Dear availees, there's been a lot of discussion, disappointment, and more than a degree of disgust about 1) the whole concept/context of Australia Day, being 26th January, and supposedly a 'traditional' celebration of 'Australian values' commemorating the creation of 'modern Australia' when the First Fleet arrived in Sydney/Port Jackson in 1778, etc, and the First Nation Aboriginal people's experiences of that same event that has therefore come to be known as Invasion and/or Survival Day...this discourse involves changing the date to a more inclusive day away from actual the day of 'Invasion', the current date only used 'traditionally' since 1994...and 2) of the associated Australia Day Awards and how politicised they have become, and are they even relevant? etc...
Prime Minister Scott 'Scummo' Morrison has handled the situation with his usual empathy, intelligence, insight, and decorum, dismissing the First Nation's experience and denouncing calls to change the date, etc, stating that "it wasn't a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels either", and then, after being quite rightly mocked and pilloried for that bigotted stupidity, disingenuously half-trying to walk-back that crass stupidity with statements about how there's been some good stuff and some bad stuff for everybody involved...numerous times on this blog I've expressed my personal position on any and all issues involving First Nations Aboriginal people and the European occupation of Australia, etc...so here it is again...as a first generation White Australian, I acknowledge the life of luxury and privilege I have lived merely for being born White and a Man in a Stolen Land...and here's a great explanation of what's actually happened with 'Australia Day' that I've copied from Twitter/TikTok...***
A good yarn about Jan 26...Ahhh mate, it's the day that Captain Cook discovered Australia....Nahhh, it's not actually, that was in April 1770...Oh well, it was when Australia was first discovered by White people then...Well no, that was in 1606 , and you know there were people here for thousands of years before...Yeah, but it's when we became a Nation, we became Australia...Sorry, that was 1st of January 1901, and there were many First Nations here long before...Well mate, it's a bloody tradition alright, let me have my beers, beach, and barbie (bbq)...Well it's actually only been a national holiday since 1994, so it can't really be a tradition. But we have traditions here that date back over 60,000 years...
***sums it up pretty well...and I think it does support the idea that moving the date to something more appropriate is perfectly reasonable, and given the generational traumas associated with 26th January, it's something I believe 'we' should do...and before I get stuck into the 'Awards', please note that the Committee that decides these 'Awards' is not 'independent', they are chosen by Scott Morrison, and therefore has his influence all over them...
And The Award Goes To:...call me a tired, broken old cynic, but I find it very odd that all 4 major Australia Day Awards have gone to women, and that the major gong has gone to a young women, Grace Tame, who was groomed and raped by her high school teacher...under the relevant legislation, the Tasmanian Courts then banned her from discussing the crime and her experiences of it, etc, but Ms Tame fought that legislation/ruling and won, meaning that all survivors of abuse/paedophilia/sexual assault can speak-out about it if they choose...Ms Tame is clearly an extraordinary young woman and fully deserving of recognition for her courage and strength and achievement...in that same context, I am not in any way criticising these women or what they have done, etc, it's the potential politicised motivation that I'm calling-out here...
Anyone who follows politics in Australia will be aware that Prime Minister Scott 'Scummo' Morrison spends literally $$$billions perpetually self-promoting and campaigning and rorting and pork-barelling rather than actually governing and leading, etc, and is currently engaging in a very specific campaign of pre-election self-promoting...people who know better than I reckon it appears likely that we are headed for an early election later this year, with some pundits calling August/September as being most likely...Scummo and the Liberal/National Party are also proven misogynists entirely without genuine empathy or compassion, well practised in co-opting issues to their advantage as and when suits them politically...they literally don't do anything unless it serves their own best fortunes, financially and/or politically...and in that context, having a young female sexual assault survivor as Australian of the Year, and several other female recipients, this has the potential to be massively politically exploited to counter any criticism about the LNP's culture of misogyny and bigotry, etc, and also for the failure to appropriately address the ongoing national disgrace that is the abuse of children, particularly in schools...
I find myself in that situation, again, where I genuinely hope that I'm absolutely wrong about this, and that it is just my cynicism and my anger that takes me to this place, etc, but I look at what a cynical manipulator Scott Morrison is and how these awards could serve him politically, etc, and I see that potential for crass political opportunism...this is my opinion and is not meant as any sort of criticism of these women...I offer my unqualified apologies to these women for this opinion/observation, and do not wish to even insinuate that they are somehow not worthy of acknowledgement and accolades, your efforts and achievements are not the issue here...in a completely different context, I agree with the criticisms that notorious bigotted Pentecostal preacher Margaret Court has received yet another Australia Day Award for her tennis career as being a vehicle for Scott Morrison to do his usual dogwhistling to like-minded Right Wing bigots...
But my bitter cynicism quickly turns to depressive resignation when I see the farcically corrupted announcement that former South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill has been appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia, in part, for Services to Children...this from the ABC News webpage...***
Former SA premier Jay Weatherill, a Logie winner and a professor specialising in Indigenous education are among the South Australians recognised in this year's Australia Day honours list.
Mr Weatherill has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to parliament and to the fields of early childhood and tertiary education.
After retiring from state politics following Labor's election defeat in 2018, Mr Weatherill became the chief executive of the Minderoo Foundation's Thrive by Five initiative.
Mr Weatherill says the program aims to empower parents and to support them with a high-quality, universally accessible, early-learning system.
"We are trying to create momentum for change to put this on the national political agenda," he said.
"I believe this is the great social and economic reform of our era and I'm sure it's within our grasp."
Mr Weatherill said he developed a passion for education reform while working as SA's education and early childhood minister.
"I became exposed to this thinking about the way in which children's brains develop in those first five years," he said.
"Once you understand that there are a million neural connections every second with high-quality experiences and the effect that has on the whole life trajectory for a child, you can't unknow that."
"It really completely became a priority and a passion for me, so when I left politics I wanted to continue to work in that field."
Mr Weatherill said the status of those who worked with children in their early years needed to be lifted.
"This is amongst the most important work that occurs in the nation but they are not recognised or rewarded," he said.
He added it had been a privilege to serve the South Australian community during his time as premier.
"You always want to be able to do more," he said.
"There are always injustices that haven't been able to be remedied.
"There are always people that have been disadvantaged that we haven't been able to help, and that's always a source of regret, but I did the best I possibly could."
***..."But I did the best I possibly could."...I've also heard/read Jay Weatherill talking about his current position as CEO with Twiggy Forrester's Minderoo Foundation 'Thrive Before Five' early education 'initiative', and how important young children are and how their welfare is so important to him, etc, etc...just Interweb search 'Jay Weatherill Minderoo' for a long list of relevant articles and radio interviews...and in my extensive personal experience of the man, every word about 'the importance and welfare of young children' is a politically expedient and massive hypocrisy...in my experience he is directly responsible for the "injustices" we have been deliberately subjected to with the St Martins Child Abuse Cover-up...it's not the case that he 'has not been able to remedy' the St Martins Cover-up, he is complicitly responsible for it...
Jay Weatherill, both as a senior Labor Minister and as State Premier, was/is intimately complicit in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up.
Jay Weatherill's law firm partner Stephen Lieschke was lawyer for "text-book grooming paedophile" teacher Glyn Dorling's in the Teachers Registration Board Inquiry.
Jay Weatherill, along with then Premier Mike Rann, officially shutdown Child Abuse Royal Commissioner Ted Mullighan' investigation of St Martins in 2005/06.
Jay Weatherill, intimately aware of the St Martins Cover-up, denied any such knowledge when I confronted him on air on ABC Radio Adelaide in June 2013.
Jay Weatherill, after that denial, wrote to me ever-so politely threatening me with 'defamation'.
Jay Weatherill is a rancidly Pro-Paedophile Corrupt politician who should be gaoled for his definably complicit role in the St Martins Child Abuse Cover-up.
I thought that Mt Gambier Mayor Lynette Martin getting an award a couple of years ago was an insult to every other genuinely worthy recipient, and was an illustration of mates organising awards for mates, etc, but this award to Jay Weatherill completely eclipses that...and what really shocked me was how un-shocked I was to hear that this person had received an award for services to children...it comes as no surprise that someone so complicitly involved in protecting a "text-book grooming paedophile" teacher would get awarded for services to children...there was a time many years ago when I would have been shocked and outraged and infuriated, etc, but now it's the even more confronting and depressing sense of inevitability and resignation that this is hardly a surprise...that sort of grim acceptance that this is not a surprise, that's a whole new level of depression and trauma...that is, what hope for ever resolving the St Martins Cover-up when key conspirators like Jay Weatherill are getting awards like this?
If you are not familiar with the many issues with the St Martins Cover-up, eg, if you've not read the letters Mike Rann and Jay Weatherill wrote to Comm Mullighan, please go back through this blog and the many relevant posts here-in.
Tomorrow: MGCC's Unreasonable Conduct Fascism
Apologies that this UCF post keeps getting bumped, but it's nearly finished so it could even be up later today and this Weatherill stuff obviously takes priority.
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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