Indigenous Studies for All Australian Students

Petition:

Category: Education

Region: Australia

Target: House of Representatives

Description/History:

With the culture and history of the traditional custodians of Australia somewhat neglected since colonisation, it is now time to address this imbalance.

Comment:

When I went to school, Australian history began with an Englishman putting a flag into terra nullius.
It took many years of research to come to the conclusion that Australia's recent history is only a small part of this beautiful, ancient land.
Don't make future generations work as hard as I did to discover the truth, make it part of our culture.
Many thanks,
A

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/indigenous-studies-for-all-australian-students.html

To Stephen Smith

Dear Minister,

I'm currently living in Taiwan and have been greatly disturbed by recent media reports about Chinese police reaction to peaceful demonstrations in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has publicly called upon the Chinese Government to provide information on the welfare of the detained Buddhist monks and to facilitate access by international human rights monitors to Tibetan areas.

Has the Australian Government done the same? It would be a shame to fall behind the USA whose Human Rights record leaves so much to desired.

What can we do to encourage the Chinese Government to respect the human rights of every Tibetan?

Also, with the Beijing Olympics only months away, can we use this rare opportunity to bring about some real improvement in the lives of the Tibetan people.

I look forward to receiving your reply as this situation is happening directly on my doorstep.

Yours sincerely


A

Write to Mr Smith:

Stephen.Smith.MP@aph.gov.au

Happy Invasion Day

Why did Rolf Harris want his Kangaroo tied down?

Postal Vote

Well, the election has been and gone, Mr Keenan kept his seat yet there is still no response to my letter - I will let you know.

For those unfamiliar with Australian voting - check out our papers:


Number 1-9 for your preference in the House of Reprehensibles

Tick on box above the line in the Senate for the party to choose your preferences or 1-59 below the line to choose your own.

Letter to Mr Keenan

The following letter I sent to my Federal MP.

I will let you know his response.


November, 2007

To: Michael Keenan
Honourable Member for Stirling

Dear Sir,

You have been my voice in the federal parliament for 3 years. Now it is time to renew your contract and I would like to check some of your Key Performance indicators. By this, I mean, have you represented my interests at a federal level.

Therefore, I would like to ask you a few questions on which I can base my decision:

1. What have you done to make life in the city of Stirling ecologically sustainable? For example: subsidising renewable energy.

2. What have you done to reduce Western Australia’s contribution to global warming (and thus ensuring that the houses along the Mitchell Freeway don’t become water-front properties)?

3. What have you done to ensure the release of refugees from the “detention centres” in Western Australia? They are always welcome to stay at our place, if accommodation is an issue.

4. What are you doing towards creating a stable Middle-East, which the current administration helped to (further) destabilize?

5. What are you doing towards reconciling the interests of the Aboriginal Community with the rest of Australian Society? For example: perhaps moving to amend the constitution to recognize the indigenous people are the rightful custodians of the land might be a good start.

I did take the time to review you website/s in search of answers to these questions, but they seemed more concerned with crime and safety. This is not a major issue for me, having lived in the City of Stirling for 20 years, and never once been the victim of a serious crime. However, if this is a problem for the majority of residents my question is this:

What are you doing to address the causes of crime? For example: the economic factors, social environment and family structures.

If you could let me know as soon as possible it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

A

Similar letters are being send to the Labour and Greens candidates.

We will see...

Election Coming!

Parting Thoughts...

It was good to be back in Oz for a while.

One thing that had changed which I found a little disturbing,
was a certain ugly brand of nationalism.

I would not have considered Australia to be a nationalistic nation,
not from what I remember anyway.

Australians seemed to be quite self deprecating,
more than willing to laugh at themselves and their foibles.

I can't remember there being so many Australian flags,
especially outside private residences, let along on shirts, hats and bikinis.

It used to be that, if you wanted to show national pride,
you were more likely to wear green and gold, or fly a boxing kangaroo flag.

Red, white and blue;
has unpleasant connotations.

It was not long ago that we voted to become a republic,
to ditch the queen and change the flag.

What happened to this spirit of Independence?
Since when did Australians become proud of another nations colours on ours?

I think we can look towards the current regime.
A regime that supports the unilateral invasion of sovereign nations.
A regime that incarcerates those seeking asylum.

Throughout history,
Nationalism has been used as a justification for immoral acts.
Is that what we are seeing today?

na-tion-al-ism: noun
1. the desire by a group of people who share the same race, culture, language, etc, to form an independent country
2. (sometimes disapproving) a feeling of love for and pride in your country; a felling that your country is better than any other

pat-ri-ot-ism: noun
love of your country and willingness to defend it

A S Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, Sixth Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003.