It's all about what's not said

Did you happen to see the piece on Palm Island artist Billy Doolan on the 7:30 report?  If not, it is well worth a look and Billy is certainly deserving of the national attention and recognition given the quality of his work and growing international reputation . (Transcript and video here).

Watching it reminded me of an unfinished post which I'd started in response to a Townsville Bulletin article on Billy back on 17 Feb. While that article also gave Billy local attention and recognition, at the time it annoyed me that the Bully tagged Billy as a "Townsville Artist" where of course he is a Palm Island man and that the article was run well back into the paper and not (for example) headlined in the weekly Arts Section. 

There was also something very familiar about the paper's pic of Billy which I couldn't put my finger on - until I found this piece by Chris Johnson in The Age.  As soon as I read there that Billy had been a resident of Happy Valley (for non-locals, Townsville's equivalent to a "fringe camp" or "town camp") the penny dropped.

I had met Billy at Happy Valley a number of years ago.  I now clearly remembered him as a strong and proud man, a leader - far from the image of Happy Valley itinerants and drunks that The Bulletin (among many others) are so fond of betraying.

And of course, while effectively regurgitating The Age article published 47 days beforehand, the Bully managed to exclude (airbrush) any reference to Billy's association with the Valley.  After all, we wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea about that mob would we?

Their attempt to appropriate Billy as a "Townsville Artist" (that is, one of our own) became all the more annoying when I read that Billy has been living in Melbourne for half of each of the last eight years (he's clearly a smart businessman too).

Oh - and I also discovered that Billy is in fact a "major Queensland artist" - certainly worthy of more than a throw-away piece in the local rag of the town that likes to claim him as their own.

While not really surprised by The Bully's approach, I have been particularly annoyed by what appears to me to be the complete ignoring of Billy Doolan and his international standing by the arts establishment in this town - and believe me there is one.  Search the Bulletin's site for "chamber music" and you'll get 67 results.  Search Billy's name and you get just one.

Say no more

Of Poverty and the Northern Territory Intervention

I was taken by Don Arthur's post in Club Troppo yesterday. Do poor people cause poverty? in which he reviews an essay in the Boston Review by Stephen Steinberg in which he challenges the idea that poor Americans are trapped in a cycle of disadvantage that only they can end.

Needless-to-say, this 1970 quote from Lee Rainwater immediately made me think of the NT Intervention:

"The special ways of adapting by the poor suggest only that effective poverty strategies have to change their income situation before requiring changes in their behavior and attitudes. The major reason for the failure of most anti-poverty programs so far is that they require the poor the change their behavior before they have gained the resources that would change their situation (quoted in The Social Inclusion Agenda)."

And then today I see this nasty little piece from Gary Johns who the Oz are touting as a Former Keating Minister (well a Junior Minister, and one not exactly loved by his former colleagues) and a Professor at the Australian Catholic University (ACU doesn't rate in either of the ARWU or QS Topuniversities rankings of the top 500 or so of the world's universities.)

Clearly the ACU are quite happy to have their Brand associated with little gems like this:

"People now being recruited to university as indigenous are frankly embarrassing," he writes. "Many of these students would not have suffered any prejudice whatsoever and are generations apart from traditional society. "They are heralded as part of the success of a 'program' purely to keep up the numbers. The harm this sort of activity does is to undermine the work of those who actually have to change people's behaviour, not simply recruit those who would have made it regardless. The net impact of such programs is near zero."

Perhaps Johns and the Australian Catholic University could explain themselves to former NSW Indigenous Student of the Year, Dasha Newington and the hundreds like her:

An Indigenous woman speaks out

The following posted by Ken Parish at Club Troppo first caught my attention because it mentioned a common old firend - when I saw Bob Durnan's name I knew the piece would be worth reading.  Turns out it is a must read and is cross-posted in full below:

An Indigenous woman speaks out

Bob Durnan is an old ALP colleague who has worked in Indigenous communities in central Australia for the best part of 30 years. Like me, he has witnessed the tragic deterioration of living conditions in many if not most remote communities and town camps in the Northern Territory over that period of time. As such Bob is a strong supporter of many aspects of the Howard government-initiated NT Intervention, especially the income management system.
Bob has just emailed me a copy of what I think is a very important speech delivered to the Australian Alliance of Lawyers last Friday in Alice Springs by Bess Price, a senior Warlpiri woman from Yuendumu.

The background is the release last week of the Bath Report into children’s services in the NT, which revealed that not much had improved in that area since the “Little Children Are Sacred” report which triggered the Intervention in 2007. NT Minister Kon Vatskalis said last week:

“The communities out there are in total collapse. There is a crisis in the communities,” Mr Vatskalis said.

“Yesterday, I was thinking, I said where is the person like Martin Luther King to come out and say ‘I’ve got a dream?’, because I can’t see anybody in the Indigenous community at the moment coming out and saying ‘I’ve got a dream’ and lead the communities. There is no leadership.”

Ms Price is certainly an Indigenous leader whose voice needs to be heard more widely.

My mother and father were born in the desert. They lived their childhood out of contact with whitefellas. They were terrified when they first saw a whitefella. They taught me the Old Law that our people lived by. That Law worked when we were living in tiny family groups taking everything that we needed from the desert. It is Sacred Law. There was strong Law for sacred business. If the sacred Law was broken both men and women could be killed. There was strong Law for who we could marry. Men had the power of life and death over their wives. Young girls were forced into marriage. Men too had no choice in who they married. There was no law for property except that everything must be shared. There was no law for money because we didn’t have any. There was no law for houses, cars, grog, petrol or drugs – we didn’t have any except for bush tobacco which was shared like everything else we had. The only way to punish was physically, by beating or killing the law breaker. They couldn’t be fined, we had no money or wealth to take. They couldn’t be locked up, we had no jails.

Everybody knew what they had to do to make sure that everybody survived. We all knew how to make a living from our country. We lived from day to day. Everybody was taught to fight. We only had our family to defend us. We had no army, no police, no courts. Everybody needed to know how to use a weapon, women and men both learned to fight and knew they would have to do that sometime. We also believe that our Law Man can make magic, they can heal the sick but they can also make people sick and die by magic. That is what all my people believe. We kept the peace by fear of violence and magic.

Now we live in a world ruled by a new law that is not sacred, that doesn’t accept that magic exists. Now we are all equal citizens with human rights. Now we have property, houses, cars, grog, drugs, pornography. Now we live off welfare, other people’s money or we need to get a whitefella education and get a job. We still share everything and this keeps us poor. We can’t say ‘no’ to our family even when we know they are drinkers and gamblers and will waste our money or destroy themselves with it. Now too many of our men still think they have the power of life and death over their wives. My people think all property should be shared and we think whitefellas are just greedy and stingy. We don’t plan for the future, we don’t budget or invest – we share and consume. All this has happened too quickly.

The Bath report on the failure of child protection in the NT tells us that our kids live in a chaotic world where they are at terrible risk. My community of Yuendumu has been torn apart by feuding. These problems show us that government has failed but is also shows us that Aboriginal Law has failed too. Aboriginal organisations have failed as well. Aboriginal politics that focused on the ‘Stolen Generation’ and ‘Deaths in Custody’ also failed. Aboriginal politicians forgot about our women and kids, forgot about the violence on the remote communities, forgot about the problems we are causing for ourselves. We can’t just keep blaming the government without taking our share of the blame. That is the only way we can find our own way out of these problems.

Our old Law worked really well in the old days but it was not about human rights. It was about unconditional loyalty to kin, to family and following the sacred Law. It was about capital and physical punishment. There were wise old people who tried to make sure that there was justice. But they are all dying now. Those like my own parents who were born and grew up in the bush, are all getting very old and passing away. But even they could not stop the grog and the violence that came from the new world we were living in. There is nothing in our old Law that helps us deal with grog and drugs. All these new things that whitefellas brought in we have no law for. But we still respect our ancestors and we still want to keep our culture. The Two Laws, whitefella and blackfella, are based on opposing principles. My people are confused. If they go the blackfella way they break whitefella law, if they go whitefella way they break blackfella law. Our young men are caught in the middle, they are still initiated into the old Law but they live in a world run by the new law, that’s why they fill up the jails.

Con Vaskalis is right when he says that we don’t have effective leadership. We have wonderful old people who know the old Law but are confused and worried by the new. They are truly wise when they have real authority, when they are in small, family based communities away from towns. They are ignored by the drinkers and the young people who are rushing to take the benefits of the whitefella way without learning whitefella law. Too many don’t know either law now. We have Aboriginal people who speak out all the time but don’t live in the communities and don’t speak an Aboriginal language – who don’t have any idea what life is like for my people. We have Aboriginal people who others call leaders who we know are only looking after their own families, their own interests and not those of the whole community. We have very good people who want to do the right thing but are too worried and confused and who are continually grieving over the deaths of their loved ones.

We have white radicals and NGO’s with their own agendas who want to use us like political footballs. When we women talk out about our problems they either ignore us or tell the world that we are liars and trouble makers. Some of my people who carry on about human rights and attack governments every time they try to do anything new run away from their own kin and communities when there is trouble. They never find it hard to find a gullible human rights lawyer to back them up in public but they don’t do anything in their own communities to make things better for their own people.

Too many lawyers are only interested in the rights of the perpetrators. Because they are worried about racism and they don’t like a particular government they will do what ever they can to make sure that murderers and rapists and child abusers are protected from the new law. They will only advocate acknowledging traditional law when they think it will work better for their clients, the perpetrators. But they don’t know how the old Law worked. They never worry about the victims who are also Aboriginal and victims of racism, who have had their basic human rights ignored and trampled on by members of their own communities, their own families. It seems to us that human rights lawyers only worry about the black victims when the perpetrators are white. It is not somehow more acceptable to be raped, abused and murdered when the one doing it to you has the same colour skin.

Our problem is that we want to keep our culture. We want to respect our ancestors and their Law but we also want to be equal citizens and we want human rights. We can’t do that without changing our Law. But we need to change it ourselves, others can’t do that for us. Only we can solve our own problems and we will do it in our own way. But we really need the support of governments and our fellow citizens. You need to listen to the voices that are usually drowned out by the strong, the noisy and the powerful. You need to find a way to listen to those who don’t speak English, who are the most marginalised and victimised in our own communities. You need to listen to our own women and young people, the ones who don’t have a voice under the old Law. If you really want us to have human rights then you have to find ways to protect the victims of black crime as well as white crime.

Playing the race card in Townsville - again!

Dale Last moved his Mayoral campaign up a notch today just as it looks as if Lez will have to do a humiliating backflip on water rates.

And what a better way to move your campaign along than by playing the race card - it's an old trick, 'sucessfully' deployed by Mooney for years after he'd learnt it from the old CLP in the Territory.

Last's latest effort here in today's Bulletin shows him and his tactics for what they are:

• " ...investors were raising serious concerns about developing in the city." Last claims!  Of course, the investors are unnamed and, as such, the claim should be treated as nonsense.  I defy Last to produce one investor who's pulled-out of the inner-city (or any other part of the city) because of small groups of parkies - because of the lack of speed in increasing population densities in the inner-city or because of the lack of parking or simply because the inner-city can't compete with suburban shopping malls maybe, but because of a few parkies - no way.  If there was money to be made, they'd be there, parkies or no.



• The "...Urban Quarter (is) on its knees with businesses going broke because of the public disorder and the problems associated with this group of people there, constantly harassing people." Last proclaims.  This is not just nonsense, it's bullshit.  Businesses in the Urban Quarter are going broke because if its location.  Completely predictable before it opened, until the redevelopment of the old rail yards is complete there is not the population to support two supermarkets in the city centre.  With Coles (the most poorly located of the two) not able to attract enough punters into the building, the rest of the tenants in the Urban Quarter have been pushing it up hill ever since it opened.

Blaming bad planning and business decisions on a few parkies is laughable simply playing the race card.

As for the reporting of Last's campaign launch, the Bulletin could not have made him happier than with the headline "Shops 'go bust' in city of drunks".  Of course neither the Bully or Last were game to admit that if the city deserves such a tag it is because of what happens in Flinders Street most nights.

Had they looked at the source of most serious alcohol related crime and hospital admissions in the city - you won't find a few parkies - you'll find middle-class kids and boy soldiers (predominantly white) behaving badly and a few club owners (and supporters of Last and major advertisers in the Bully) getting rich! 

And of course they wouldn't see any irony (or is that contradiction) in the Bulletin running at least 1 1/2 pages of liquor adds today while also running Last's latest little race-card play

The most appauling aniversary

19 November, in a little over a month, will be the sixth aniversary of the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee at the hands the Qld coppers - SIX years and today this:

Is there no end to this for Mulrunji's family?  Is there no justice?

The death of Lyji Vaggs - a very familiar story

It's not often that I even read the Australian these days but when I see any piece by Tony Koch, I sit up and take notice!

This exclusive by Koch today's Oz is reprinted in full:

Security yet to face questions over asphyxia death in hospital

An Aboriginal man who was physically restrained and handcuffed after he sought treatment for mental illness suffered asphyxia, an autopsy has found.

The man was physically restrained by hospital security staff in Townsville and handcuffed by police.

But a separate police report details how detectives have so far failed to interview the six to eight security officers and orderlies who seized an agitated Lyji Vaggs, 27, and held him face-down before he suffered respiratory failure and irreversible brain damage.

"Restraint asphyxia" contributed to Vaggs's death at Townsville Hospital in April, but the pathologist who performed the post-mortem examination on his body says asphyxia may not in itself have killed him.

Despite the uncertainty, Queensland Health "had not yet provided any further information with respect to the actions of staff relating to the deceased's assessment, transport and the period of detention prior to police arrival" at the mental health unit of Townsville Hospital, the police report to the state coroner states.

Security footage of the confrontation involving Vaggs, hospital staff and security officers on April 13 either did not exist or could not be found, The Australian has been told.
The revelations will deepen outrage at his treatment at the hospital from Vaggs's family and the Aboriginal community in Townsville, and invoke comparisons with the botched handling by Queensland police of the 2004 death in custody of another indigenous man, Mulrunji Doomadgee, on nearby Palm Island.

A spokesman for the police service declined to comment last night, saying the Vaggs case was now before the coroner.

The state's Crime and Misconduct Commission has recommended that Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson consider disciplinary action against six police involved in the Doomadgee affair, but this is now subject to legal action by two of those officers.

The autopsy report for the coroner, prepared by Cairns-based forensic pathologist Paul Botterill, found that Vaggs died of the combined effects of "restraint asphyxia", obesity, schizophrenia and an aberrant coronary condition.

Dr Botterill reported he had been told Vaggs had been restrained by six to eight hospital staff, who maintained pressure on his limbs but "apparently not directly on him".

This happened after he went to the hospital seeking help, and turned on medical staff.
"He was observed to be still resisting, trying to get up," Dr Botterill reported.

"Hospital staff allegedly requested the use of handcuffs and police applied these, with the decedent's wrists situated behind his back.

"Police say that they remained at the upper torso, holding on the handcuffed arms and each placing a knee on the decedent's arms. One of the security officers was then alleged to have restrained the decedent's legs by crossing them and folding them upwards.

"The decedent was said to have continued to struggle, with his speech becoming irrational." The autopsy report notes that Vaggs sang Happy Birthday and asserted he was a woman.

He was then injected in the buttocks with an a psychotic medication, olanzapine. He continued to struggle, and may have been given further injections, at which time he was observed to go "limp and lifeless". He died on April 15 after life support was turned off.

The chief investigating police officer, Inspector Roger Lowe, said in his report to the Coroner that police had interviewed no hospital staff apart from the doctor who administered the sedative, Mushtaq Mohiuddin, due to "privacy reasons".

Others on duty at the time, or involved in the incident, were "unavailable to be spoken to" by police investigators, Inspector Lowe said.

Queensland Health acting district solicitor Shiloh Smith had advised the police that "statements for staff involved in the incident were to be provided through Queensland Health solicitors", the policeman said.

Vaggs's aunt and family spokeswoman Gracelyn Smallwood, an associate professor of nursing, said she was concerned the investigation to date had not been thorough.

"When I heard of Lyji's death, the first thing I did was pray to God that nothing was covered up because the last thing we need here is another Palm Island," she said.

"We didn't want key witnesses not interviewed, or security videos suddenly not being available -- and what do we get. It is just so disappointing for Aboriginal people seeking justice and answers that this is the result we get all the time.

In his report to the Coroner, Inspector Lowe wrote that Vaggs was a patient well known to the hospital who suffered from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

He tried to be admitted to the hospital on April 13 as he was "hearing voices".
Other sources told The Australian that the voices were telling him to "kill somebody", so he went to the hospital seeking admission and medical help.

Vaggs rang the Mental Health Community Assessment Team and they sent a car for him. On arrival at the hospital, he allegedly struck a medical student from the unit, and the duress alarm was sounded, with hospital security staff responding, and police asked to attend.

"Four constables arrived at the Mental Health Unit at 1531 hours and they observed the deceased face-down on the floor and being physically held down by his limbs by between six to eight hospital staff, including security personnel," Inspector Lowe wrote.

"The deceased was observed to be struggling and resisting hospital staff attempting to get up whilst staff held on to him. Police observed the deceased to be a very large man and had concerns for safety of all persons involved."

Vaggs' funeral service will be held at the Assembly of God Church, Ayr, at 10am on August 20.

Mulrunji and the coppers - "The whole charade is totally offensive"

Tony Koch has consistently written the best pieces in the MSM on the outrage that is the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee and the charade that has followed ever since.  In today's Oz:

THE lawyers' picnic in the Queensland Supreme Court is masquerading as a titanic battle.

THE lawyers' picnic masquerading in the Queensland Supreme Court as a titanic battle between the Crime and Misconduct Commission and the Queensland Police Service is just another attempt to deny any blame for the disgraceful investigation into the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee.

The CMC, after years of ignoring its responsibilities to ensure that police acted properly, recommended that disciplinary action be taken against six officers involved to varying degrees in the sloppy cover up.

Last month, CMC chairman Martin Moynihan gave Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson a fortnight to report back on action the QPS intended to take against the officers.

The only body with more culpability is the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee, which has the responsibility to be the watchdog, but whose members have sat mute all this time.

So this week it was back to court with injunctions ensuring that justice for Palm Islanders is further delayed. The whole charade is totally offensive.

Commissioner Atkinson has not had just a fortnight to consider action against the police involved - he has had almost six years. He has a sworn responsibility to ensure the law is applied equally to all citizens, but he has a special duty when a situation involves the most vulnerable in our community.

His refusal to accept the responsibility of his office and to take the obvious action against his officers is reprehensible. His contract should not be renewed when it expires late this year.

The motto of the QPS is "With Honour We Serve".

The investigators of the 2004 death of Mulrunji, so enthusiastically supported by Atkinson, have defiled that noble claim.

What goes around, comes around

Further to this quick post yesterday - it seems that only the Anglo countries voted for Howard and every non-Anglo nation voted against him.  Now, I wonder why that may be?

If you spend your whole political life playing the race card, what do you expect the the peasants to do when they finally get some power?

...and the things that make you shake your head

After five and a half years - some truth is finally told

Well, five and a half years after his death at the hands of copper Hurley, we finally have some truth about how the police culture and system set about covering his little ass.

It will be fascinating to see whether the Top Copper will still be there in a month and similarly whether Bligh has really stuffed-it this time by recently reappointing him. (I have this strange feeling in my waters that this may well turn out to be her Waterloo and if not it will be because Niel Roberts is sacrificed instead)

Other interesting reading:

• The CMC Report can be found here



• Palm Island officer Chris Hurley promoted while fellow officers face sanctions from News.com.au



• Labor MPs attempted to pressure Queensland's corruption watchdog to wind back its criticisms of Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson from couriermail.com.au

Remember:
 

Charges must be laid after the findings of Inquest into Mulrunji's death

In case you haven't seen it, Monique Bond has some spot-on suggestions after reading Coroner Brian Hine’s findings.  More here

Parkies done for drunk driving? I don't think so...

You may have skimmed over this small page-7 article in todays' Bulletin.  If so, read it again.

If the article is correct, you have to wonder why the coppers would be targetting "homeless people and itenerants" (whatever they look like) and not just anybody breaking the law in the area?

And anyway, why wasn't the operation also carried out in the nightclub precinct? Or is anti-social behavour ok in Flinders St but nowhere else?

I'd also love to meet the five "homeless people and itenerants" that got done for drink driving - none that I'm aware of have cars!

Exactly who is “out of control” here?

After beginning to despair that the Bulletin was becoming too boring to blog, we have today’s front page beat-up in true Bully style

I had been mulling over what to post in response to the story of the death of a mentally ill man at TGH last week, particularly in light of the COAG negotiations that are going on right now.

But today’s front page “Gangs out of control” followed by “Gangs of thugs on rampage” on page four gives me the chance to do three birds with one post:

First today’s Gangs on the Rampage beat up:

• There is no evidence in the story or reported from the police of any gang activity – rather a group or groups of young people.



• The incident of the 66 year old getting bashed is a nasty one but the article of course only reports one side of the story – I’d love to know for example whether the old man’s son and his friend said or did something to provoke the fight that the old man ended up getting himself in the middle of.



• In 08/09 there were on average 4.5 assaults per day in the Townsville Police District - presumambly the other 3.5 that happened yesterday didn't rate a mention

Segue to the case of the mentally ill man who died after being restrained by police and sedated at the Townsville Hospital's mental health unit where he’d gone seeking help but was told to go home as there were no beds available.

• A man dies, the mental health system is apparently left wanting, there's yet another black death in custody and the Bully gives it (from memory) page five coverage.

See where I’m going here? (Apparently) black kids out of control - major story / crazy black man dies - a sad and unfortunate incident

Segue to the COAG health negotiations going on as I post:

• I’d be the first to agree that they health system needs fixing and that a national system is one of the required fixes but I’m appalled at the lack of discussion on preventative health services and mental health services.



• And we have had in Townsville within the last week an unnecessary death as the most dramatic evidence of the need for improved funding for mental health services.



• The Bully today devoted all of a 9cm column to the health system negotiations

Pity the Bully couldn’t (or wouldn’t?) pick the real story to beat up.  See also this earlier post about The Bulletin's sister paper, the Adelaide Advertiser's efforts and effects of beating-up race-based gang hysteria.

PS: My bet is that Rudd will throw something on the table at COAG on mental health as part of the bidding process and in part to keep the Oz of the Year quiet

It's about the power and accountability of the press

Hungrybeast last night had this excellent piece on the the role of the mainstream media in inventing the “Gang of 49” myth.  It particularly and rightfully highlighted the role of Colin James from Murdoch’s birthplace, The Adelaide Advertiser in the creation and exploitation of the myth.

It then goes on to show how the baseless hype the press lived off for weeks and months is actually germinating and feeding the development of a gang culture among Aboriginal kids in the city.

James and The ‘Tiser should be held liable

I was reminded of our own Bulletin’s efforts – see my earlier posts here



Also available here

Population debates, migration debates and sustainability debates (and the race card)

Following the release of the Treasury's Intergenerational Report, there has been growing ‘debate’ (or is that hype) in the mainstream media about the prospect of Australia's population reaching 35 million by 2050.

The hype (and the effectiveness of playing the race card that he learnt so well under Howard) is what no doubt prompted the Mad Monk to hint at a policy to cut our 'out-of-control' migration intake in response.
 
The hype and the Monk’s play is also what no doubt prompted Rudd to announce the appointment of a Minister for Population and the development of a population strategy.

Neither party seem to be willing to touch the hard issues:

• The impact of the $1.4 billion annual baby bonus on the Australian birth rate
• Australia’s true migration picture.  See: Rubbery figures on migrant flood by Peter McDonald in The Age
• What is an environmentally sustainable population for the country? See Sustainable Population Australia
• Our place in the world community and what it means for our population growth and responsibilities.

As Malcolm McIntosh, Tapan Sarker and Rose Boyd argue their excellent piece Australia's population challenge in the ABC’s The Drum:

“Population is fundamentally a human rights and environmental rights issue but there seem to be few, if any, politicians willing to accept the leadership baton and step forward.”

Quite so

Could this happen in Townsville?

Homeless people in Darwin have been given the opportunity to get a meal, haircut and even a pedicure at a free community event

Darwin is a city of some 70,000 people (about 44% the size of Townsville) and yet according to the Darwin City Council (as quoted in the article) they have about 3,000 rough sleepers or long grassers (the equivalent of our parkies) - about 50 times more than Townsville’s 60 or so. 

If Townsville's 'problem' was of the same order of magnitude as Darwin's, our parkie population would number about 5,000!

If Darwin City Council can recognise that “"Every … city is facing these sorts of problems of the number of people who are sleeping on the streets," how come Cr Dale Last and the rest of Council and our own member for Townsville can’t (see other posts here and here).

And how is it that Darwin can respond in such a positive way and all Townsville can rise to is talk of punitive action?  Puts us to shame really

Public drunkenness and public posturing

I wasn’t at the Forum on Homelessness/Public Drunkenness yesterday so can only respond to The Bulletin’s reporting of Mandy Johnstone’s press release and Councillor Dale Last’s throw away comments.

A few things struck me about the report:

• The idea of mandatory (forced) alcohol rehabilitation (presumably the issue requiring legislative change) is a nonsense – mandatory detox perhaps but nobody can force anybody to be rehabilitated (except perhaps former Chinese Governments).



• Will such mandatory rehabilitation also apply to the nightclub drunks regularly arrested in Flinders St East?



• Dale Last’s proposed 6pm curfew got knocked on the head – presumably because someone with some smarts at the meeting pointed out that to do so would in all probability be illegal under Human Rights and/or Anti-discrimination legislation – especially as it presumably wouldn’t apply to the drunk whitefellas roaming Flinders St East and filling up the coffers of the club and pub owners at all hours of the night and morning.



• There are apparently about 60 rough sleepers in the Town - from my understanding, about the same number there were about five years ago (and probably well before that). Not exactly the “burgeoning” issue that The Bully likes to beat up.



• There was no detail provided about housing responses to the needs of the rough sleepers – perhaps the one response that would get this group “out-of-sight-out-of-mind” as our civic leaders so desperately want.

Unbelievable!

"I have said publicly that 1967, when the Australian people voted to give this Parliament an opportunity to assist Aboriginal people, was the worst thing that's happened for Aboriginal people in history - it's been downhill ever since".

Wilson "Iron Bar" Tuckey this morning.  Full report here.

The label below says it all!

Don't forget

Don't forget to check-out Monique Bond's excellent blog on the proceedings of the 2nd Inquest into the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee here.

And, by the way, who thought that Hurley's "apology" to Mulrunji's family was a cynical attempt to take the heat off and appear as the compassionate victim of circumstance?

Exactly who is the CMC protecting? Certainly not Mulrunji's dignity or memory

Readers are no doubt aware of the current/new Coroner's Inquiry into the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee at the hands (and knees and feet) of Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley in the Palm Island watch house on November 19, 2004 - a bit over half of my son's lifetime ago.

While, other than to point to this excellent recent summary of the history by Jeff Waters, a Senior Correspondent for the ABC's Australia Network television news service, I will (probably) reserve comment until the results of the current inquiry are released.

BUT, in the meantime, I would remind readers of the scandalous and never-ending delay in the release of the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission’s probe into “the dodgy police investigation into the death” – an inquiry that started (as best as I can find) in December 2004 – that’s 5 years and 3 months ago.

It certainly wouldn’t have taken the CMC over 5 years if it had been Chris Hurley who had died on the watch house floor that night!

I recommend following Monique Bond who is blogging on the current hearing.

See also my earlier post here and my racism taged posts here