The Rise of Racism (again)

I had hoped that Pauline Hansons crash and burn would be the end of overt racism in Australia - at least for long time. With September 11 I predicted a sudden upsurge in racism in politics, the media, the market and the community at large. Indeed there was to some extent. However, it wasn't until the London bombings that overt racism in Australia has become a crisis.

Take for example the case of former Macquarie lecturer Andrew Fraser (read this article for some background) who wants Australia to revert back to a "White Australia" immigration policy because Africans are supposedly prone to violence.

Do i need to refer to the hype over radical islamic fundamentalists?

Then there is this piece by Nationals Senator John Stone opinion piece titled "The Case for Assimilation". He says:

Since London's July 7 bombings, the Federal Government has been under pressure
to address Australia's rapidly growing Muslim problem. But it clearly still
wants to avoid the real issues: the need to abandon outright our official
multiculturalism policies and the need to sharply reduce, to the point of
virtually halting, further inflow of people whose culture (Islam) is such that
there can be no realistic hope of them ever integrating into Australian society.

Yes, that's right, he said the "Muslim problem", it may as well have been the "Muslim question". What is probably most disturbing has been the reaction to such racism. For example, of the community's reaction is the comments to Senator Stone's article. To illustrate, here is one post:

We have a serious problem of religious, philisopical and racial intolerance
displayed by a sizable proportion of the Islamic community and to the bleeding
heart left, those filthy anglo racists are all to blame.I used to teach in our
West.Recently a retired Head of a mostly Muslim primary school told me how she
had a security guard escort her to and from her car just before she retired.My
sister bumps into an Muslim Lady and apologises,"Yes you'll be really sorry when
we take over your country," came the retort.My son and his friends get assaulted
for wearing the Aussie flag on Australia Day.It ends with a stand off between
the police and 40 thugs.No one is arrested because they are all under the age of
18.I have been run off the road by these people merging in traffic behind me and
giving me the finger as they pass.Pushed off the footpath as they walk four
abreast down George St Sydney.A very sizable portion of the the Muslim
population are both intolerant and violent.Now would the likes of
rossco,kalweb,rainer and strayan tell me how this makes me and John Stone the
racists.As I've said,get your heads out of your fundamentals and smell the
reality.

What a narrow minded, selfish and ignorant piece of trash. It becomes racism mate when you take individual instances like these silly ones and say it about an entire culture. What a total ... This is a scary post considering he is a teacher.

Another example after Andrew Fraser's interview on Channel Nine's A Current Affair, the show did one of those silly viewer polls asking whether they agreed with Fraser's comments and views. A whopping 85% agreed with him.

I have always understood that many Australians are racist. It trully disgusts me but it trully scars me when racists start to become more confident to go public with there views and try to change policy.

Tidbits

Hey all. Been a bit slow lately with posts - uni is starting to be a drag with assessments due in a week or so. Nevertheless, there are a few articles out there that are interesting enough for me to point out:

• Crikey publishes an email from Antony Green who anlyses the seat of Marrickville. His impression is that Labor will likely win over the Greens. He thinks the 2004 Fed result for Grayndler suggests the Green vote peaked in 2003. I disagree - there is definitely a mood for change in the area.
• Charles Richardson at Crikey notes the terrible human cost of the Coal mining industry and China. He doesn't go so far to say Nuclear is a prefered option but does say, " If anti-nuclear campaigners want to be taken seriously, they need to face up to the implications of continued reliance on coal." Richardson obviously has no understanding of anti-nuclear campaign. The anti-nuclear campaign is also ant-coal and that there should be a focus on renewable energy.
• An excellent article by Margo Kingston over at her blog Webdiary. It focuses on the first day of the Senate and how Lab and Libs voted for a very arrogant Paul Calvert for Senate President. Unfortunately, Kerry Nettle did not get the votes.
• Some more ALP critics at APO.
• This opinion piece by Joo-Cheong Tham at APO focuses on an issue that flew under the radar: the Liberal Party using taxpayer funds to advertise its IR policy.
• This link to APO is page where you can download a paper by Larissa Behrendt that outlines the Government's agenda to privatise Indigenous native title.

I think I will have to devote a post to Indigenous issues in the near future. I probably consider it my most favoured political issue and there are some very disturbing issues on the horizon - yes even worse than the abolition of ATSIC.

Greens gear up for Marrickville

Iemma is a Barry Unsworth choice. Labor would have done much better with Scully. Please don't think that I support Scully - he is rotten to the core. Politically however I think Scully presents himself as a leader more than the lamo Iemma.

So Carr has gone, Refshauge has gone and now Knowles has gone. And here I am thinking that the next two years without elections would mean boredom. We will have three bi-election in NSW.

Most interestingly from a Greens perspective is the seat Refshauge is leaving behind. It is the seat of Marrickville where the Greens polled 28% in the 2003 state election, 21% in the seat of Grayndler at the 2004 Federal election, and elected five Greens Marrickville Councillors in 2004 (and breaking Labor's mayoral fiefdom in Marrickville).

The word is that Karmel Tebbutt will move from the upper house to contest the seat. The refore the Greens will want to preselect a woman.

The Greens might just snatch this seat from the ALP. If so it will be the first lower house seat at a state level. It is possible only if the Greens get a positive swing by snatching the protest vote from disgruntled ALP voters AND the Liberals preference the Greens above the ALP.

The New Senate Team

Next week parliament is sitting after its winter break and we will have a new Senate that has many changes from the last one. Most notably of course is that the Howard Government has a majority but it is already starting to look shaky with the likes of the Nationals Barnaby Joyce running around telling anyone who will listen (and that is a lot of people at the moment) that he will cross the floor on a number of issues unless the Government meets his demands. The Government does have a fallback option in the form of Family First's Steve Fielding. The next three or four months will be interesting indeed.

On a more positive note, the Greens will have two new Senators (we should have had at least one other from Victoria, thanks to the ALP preferencing Family First), which has meant the creation of a Greens Party Room. Read Bob Brown's media release here. The two new Senators are Christine Milne from Tasmania and Rachelk Siewert from Western Australia. I have just recently had the opportunity to meet both new Senators in an office meeting. I have also seen Cristine Milne in action at the God Under Howard Forum held in Sydney a few weeks ago.

I knew very little of Rachel but my impressions of her was one of passion and that of being well organised. Rachel has been given the Industrial Relations portfolio responsibility - a mighty task for a new Senator.

Christine Milne gives off a very different impression. Christine is tough and very intimidating. I pitty the poor Senator who will atagonise her. At the God Under Howard forum she let loose on Family First and Howard. Christine Milne in full flight is an awe-inspiring sight. She will be a our 'headkicker' in the Senate.

The Senate will be very entertaining.

Get up!

Webdiary has pointed to an interesting new web-based organisation aimed at making more people politically active. The website is called Get Up! It is based on an American version that was designed prior to the US Presidential election.

However, there are some things about such an organisation that frustrate me. On their about page they say:

The other political parties aren't providing a strong opposition, and the media
is dominated by a handful of right-wing voices.

I disagree with the first part of this sentence. Indeed, I agree that the ALP are not providing a strong opposition. However, the Greens are definitely providing significant opposition given their limited capacity - if only the Greens had greater capacity! If more people understood the Greens and their policies, were active in the Greens then more people would vote for the Greens and then there would be a proper opposition.

Therefore, I feel the problem is that there is no need for such an organisation as Get Up! when there is a political party that agrees and supports with their campaign and more. I am already very active in overthrowing the Howard regime and returning democracy, justice, fairness, and tolerance and therefore feel no need to join such an organisation.

One has to ask why are they willing to join this organisation and not the Greens? Is this group just another wannabe or repackaged Australian Democrats?

I recommend that the first thing people should do is research political parties and their policies and choose the one that best matches your beliefs and priorities. Ultimately, it is a political party that will make significant change in this country - why not be directly involved on some level?

Again, like the Westminster concept (see two posts down), this organisation has no policies other than to 'restore democracy'. On this one issue it sounds nice but what does it actually mean?

I understand that people are not willing to be tainted by party affiliation, I certainly struggled with that for a while. However, as soon as I actually read up on the Greens and their policies, there was no choice, I had to join. The things that are happening in the world today are too important for me not to do nothing about and I am not selfish enough to be more concerned over what people will think of me if they see me as a party member of the Greens.