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And the ARIA goes to… constitutional recognition!

Andrew Hewett and Jacqueline Phillips

by Andrew Hewett and Jacqueline Phillips

30 Nov 12:21pm

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Filed under: Constitution, Constitutional Recognition, Indigenous Affairs, Law, Politics

54 comments

Last night, ground-breaking band Yothu Yindi was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

Music changes the world - Yothu Yindi and Dan Sultan at the ARIAs last night

Their music has had a huge impact in raising public consciousness of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

It’s fitting that they seized the opportunity – being recognised by the music industry – to talk about the importance of Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

It’s perhaps ironic that the music and sporting industries are increasingly recognising the great contribution made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but our Constitution does not.

After all, it is our founding document, or as a former Attorney-General said, the birth certificate of our nation. But there’s a growing movement of people, including musicians, who would like to see that changed.

From the American civil rights movement in the ’60s, to the UK’s Rock Against Racism in the 1970s and the global phenomenon of Live Aid in the ’80s, music has played an integral role in giving people a voice and building momentum for social change.

Martin Luther King talked of the freedom songs playing ‘a strong and vital role in our struggle’.

Earlier this month, a series of concerts was held throughout Australia to promote awareness of the need for recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australian Constitution.

Gurindji man and rock hero Dan Sultan headlined, and thousands attended gigs in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Fremantle.

Only a few gigs, sure, but they may well herald the start of music playing a role in the emerging movement for Constitutional change.

The rich tradition of political activism in music in Australia often goes unrecognised.

Perhaps the best known example that has stood the test of time is the song From Little Things Big Things Grow, written by Paul Kelly and Aboriginal artist Kev Carmody.

And there is a neat congruence here - Dan Sultan is a Gurindji man and a descendant of Vincent Lingiari, the leader who fought for land rights in that famous song.

But there are other examples too - the aforementioned Yothu Yindi, Archie Roach, Midnight Oil and The Herd all have given voice to their political and social views in their music.

John Butler and Missy Higgins are strong supporters of the Close the Gap campaign for Indigenous health equality. 

Powderfinger and Silverchair toured the nation in 2007 in support of reconciliation.

Whether or not you believe music has the power to change lives or even change the world, it’s hard to deny the power of music to create awareness about important issues and to unify people around a common cause.

The Rock for Recognition concerts were part of the wider campaign towards a referendum to change the Constitution to recognise Australia’s First Peoples, protect their cultures and heritage, and remove the power to discriminate on the basis of race.

So why has this movement come about now?

Put simply, it’s time. Momentum has been building for the past few years to put this right.

In failing to recognise the First Peoples in the Constitution, Australia lags behind comparative countries.

And while racial discrimination is no longer accepted in our community, workplaces and daily lives, parts of the Constitution still permit laws that discriminate on the basis of race.  Our founding document needs to be updated to reflect modern Australia, not the Australia of 1901 with the values and ideas of that time.

Australia’s First Peoples have been calling for this change for many years. The changes proposed have the power to go beyond symbolism and to have a real and meaningful impact on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Together with the Close the Gap campaign - of which Oxfam and ANTaR are members and which aims to achieve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality - Constitutional Recognition has attracted bi-partisan political support.

Our goal is to ensure that support is maintained and public pressure will play a key role. Ultimately, it’s people power that will get this over the line.

Doing so will say a lot about who we are.  It will help us walk together towards a unified, reconciled nation. 

We know change is possible. In 1967, the overwhelming majority of Australians voted in a referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as part of the Australian population.

Now, this generation has a chance to do something great for our nation’s future.

The Rock for Recognition concerts this month, and the honour bestowed on Yothu Yindi last night, represent small steps on a longer journey, but history tells us that ‘from little things big things grow’.

Rock for Recognition was organised by ANTaR and Oxfam Australia, in association with the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and YouMeUnity.

Comments on this post close at 8pm AEST.

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54 comments

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    • maria says:

      11:31am | 30/11/12

      And the ARIA goes to… constitutional recognition!

      I like the title because our democratic rights goes to….. after each election and “s”“t happens” and we are the ones who have to dance under that.

      Reply

    • KH says:

      11:31am | 30/11/12

      No specific group should be singled out in the consitution, I don’t care who they are or what they are whining about.  The consitution should apply equally to all Australians and should be framed in such a manner that it does not imply special treatment or otherwise for any group - ethnic or otherwise.

      Reply

    • subotic isn't your mate says:

      12:18pm | 30/11/12

      Australia’s First Peoples have been calling for this change for many years. The changes proposed have the power to go beyond symbolism and to have a real and meaningful impact on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

      And when everyone, no matter what their color, lifestyle preference OR when they got “here” gets treated the same way, no matter what, then I’ll think about change too.

      Until then, until real revolution stirs in the hearts of Joe Citizen to change our country from a “she’ll be rite mate” culture to one were we are indeed free to be ourselves, encourage inclusion and free to engage in open, frank and unpopular discourse, it’s pretty much business as usual.

      And it’ll never be rite. 

      Maaaaaate….

    • Lauren says:

      01:38pm | 30/11/12

      But the constitution doesn’t apply equally to all Australians. It was written with the firm belief that Aboriginal Australians were a disappearing people. Aboriginal people were and are not recognised as the original owners of this land, they were considered fauna. Changing the constitution is about admitting past wrongs and healing.  Whether you like it or not they were here first. They have lost their culture, thier languages and much of their land, surely we can manage this. Yes I know, I’m a bleeding heart lefty, but you have to admit it’s true. Unless your a Pauling Hanson worshipper and you like rewriting history.

    • Wayne Kerr says:

      02:18pm | 30/11/12

      Give me a break Lauren.  They may have been here first but history is riddled with nations conquering and taking other nations over without a need to include them within constitutions.  Add to that the progress that has been brought to this country after white settlement.  I just don’t buy they were the “original owners” and that they deserve special rights or considerations.  Progress or perish.

    • Tim says:

      03:04pm | 30/11/12

      Lauren,
      The constitution is meant to be the primary law document for our country. It shouldn’t be used for PC platitudes and feel good statements.

      It should be used to unite us, not divide us which is what special mention of anyone would do.

    • PW says:

      03:09pm | 30/11/12

      No-one owns the land. The aborigines, like the Europeans, came here from somewhere else, the only difference being that it happened longer ago.

      It’s nice to give Yothu Yindi some recognition, but I bet they’d prefer that they sold a few records.

    • PJ says:

      03:25pm | 30/11/12

      Community Leader Monk and Amnesty International’s claim that the Gillard Government Indigenous policies in the NT were like ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ still sings in my ears.

    • Tim says:

      11:32am | 30/11/12

      “It’s perhaps ironic that the music and sporting industries are increasingly recognising the great contribution made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but our Constitution does not.”

      I can’t remember our constitutoin recognising the great contribution of any other races either. How about them Irish? or Chinese? I love Greek food, what about them?

      We should remove the possibly racist parts of the constitution.

      We should not then turn around and add further racist parts.

      No race should ever get special mention.

      Reply

    • subotic says:

      12:20pm | 30/11/12

      But, it’s like, people’s negative attitudes towards aboriginals is really ingrained.

      True story - I was on a train the other day, aboriginal guy gets on the train, and within minutes everyone gets really uncomfortable with him.

      People start whispering, one lady actually left and went to another carriage, and people didn’t even try to disguise their negative attitude towards him.

      The fact that he lit up a cigarette in the carriage probably didn’t help his cause none….

    • Rose says:

      01:19pm | 30/11/12

      Maybe he thought that if he was going to be treated like shit anyway he may as well give people a reason to bitch….

    • AdamC says:

      11:42am | 30/11/12

      “It’s perhaps ironic that the music and sporting industries are increasingly recognising the great contribution made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but our Constitution does not.”

      Well, to be fair, our Constitution does not recognise the contribution made by any specific ethnicity. I do not see that as a bad thing.

      As for Yothu Yindi, whatever happened to them between the late eighties and today? I remember their song ‘Treaty’ being popular when I was a kid, but did they do anything else?

      BTW, why is Constitutional recognition now the objective rather than ‘treaty, yeah; treaty now’?

      Reply

    • Levi says:

      12:01pm | 30/11/12

      Careful Adam, you will really rile up the left with comments like that. I like forward to the constitution recognising the contribution of white people to sport, music, and civilisation in general. Especially Anglo-Saxon and Celtics, whether Protestants or Catholic. It’s only fair isn’t it?

      I seriously don’t see the point in all this. What is it going to change? All it does is give some shiny-bum public servants more money to waste.

    • Bear says:

      12:39pm | 30/11/12

      @Levi you really have no idea you people do you? What did he say that would file up the left? Your ideas on what the left think are clueless . Because the hard right are mostly clueless about everything. They think they know it all but they hate thinking. Kind of ironic don’t you think!? Oh wait, I guess not.

    • Ohcomeon says:

      01:03pm | 30/11/12

      YY were never a good band. The popular version of Treaty is a remix, the original is pretty average. There are much much more accomplished Aboriginal bands than YY, I never understood why they got so much promotion.

    • Mahhrat says:

      11:55am | 30/11/12

      Am I right in interpreting that this article first supports a specific group of people to be singled out in our constitution, and then complains that specific groups can be discriminated against thanks to interpretations of the constitution?

      Reply

    • Markus says:

      12:12pm | 30/11/12

      Of course Constitutional Recognition would have bipartisan support. Such a move would be the pinnacle of appearing to do something without actually doing something, superceding even the national apology from a few years back.

      On a side note, I am kinda sick of the use of the word equality in campaigning.
      No longer satisfied to just raise awareness of a social issue where improvement can be made, the word ‘equality’ now gets thrown in to every campaign to imply that the issue is the result of some sort of discrimination, be it active, passive, or the completely imaginary kind.

      Reply

    • I hate pies says:

      12:19pm | 30/11/12

      Is Dan Sultan the coolest man in Australian music?

      Singling out Aboriginal people in the constitution does nothing but reinforce the view that white people and black people are different. It’s not a good thing

      Reply

    • subotic has no underwear on says:

      01:03pm | 30/11/12

      I’d swear some redheaded sheila from Ipswich came out a few years back with that whole “We should all be treated equal” crap and got herself publically beat down the likes I haven’t seen, even in openly discriminatory countries!

      Hell, these days even America is less discriminatory than Australia.

      Aboriginal prime minister anyone?

      Mormon Aboriginal prime minister?

      I know, rite…..

    • shirley says:

      01:25pm | 30/11/12

      Indigenous Australians are the first owners of Australia. 40,000 years of history makes them different from us. It is that simple. European and Anglo Australians are people who have been here the next longest, so have rights over and above new migrants. All people are equal in their inherent human rights, but accrued rights, ideas, and behaviours are different - therefore cultures are different. It is that simple. It is not racism to say so.  That is the way the world has always been ordered and always will be.

    • Hobart says:

      01:48pm | 30/11/12

      @Symbotic Pauline Hanson also said that black Africans are bringing aids to Australia, all Muslims are terrorists and all Asians are stealing our jobs. It is interesting to note that she only ever singled out the groups that look different to her. It is not that difficult to see why people had a problem with Pauline surely. But then you conservatives do think that freedom of speech gives people the right to be as offensive as they like don’t you.

    • I hate pies says:

      01:54pm | 30/11/12

      Yes Shirley, cultures are different, but that’s not a reason to delineate in our constitution.
      And, most Aboriginal people were born into a modern westernised culture; they are more atune to the modern world than to the previous primitive world that Aboriginal people lived in.
      The attitude that because they were here first, and therefore are somehow different or special perpetuates the myth that they are owed something by white people and helps to perpetuate poor outcomes for their people.
      By the way, they didn’t “own” Australia; it was a different relationship. And there was no such thing as Aboriginal “countries”.

    • shirely says:

      02:24pm | 30/11/12

      Nice try Pies - but so easily refuted. I don’t see Indigenous people as the noble savage. That argument is getting tired now mainly used by academics and untrained commentators - I’m working class common sense. You are clearly ignorant of a well -established body of international law and domestic law. Do you bring any legal training or expertise here? Relevantly, all legal rights accrue on the basis of cultural expression over time. The HC Mabo judgment recognised what has been settled law throughout history. Australian Indigenous people were held to have land rights by our High Court in Mabo because of their ties to land and expression of culture over time. Full stop. That is the law of the land. Hard nosed realism.

    • Borderer says:

      03:31pm | 30/11/12

      @Shirely
      Indigenous Australians are the first owners of Australia.

      I think you mean, their ancestors were the first owners, the aboriginal people, you know the living breathing ones, are here at the same time as the rest of us, they face similar problems to any white, asian, African, middle Eastern Australian.

    • I hate pies says:

      03:59pm | 30/11/12

      And what’s land rights got to do with recognition in the constitution?

    • DexteR says:

      12:24pm | 30/11/12

      This is obviously a very important issue and will change so many things just like after the PM said sorry to the Stolen Generation.  Oh wait a minute…

      Reply

    • Rose says:

      01:32pm | 30/11/12

      I have no doubt that the apology didn’t change anything for you, but for many Indigenous people it made a significant difference. That it hasn’t been followed up with real change in living standards and better policy is shameful but it is also a separate issue.
      What the apology did was acknowledge the pain caused by Government policy to Indigenous Australians. It acknowledged the Stolen Generation, it acknowledged that the treatment of Indigenous Australians was wrong and that Australia as a nation understands and regrets the damage caused to Indigenous Australians following settlement. After John Howard dismissing that pain, and even denying it as some sort of ‘black armband view of history’ it was absolutely correct that the incoming government do whatever it could do to undo the damage that denial of Indigenous suffering had done. to Reconciliation.
      You cannot move forward and repair the rift if you don’t acknowledge what caused the rift in the first place. Unfortunately the ALP did not end the Intervention and is continuing on a path to creating a new, probably deeper, rift.
      Paul Keating’s Redfern address and the Apology were significant orations that, if used to inspire more practical work,could have done much to repair the damage, but unfortunately, they haven’t been.

    • I hate pies says:

      01:57pm | 30/11/12

      I’m looking forward to the apology from England to the people that were dragged away from their families, but in boats and sent all the way around the other side of the world to a foreign place to never see their families again; mostly for minor crimes. They were kept incarcerated, whipped and made to work in squalid conditions. These people were persecuted by their own. Their descendents are owed an apology.

    • hammy says:

      02:10pm | 30/11/12

      i hate pies,

      I don’t think I will ever recover from the pain of what happened to my generations before me.  Only compensation my ease my pain.

    • shirley says:

      12:49pm | 30/11/12

      As opposed to the post-modern relativist multicultural left, the traditional left support Indigenous rights. They know that the only civilised legal system is one that creates a hierarchy and recognises that those who have lived somewhere for longer and expressed their culture there, as Indigenous people have, acquire rights exercisbale against than those who come later. The traditional left are not cultural relativists. They recognise Indigenous peoples as traditional owners. They oppose cultural relativism and multiculturalism because it treats all cultures as equals thus denying the status of Indigenous people as traditional owners just as it denies mainstream Australians any right to put their national culture above recent imported cultures on the basis that their hard work and taxes made this country wealthy and gave it its modern identity.

      Reply

    • shirley says:

      01:07pm | 30/11/12

      Hippie nonsense. The Rock Against Racism movement was run by the Socialist Workers Party that spit over the rise of Islamism in its ranks. Its founding member was a Jew who recognised anti-Semitism when he saw it. Galloway’s ‘Respect Party’ that took it over, supports Islamism in its project to destroy the West and install sharia law. Madonna recently made a Youtube video that rejoiced in Obama as the First Muslim president. She stopped wearing the burqa at her concerts as a sign of protest only when the Islamists threatened to attack her! What irony! Most of the Band Aid movement have established offshore tax havens so that they do not pay tax used to solve poverty they create their public image pretending to solve! Cat Stevens called for Salman Rushdie to be killed. And you want ordinary hard working common sense Ozzies to buy this bullshit?

      Reply

    • K^2 says:

      01:08pm | 30/11/12

      Honestly, I’m not sure why Aboriginals would WANT to be part of this shitty corrupt system.  Before we came along, sure they were subsistence living, but I bet they were happy, and they had a much closer affinity to nature, which our society just loves to destroy connections to land, and spirituality.  In fact, I doubt there is much value that was added to aboriginal society by us coming here and taking it all from them. 

      I have nothing against them wanting that, but .... why?

      Keep your aboriginal values and teachings and identity in-tact.  Why assimilate? It should be us, assimilating with the aboriginals, not the other way around.

      Reply

    • Wayne Kerr says:

      01:22pm | 30/11/12

      ” It should be us, assimilating with the aboriginals, not the other way around. “

      Nothing stopping you from doing that K^2 but if it’s all the same to you I ‘ll stick with the overall benefits that Western civilisation has given us.

    • hammy says:

      01:27pm | 30/11/12

      They want money, of course.

    • Testfest says:

      01:33pm | 30/11/12

      @K^2

      Hmm.. was this satire again? Hehehe.

    • K^2 says:

      01:38pm | 30/11/12

      Wayne the thing stopping me from doing that, is people like you that have material attachment and think our current way of living is actually living.

      What did you do today?  Wake up, maybe have a coffee and some breakfast, then where did you go, work?  To get paid a third of the money that you actually earned for someone else, and that pay you’ll use to buy more sh*t you don’t need.  Good luck with that.  Tonight you can sit back in your leather recliner, and rejoice that you have 2 days to reflect on life and enjoy your surroundings (although you’ll possibly just end up sitting in your loungeroom watching the test) after that, its back to work.  Its pretty close to zombie-ism.  Western society has plenty to learn yet.

      The other thing stopping me, is access to elders you can’t just arrive in a community, without the elders allowing it, and there aren’t many that do that - definately not in the cities.

    • K^2 says:

      01:43pm | 30/11/12

      @hammy - they didnt need money, before we arrived with it.

      They had “currency” but it wasnt what we have, and it wasn’t earned the way we earn it.  I can’t speak for aboriginals, but from my observations they don’t “value” money the same way we do at all.

    • PsychoHyena says:

      02:24pm | 30/11/12

      @K^2 you’re right, like a lot of nomadic cultures currency is trading goods and/or services for other goods and/or services.

      Something along the lines of someone who was proficient at making knives offering to make a knife for someone proficient at producing and working leather who would then provide the knife-maker with leather for strops, etc.

    • Wayne Kerr says:

      02:39pm | 30/11/12

      I’m sorry K^2 I don’t see how people like me are stopping you from doing anything. Unless I’m very much mistaken nobody is holding a gun to your head insisting that you use your computer or internet connected device to comment on the Punch or availing yourself to exactly the same things I do..  Look I get it, I would love to be financially independant enough to retire from society and be totally self sufficient but unfortunately that is just a fantasy.  The reality is life and society are the way they are and you either run with it and adapt to change as best you can or you get left behind.  As I say it is what it is and no amount of fantsising is going to change it so in the meantime I’ll just try and make the most out of my zombie like existence.

    • K^2 says:

      03:26pm | 30/11/12

      @Wayne - nobody is holding a gun to your head - oh really?  Go and try and declare yourself a sovereign state, see what happens then.

      But I see that you “get it” but in a way you don’t.  I think you can sympathise with my point, but I dont think you can quite empathise.

      You know, its quite possible to have a fusion of the two, and you’ll be surprised how little money you need to survive and still be comfortable, but not in our society which is set up as material identified, consumerist.  I was around before the interwebs was around, other than instant communication and easy access to whatever my mind dreams up, it doesnt really enrich my life as say - a sense of community would. (and I’m not talking about the fazeberk community or twatter)

      Fantasy?  Maybe, but only because majority of people are too attached to the materialist consumerist way which is so distracting that they wont (and cant afford to) pause to look at different ways.

    • Markus says:

      03:48pm | 30/11/12

      @K^2, subsistence living sucks. It is why every culture that has been able to move beyond it in the last 6000 years has done so.

      “What did you do today?  Wake up, maybe have a coffee and some breakfast, then where did you go, work?  To get paid a third of the money that you actually earned for someone else, and that pay you’ll use to buy more sh*t you don’t need.  Good luck with that.”

      It’s not perfect, sure, but it’s a hell of a lot better than “What did you do today? Track tonight’s dinner for 9 straight hours only to get attacked by a pack of wolves who claimed it first?”

      There are plenty of wild animals out there to hunt and live off out there if you want. Given that a lot are introduced species - camels, boars - there are probably more than there were 40,000 years ago.
      If you want to live a subsistence life with a more spiritual attachment to the land, you are free to do so.

    • Tim the Toolman says:

      01:11pm | 30/11/12

      Yes…more paper shuffling etc…will certainly fix systemic and cultural issues.  Do whatever you wish, it won’t make a difference.

      Reply

    • Trevor says:

      01:13pm | 30/11/12

      Hall of Fame?

      Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t Yothu Yindi a one hit wonder? Treaty is the only song I can remember.

      Savage Garden had more hits.

      Reply

    • hammy says:

      01:24pm | 30/11/12

      Right Trevor, but it’s PC to lower standards for everyone who is not a white male.

    • K^2 says:

      01:51pm | 30/11/12

      I’m correcting you - you’re wrong.

      YY had a bunch of albums, which earned them international recognition.
      They also had a political voice in the 80’s which did see change affected and recognition gained in australia especially in parliament.
      There have been other aboriginal bands, but none that have been as politically centered as YY was - these the reasons they are going into the hall of fame.  Personally, I never got into their music (I never really got into midnight oil either) but I recall their impact at the time and can appreciate their recognition and that YY might again, be catalyst for further recognition is actually a great thing .

    • shirley says:

      01:50pm | 30/11/12

      We are not stupid. We know that putting in a constitutional prohibition on racism will be used to make sure that sharia law cannot be stopped. If no legislation that is ‘racist’ can be passed by our democratic Parliaments, then the internationalist judiciary only has to, by creative statutory interpretation, equate Islam with race or ethnicity (which they have done so already), and hey presto religions are now covered. They did that in the Two Danny’s case. Read the judgment! Do you think we would betray ourselves and our Indigenous brothers and sisters by allowing such nonsense! Never! Yes, to first owner constitutional recognition. No, to broad anti-racism Constitutional amendments that will be used by Islamists to introduce legal pluralism and sharia law. You must think ordinary Ozzies are stupid. Mad hippies and post-modern fake leftists will never separate us from our Indigenous brothers and sisters. When we reconcile we do so in private and it has deep meaning, not some pantomime show for fakes.

      Reply

    • andy says:

      03:01pm | 30/11/12

      As Dan Sultan said yesterday “Constitutional recognition is not a left or right wing issue, it’s not a black or white or a political issue…” But don’t rely on him, there’s multi-party political support for constitutional recognition (probably one of the only issues both parties can agree on at the moment). Many of the issues raised here are addressed in the Panel report on this released earlier in the year. It’s worth having a look: http://www.youmeunity.org.au/final-report

      Reply

    • expat says:

      03:43pm | 30/11/12

      Put it to referendum and see if the people want it..

      I would put my money on it being voted against by a vast majority, but see what happens.

      Reply

    • Rick says:

      05:07pm | 30/11/12

      Referendum what’‘s that?

      see what happens when democracy is inexistant

      CHOP CHOP CHOP is the new wave in free speech.

    • Trevor says:

      03:44pm | 30/11/12

      If the aboriginals thnk they have it bad, try being of Prussian descent as I am.

      An entire nation turned into a Russian potato field at the stroke of a pen!

      At least the aborigines still live in their homeland.

      Reply

    • Craig says:

      03:58pm | 30/11/12

      There is no way constitutional reform will happen under the current government. They have botched communications on every issue and policy they have introduced.

      And ditto the opposition, who have no clue of how to communicate beyond ‘no’.

      So sorry to both Indigenous Australians and to Local Councils. Neither of you are getting constitutional reform in the next six years at least.

      However if you wait a little longer out political class is likely to collapse under their own rhetoric and Australia will be able to rewrite both our constitution and our electoral processes. You’re in with a real shot when that occurs.

      Reply

    • Markus says:

      04:18pm | 30/11/12

      It is a shame, because a Referendum to remove the clause in the Constitution that allows the government to make laws based on race is one that would otherwise be passed with a comfortable majority.

      Instead, it has been roped in with points such as the above to have specific recognition of the Aboriginal people written into the Constitution, which are doomed to fail.

    • Fair Australia says:

      04:26pm | 30/11/12

      It is shameful that migrated Australian’s cannot even acknowledge the First Australians . When the constitution was written First Australians were considered flora and fauna

      Now that we have a seat on the security council and are being so pious we should get our own house in order

      Reply

    • Bryn says:

      05:12pm | 30/11/12

      I cannot see why one single ethnic group get special recognition over another.

      I was taught that all people are equal.

      What about Chinese immigrants, veitnamese, Italians the list is endless they to have contributed massively to the countries success.

      If this reform goes ahead I would strongly consider placing a claim that my ethnic group (Australian) get recognised as well as the 2nd Australians

      I have no idea of what my ethnic origins are, I can guess by my skin colour but adopting a one group is more special than another is clearly institutionalised racism.

      Reply
 
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The Punch is moving house

Good morning Punchers. After four years of excellent fun and great conversation, this is the final post…

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

by Hannah Harborow

122

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

I have had some close calls, one that involved what looked to me like an AK47 pointed my way, followed…

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

by Sarrah Le Marquand

251

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

In a world in which there are still people who subscribe to the vile notion that certain victims of sexual…

Nosebleed Section

choice ringside rantings

From: Hasbro, go straight to gaol, do not pass go

Tim says:

They should update other things in the game too. Instead of a get out of jail free card, they should have a Dodgy Lawyer card that not only gets you out of jail straight away but also gives you a fat payout in compensation for daring to arrest you in the first place. Instead of getting a hotel when you… [read more]

From: A guide to summer festivals especially if you wouldn’t go

Kel says:

If you want a festival for older people or for families alike, get amongst the respectable punters at Bluesfest. A truly amazing festival experience to be had of ALL AGES. And all the young "festivalgoers" usually write themselves off on the first night, only to never hear from them again the rest of… [read more]

Light weight

Gentle jabs to the ribs

Superman needs saving

Superman needs saving

Can somebody please save Superman? He seems to be going through a bit of a crisis. Eighteen months ago,… Read more

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