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Prime Minister promises that, if re-elected, he will hold a referendum on whether reconciliation with aboriginal people should be included in the constitution. Still refuses to say sorry for their poor treatment. This, as tension about the still-unannounced election date rises.
Arguments presented against: 'Australia wasn't ready', 'don't push policies millions of Australians find offensive'. Also claims that individual people these days don't need to apologise for things they did not personally do.
Arguments for did include an unfortunate comparison of the Prime Minister as being like an atheist who lacks conviction and calls for a priest on his deathbed. I don't think that analogy maps very well - I doubt anyone believes Howard actually supports reconciliation for its own sake - but it does unfortunately associate again the idea that the godless deep down really believe. Otherwise I did not find his arguments very strong and would likely not have been convinced if I were not already 'on that side'. The strongest argument I recall him making was that Labor governments have been pushing reconciliation for years and the sky has not fallen down. although I have no knowledge of the actual facts of the situation.
The sharpest single point came when the Liberal spokesperson was making his speech about "John Howard has not done anything to hurt the aboriginal community, you [the interviewer] have not done anything to hurt the aboriginal community..." etc and the Labor spokesperson interrupted with "You didn't fight at Gallipoli either but I'll bet you still attend ANZAC services." [Quotes approximated from memory]
I suspect that is not the best comparison either but, frankly, I am not capable of working out why now. As far as people not hurting the aboriginal community, I would not be surprised to discover that is false. The recent thing of helping aboriginal communities deal with alcohol and abuse problems by sending in small numbers of police officers comes to mind. I better look up the facts of that and, probably, make corrections.
New things on the agenda today:
Arguments presented against: 'Australia wasn't ready', 'don't push policies millions of Australians find offensive'. Also claims that individual people these days don't need to apologise for things they did not personally do.
Arguments for did include an unfortunate comparison of the Prime Minister as being like an atheist who lacks conviction and calls for a priest on his deathbed. I don't think that analogy maps very well - I doubt anyone believes Howard actually supports reconciliation for its own sake - but it does unfortunately associate again the idea that the godless deep down really believe. Otherwise I did not find his arguments very strong and would likely not have been convinced if I were not already 'on that side'. The strongest argument I recall him making was that Labor governments have been pushing reconciliation for years and the sky has not fallen down. although I have no knowledge of the actual facts of the situation.
The sharpest single point came when the Liberal spokesperson was making his speech about "John Howard has not done anything to hurt the aboriginal community, you [the interviewer] have not done anything to hurt the aboriginal community..." etc and the Labor spokesperson interrupted with "You didn't fight at Gallipoli either but I'll bet you still attend ANZAC services." [Quotes approximated from memory]
I suspect that is not the best comparison either but, frankly, I am not capable of working out why now. As far as people not hurting the aboriginal community, I would not be surprised to discover that is false. The recent thing of helping aboriginal communities deal with alcohol and abuse problems by sending in small numbers of police officers comes to mind. I better look up the facts of that and, probably, make corrections.
New things on the agenda today:
- Look into aboriginal groups and find out what aboriginal people actually say they want, then see what I can do.
- Look into local shelters to find out about their policies wert transpeople and if necessary try to persuade them to improve.
