn in, the Kyoto decision was approved by Governor-General Michael Jeffery, who represents Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in Australia’s constitution and who must approve all international treaties.

Under U.N. guidelines, full ratification takes place 90 days after the United Nations receives the formal Instrument of Ratification, meaning Australia will be a full member of the Kyoto club by the end of March.

The way is now clear for Rudd to play a stronger role at the U.N. climate talks in Bali, which opened negotiations on Monday on new carbon emission targets for beyond 2012. He is to lead a delegation of four Australian ministers at the conference.

The previous government said Australia would meet its Kyoto targets, despite not ratifying the pact, but Rudd said the latest advice suggested it would miss its target to curb greenhouse emissions growth to 108 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.

“We are currently likely to exceed, or overshoot, our target by one percent,” Rudd said, adding that Australia faced penalties under new targets beyond 2012.

Rudd has set a long-term target of cutting carbon emissions by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2050, but has yet to announce an interim target for emissions by 2020.

Australian court sets June date for Google case

By Reuters

Google has denied the allegations. “The ACCC’s claims against Google are entirely without merit, and we will continue to defend against them vigorously,” Google said in a statement Friday. The ACCC case centers on auto dealer Trading Post Australia. The commission alleges misleading and deceptive conduct by Trading Post and Google stemming from advertising that appeared on Google’s Web site in 2005. An ACCC spokeswoman declined to comment.

Howard Government Suffers Defeat

By Patrick Barta and Rachel Pannett

SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat in national elections Saturday, according to preliminary results, most likely ending the political career of one Asia’s most enduring conservative leaders and a key ally of U.S. President George W. Bush in the region.

Voters were ready to hand control of the government to Australia’s opposition Labor party, headed by former diplomat Kevin Rudd, who has promised to boost relations with China, pull some troops from Iraq, and re-make Australia as a leader in the global effort to stop global warming. The defeat appears so complete that the 68-year-old Mr. Howard, Australia’s second-longest-serving prime minister, appeared likely to lose his own parliamentary seat, which he has held for 33 years.

With 70% of the votes counted, Labor was on track to win at least 80 of the 150 seats in Parliament’s House of Representatives, where governments are formed, compared with just 60 in the last election in 2004, according to Australian Broadcasting Corp. Full results won’t be known for several days but concessions from the Howard camp are expected before long.

• One in three reluctant to hire obese person
• Concerns about workplace productivity
• Australia now fifth-fattest nation in the world

MORE than one in three Australians are reluctant to hire an obese person.

A national survey, conducted by leading human resources firm Talent2 and involving nearly 2000 respondents, found employers are worried about how a clinically obese person would perform in the job.

The study, which anonymously took in employees from all levels of the corporate ladder and across all industries, showed only 44 per cent would not be hesitant to employ an obese person.

Results: Study shows brain power linked to slim waists

But 36 per cent were concerned about how the excess weight would have an impact on workplace productivity.

Nearly half of all participants believed overweight people took a higher number of sick days, and almost 40 per cent said fat employees didn’t present well at high-level client meetings.

Talent2 director John Banks admits that the survey’s findings didn’t overly surprise him.

“Presentation in work and certain industries is a major influence in making hiring decisions and is necessarily a part of the culture and image of a business,” he said.

“There is a perception that people that don’t look after their presentation have a number of potential issues that could be brought to work, and that may have an impact on hiring.”

Policing of the issue is difficult, as anti-discrimination laws fail to specify it is an offence to discriminate against someone based on their physical appearance.

According to the World Health Organisation, the clinical definition of obesity applies to those who have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher.

New statistics released last week confirmed that Australia is the fifth-fattest nation in the world, with almost one in four adults classed as obese.

Chris Bonino, 43, of Wetherill Park, used to be one of these people, after having recorded a BMI of 42.

Embarking on a drastic weight-loss program through SureSlim, which saw her lose 50kg in 10 months, Ms Bonino says, after experiencing first-hand the way people treated her, society does judge on physical appearances.

“They don’t mean to, but their body language suggests they do,” she said.

“They have a good look at you and think that all aspects of that person’s life must relate to what he or she looks like, and that is just so incorrect.”

Interestingly, more than 49 per cent of those aged 55 and over were hesitant to hire a fat person, compared to 23 per cent of Generation Y respondents.

So…

From the Huffington Post:

Toy Containing “Date Rape” Drug Pulled

Australian officials ordered a popular Chinese-made children’s toy pulled from the shelves after scientists found it contained a chemical that converts into a powerful “date rape” drug when ingested.

Three children have been hospitalized over the past 10 days after swallowing beads from Bindeez, named Australia’s toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year.

Embedded Video

It seems silly, but when you think about it, I think it is consistent with our mission statement as metempsychotic modernists; we are remaking Rocky, and we are doing it in the political sphere, but doing politics in a way it maybe shouldn’t be done.

 Hmmm….This definitely proves the Irish have quite a sense of humour. 

On many, many deep and complicated levels.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hheDIdqBHD4

Plus Undergroundfilm.org in San Francisco USA is featuring THE ECSTASY OF GARY GREEN on their front page!

 Undergroundfilm.org

Plus I’m interviewed and featured in The Netherlands here…

 http://www.cinema.nl/cinema/specials/magazines/news/index.jsp?portals=3142294&maps=25209957&magazines=25219331&news=36104448

Yes…it’s a frightening thought for the world…but I’m slowly neonising it.