A difficult problem with no simple answers
Grog bans in Aborigine communities are proving difficult to manage.
Consider next year when I take my borthers-in-law on a trip to the Cape – are we allowed to take a couple of cartons and a bottle of rum through Bamaga. No! If we do we are subject to fines of up to $75,000 which definitely exceeds the $48.00 I paid for a six pack of rum and cola at Woolgoroo recently.
Stories in the 4WD community tell of a drop-off of tourists at Bamaga due to this problem.
Small wonder.
I would think a blanket ban is not the way to go. If two or three guys in a 4WD have a couple of cartons and a Bundy rum bottle in their vehicle then authorities must be able to adjudge this as ‘for personal consumption’.
Conversely, if a vehicle is found to have 50 cartons, a couple case of Bundy rum and a pallet of Monkeys blood then the same authorities should be able to throw the grog runners in goal and confiscate the vehicle, grog and any cash.
Simple enough to me but the blanket ban will stop people going to the Cape in droves which will impact heavily on the commerce at Bamaga.
The problem is grog running, not a tourist having supplies to allow for a couple of beers at the end of the day.
Grog bans are not working for other reasons. When we recently drove down the Arnhem Highway we passed a small Aborigine community, the last heading south, and as we drove on we passed dozens of locals walking back to town. Gathering yams? one suggested; hunting? said another.
Nothing so noble. A few kilometers south of the town we came across a sit-down area strewn with literally hundreds of empty stubbies.
A rubbish tip of unworkable laws. True, the community was grog-free but the people weren’t.
Another point generally unknown down south is that Kava is not counted as grog. An Aborigine leader in Nuhulunbuy told me a local Fijian who had been resident in town for years had started importing Kava as an answer. He now wished he hadn’t.
Locals taking to home brew as an answer bypass the tried and true recipe of bottling then leaving to mature for a month or two. They drink it that day and suffer stomach poisoning as a result.
Government workers – teachers and public servants are denied a drink after work or at the end of a hard week. I would think we could lock up the grog runners and allow other non indigenous people to drink if they do so within the state law.
Uncategorized
Some years back (Well OK..a lot of years back) I was a Company Commander in a battalion and had as my CSM a tried and trusted Warrant Officer who shall remain nameless. He was good if not a little hampered by a short fuse.
Some time after this appointment my CSM found his wife in flagrante delecto and stabbed her to death. He picked up his kids, took them to his parents and duly reported to the police.
He received life.
In todays Australian Amanda Banks has an article (no link) about an Indigenous woman who found her husband in flagrante delecto and stabbed him to death.
She received a suspended sentence.
The difference?
Tribal Law is involved.
Can some enlightened reader explain the rationale behind this. Nothing warm and fuzzy please – just legal facts.
Uncategorized
GREG SHERIDAN sounds a warning in
todays Australian
The Greens are a menace.
THIS election will probably see the emergence of the Greens as Australia’s most important third party. This will be a sad and a bad day for our political culture, for the Greens represent the triumph of extremism over moderation, of the paranoid style over commonsense, and the flight from that civic responsibility which characterises a mature polity.
and;
It is hard to believe 1million Australians really support the anti-growth, anti-modern prejudices of the Greens.
There has been many a blog article about the Greens stupid anti-Australian policies over the last couple of days and the vision of Bob Green on TV defending his party’s lapse into another universe has done little to settle minds.
It has even been suggested on some sites that this man may have the balance following the election.
I can understand the Socialist Alliance type people loving his anti US/Australian/economy/defence/commerce/jobs stands but surely they would only number tens of thousands at the best. These are self-indulgent hate voters and every society has them.
So where do the million voters come from? It appears there are a lot of people who vote Green because they think it’s a vote for the ecology, for the trees in Tasmania, for the cuddly Koala, for the hump back whale or for whatever species or lifestyle that has been misrepresented as being under threat.
They think the Greens are an answer to these problems.
They are not.
They are simply dangerous.
The Greens would end the US alliance by banning the passage of nuclear-powered ships through our waters. On domestic economic policy they would impose death duties, raise every form of tax they mention, but simultaneously ensure full employment while cutting working hours but not pay. All this self-contradictory nonsense is literally an insult to our intelligence and, worse, a degradation of our politics.
Thankfully, they will never get the keys to the treasury but they can still be very dangerous to our economy and way of life. Think very carefully about your protest vote. If you hate Howard – vote for Latham. If you think Latham’s a fool – vote Howard and in the Senate vote for an independant but if you have any hope for Australia don’t vote for the Greens.
I note
Tim Dunlop and
John Quiggin don’t see the Greens as a threat but they also think Latham is a winner and judging by their comment sections, they have attracted a goodly bunch of like thinkers. Fine, but I detect some heads in the sand at their sites. Seemingly a well educated lot, particularly Tim and John – I trust they’re not just academics.
Go read for a different view and be sure to check the comments. I think most of them sort of back the Greens only because it may hurt Howard but at least one reader, Gibbo, thinks the way I do when he says;
You folks don’t handle scrutiny very well do you?
Finally people are being made aware that the greens have nothing to do with saving whales and cuddling koalas. They are quite simply another tired incarnation of the communist party with a few anarchists thrown in for luck.
I am telling everyone I know to go and read their policies for themselves.
The greens go well when their exposure is limited to bob browns’ 30 second sound bites but when you come under real scrutiny, you fold and start crying foul. I vote Liberal but I’m not campaigning on that front. I’m pushing “anyone but the greens” and man it’s fun.
Which explains my headline
Watermelons – Green outside and red inside
Gibbo’s advice is sound. Go check the
Greens website and make up your own mind.
Yesterday the Courier Mail carried a story about an Army Major making false claims to SAS service and being otherwise free with the truth
about his service in Iraq
The story was filed by Michael McKenna and Ian McPhedran who, if they can’t get the small points right, most probably have trouble with the gist of the whole article.
They report;
Mr Withycombe, a serving major with the First Battalion at Enoggera Barracks….
That’s Major Withycombe as he is still serving and 1RAR are Townsville based, not Enoggera.
Yeh. I know – small point but I’m annoyed by journo’s getting facts wrong when dealing with the Army and if the can’t get the small things right…..
They go on to report;
But senior Australian Defence Force sources last night dismissed Mr Withycombe’s claims, detailed in his campaign brochures and in claims he made in an interview with The Courier-Mail.
They said the claims were either untrue or grossly exaggerated.
Who are the senior Australian Defence Force sources? I ask this because in todays
Australian an article by David Nason (can’t find a link) points out;
Major Withycombe was backed up by the Defence Department wich issued a statement to the National Party saying the Army had no issue with any of the claims made in Major Withycombe’s campaign brochure
Who’s right- David Nason or the two CM chaps? I don’t know as I don’t have all the info but I think it’s a reasonable question.
The Socialist Alliance are planning protest meetings and marches to try and get rid of Howard. I’m all for it, the protests I mean, as I reckon they will have the reverse effect.
I can just see them now – dressed like left-over hippies – braids, beads, unkempt and unwashed appearance, spiked hair, mucuous dripping from nose rings, needle marks on every arm, spitting at police, throwing marbles under the hooves of police horses and screaming obscenities.
Take note of the times and places and stay away – we don’t need a typhus epidemic amongst people that matter.
End the lies Rallies
Socialist Alliance is helping build pre-election “End the Lies” rallies across Australia to protest against the Howard government’s contempt for the Australian people, and to add to the pressure on a possible incoming ALP government not to do the same.
Rally for the truth – Sunday before the elections
Sydney
1pm Town Hall. 0401 900 690; 0421 322 175
Melbourne
1.30pm State Library. 0438 869 790
Canberra
12 noon Garema Place. 0438 624 744
Perth
Venue TBA. (08) 9218 9608
Brisbane
1pm Roma St Forum, Saturday before the elections. 0418 715 803.
Hobart
12noon Rose Gardens. March to Parliament House, Saturday before the elections. 0419 406 875, 0423 764 896
Be warned – stay at home – watch on tv and count the votes going Howards way. Swinging voters will say – If these freaks hate Howard then he’s got my vote.
Metal Storm, started up by an Australian but now an International ballistics company, will take the lead role in a US Navy program to develop a system to defeat incoming rocket propelled grenades
(RPGs).
?Increasingly, US and allied forces are finding themselves vulnerable to RPG attacks, which generally occur at short range and allow only a fraction of a second for a response.?
?We believe Metal Storm technology provides unique advantages to address the threat posed by RPGs. Importantly, this project will draw on the technology platforms already being developed by the company,
I first met the RPG2 and it’s bigger cousin, the RPG7 in Vietnam. Designed by the Russians, copied by the Chinese and other smaller countries with spare munitions factories and a hatred for us good guys, the RPG has been the bane of infantry life since it’s introduction to the battlefield. Hundreds of Australians and thousands of Americans still carry scars from the beast
The thought that an Austrlian born company is about to neutralize them pleases me immensly. And believe me, Metal Storm will do it.
Have a good look at the site – it is the future of warfare and policing and remember, the whole concept comes from the brilliant mind of a Aussie, who at the time of his brainwave, was manager of the Woolworths store at Bundaberg, Queensland.
Bundaberg, the soldier’s friend. The source of
Bundaberg Rum and now an anti RPG weapon.
Love it.
Watching the Senate on TV last night I can’t see much hope for Labor. They spent their few remaining hours forcing the establishment of a Senate Enquiry into what Scrafton, Howard, General Whatshisface and Commodore Somebodyorother said about people in the water or not in the water or they jumped or were pushed in or….for Gods sake get on with it.
Australia has.
As John Howard said;
“I’m simply saying my recall is different and I’m also saying that what people remember about that issue is that we stopped the boats, we were very strong on border protection, and the Labor Party was weak.”
Meanwhile
Terry Hicks is still fighting for his son and that’s fair enough from a paternal point of view but to say;
It would take a change of government to have terror suspect David Hicks returned to Australia for trial
is only stating the obvious and emphasising the fact that Labor are soft on security.
He goes on to say;
“The Howard Liberal government is just not standing by their citizens.”
and in doing so misses the point. The Howard Liberal government i
s standing by it’s citizens. It’s protecting them from attested/enlisted, trained and deployed Terrorists.
On
lateline last night Tony Jones managed to find someone to press the alarm bells by suggesting that terrorists may try and influence the Australian election as they did in Spain.
TONY JONES: (Talking about the Spanish attacks that ended in Spanish withdrawal from Iraq) Do you suspect the same thing would apply here in Australia?
We have a parallel federal election going on with the presidential election?
(Please say yes!)
RICHARD CLARKE: Well, Australia is a bit more like the Spanish case where you have one party saying, “Get out,” and the other party staying the course and the party in power is the one wanting to stay the course.
That’s much closer to the situation that we saw in Spain and so you could understand how Al Qaeda or some terrorist group related to Al Qaeda might think it could affect the outcome.
TONY JONES: Does it make it more dangerous, do you suppose, having a political position like that, opposed political positions like that leading up to an election? (Please say yes so that I can leave the message with my viewers that a vote for Howard will result in a terrorist attack on Australian soil)
RICHARD CLARKE: Well, I think it opens the possibility of some terrorist group related to Al Qaeda wanting to do something which otherwise wouldn’t be the case in an Australian election.
So, oddly enough, I’m saying that I don’t think Al Qaeda will try to affect the US election, but because the Australian election is so similar to what happened in Spain, I would think the possibility does exist here.
If anyone sees any similarity between Australia and Spain then they are ignoring a couple of hundred years of history.
In fact, I reckon the last thing Tony Jones wants is any terrorist activity during the election. It will only emphasise Labor’s soft underbelly on anything other than unions and free books for all and the voters would look to the party with a strong policy on defence – the Coalition.
Update:
TREASURER Peter Costello has raised the spectre of a Madrid-like terrorist attack being mounted by al-Qaeda to disrupt the election campaign.
That’s funny. The way I
read the article Costello didn’t raise the spectre – a journalist did and Costello answered.
As in;
When asked if Australians were at increased risk during the election campaign, Mr Costello said:….
It is clear certain elements of the media want to raise the issue and try and frighten the populace.
We don’t frighten easy and when we are, it is because of some fact – not some journalist’s answer wish-list.
The battle is joined. John Howard has just called for the poll to be held on 9 October 2004. Lets hope that somewhere in the next 40 odd days Latham can come up with something more concrete than Lies, lies, lies and babies overboard.
Tell us how you are going to run the country Mark so we can see your shoddy maths. Tell us again how you and your left wing faction hate Bush and by extension, the US. Tell us again how Whitlam, the Great Ego and most dangerous PM we ever had, is your hero.
C’mon Mark – tell the people so they know how dangerous you are.
Gary of Gravatt.org fame pointed me to this letter re John Kerry.
It talks of American dead defamed by lies but is equally relevant from the Australian perspective.
This as a teaser;
It’s bad enough that we couldn’t mourn our dead then. Now we see the same man that stood over the open graves of our brothers and pissed on their bodies is back. This time he’s dug up those bodies and is standing on them to give himself the stature for high office.
Compassionate and eloquent, it sums up the feelings of Vietnam Vets very well.
Go read and try and imagine how we feel.
If you were the man who, in 1970, phoned the recently bereaved parents of a mate from my battalion and told them he deserved to die or the man in Adelaide who told me the dead of Long Tan deserved to die or the young women, who in 1971, ask me how many babies I had killed, or anyone who agreed with them then read the letter and look into your soul.
Thanks Gary.
I have some empathy with Terry Hicks, the father of David Hicks but none with David. Obviously I’m a harder and less gullible man than
* Niall who claims that Hicks appears to have maintained his sense of self,
despite the irrefutable claims of physical and mental abuse.
* Niall is still suffering from delusions of grandeur or paranoa or something that makes him deny other bloggers the abilty to permalink so just scroll down to The Fight Finally Begins – if you can be bothered.
Irrefutable?
1. incontrovertible, irrefutable, positive — (impossible to deny or disprove; “incontrovertible proof of the defendant’s innocence”; “proof positive”; “an irrefutable argument”)
Hicks himself claims to have been tortured. Well he would say that wouldn’t he.
This claim was backed up British detainees who claimed that;
… Hicks was denied medical attention for a hernia and interrogated more frequently than many other detainees after his capture in Afghanistan.
The three men also claimed they suffered systematic brutality and were kept in open cages in the sweltering Cuban heat during their detention at the US military base in Guantanamo.
Terry Hicks said his son’s abuse at Guantanamo was mental, not physical.
Aww diddums.
Cages in the open son, interrogated more than others, being spoken to in a nasty way. Just sounds like everyday life for an infantrymen to me.
So, four terrorists claim they were treated poorly and a couple of left-wing lawyers and the father of one of them parrot their claims and it’s irrefutable!
It is most probably irrefutable that Hicks was abused and torutured under the left wing rules that says if anyone says anything that makes the US look bad then it’s irrefutable.
I have some empathy for Terry Hicks but I have more empathy and a lot of sympathy for the thousands of victims of the Taliban and it’s cousin Al Qaeda.
I have no sympathy for David Hicks.
Nor does the Australian Public – believe me.
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