Here it is -the Woolworth's other 'Happy Christmas' advert courtesy of Getup. Please blare and share and dare your...
Posted by Gypsy Jack on Monday, 21 December 2015
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Showing posts with label Gambling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gambling. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 December 2015
How does Woolworths affect your family, your community? Getting Fresh with pokies ....
Friday, 15 February 2013
Congratulations to Castlemaine & Campbells Creek - a battle has been joined & won against pokies
In April last year, I was travelling to Bendigo from Ballarat and at Campbells Creek on the southern outskirts of Castlemaine when I came across the sign pictured above. Now, in my view, it takes a lot to get individual householders into action to make their own signs and show their colours on a particular issue. This was not the only sign I saw and realised that this was red-hot local issue. Later enquiries, explained why the locals were protesting.
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Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Walmart, Woolworths, Pokies, Grog and the Salvation Army - does Roger Corbett have a case to answer
Why is it that one never sees nor hears of an Australian journalist interviewing Roger Corbett about his involvement as a Director on the board of Walmart? Walmart's poor employee and workplace practices are legion and legendary. Yet here in Australia we cannot seem to ask questions about this.
Just like how we don't know how the Salvation Army involves itself with Corbett in its Red Shield Appeal while he sits on the Board of ALH Group (the Woolworths grog and pokies conglomerate). ALH Group is the largest poker machine operator in Australia and on its way to being the world leader in poker machine operations. So how does the Salvation Army find a synergy of goals with someone like Roger Corbett?
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Friday, 6 July 2012
History made to-day in GetUp! v Woolworths. Woolworths withdrew. A really Extraordinary General Meeting coming up.
HAVE JUST GOT MY EMAIL FROM GETUP!
WHAT A SUCCESS!
CONGRATULATIONS!
BIG THANKS TO ALL WHO ARE HELPING TO FUND THE ACTION!
We've just walked out of Federal Court and are pleased to say that there will be an Extraordinary General Meeting of Woolworths to discuss and vote on making the company's high-loss poker machines safer for communities. -- In a nutshell, Woolworths was today unsuccessful in denying GetUp members and Woolworths shareholders the right to an EGM about poker machine reform.They did however manage to buy some extra time before that meeting; it will now happen in November. -- Woolworths sought the court's permission to deny the Extraordinary General Meeting GetUp members requisitioned to discuss pokies reform. During the course of the hearing, it became clear that application would be unsuccessful, and Woolworths withdrew it. Woolworths will now be the only top company in Australian history to be forced into holding an EGM on a social justice issue. We know this separate, 'extraordinary' meeting is important because of our experience at last year's regular Woolworths Annual General Meeting. Woolworths shareholders and GetUp members -- including some who had lost loved ones to gambling addiction -- attended the AGM and challenged the board on their dangerous high-loss poker machines, but the company did everything they could to minimise the issue. This meeting will be very different. Woolworths will have to contact all 432,000 of their shareholders with a 1,000 word letter from GetUp members, making the ethical and business cases for limiting the company's poker machines to $1 bets. Allshareholders will then be able to vote on a motion to change the company's constitution to enforce such a change. We didn't get everything we hoped for today. Justice Yates granted Woolworths a time extension to save Woolworths "unnecessary costs" and travel time for the company's directors. That means the EGM will be pushed to November, when Woolworths hold their AGM. We maintain that the meeting request was legitimate and that its cost was reasonable, amounting to less than Woolworths pockets from addicted problem gamblers in a single day. From here, we'll be ramping up the campaign for safer poker machines in advance of the EGM, so stay tuned for stories from some of our most courageous members who are speaking up with the hope of influencing the vote of shareholders and the position of the Board of Directors. With thanks, the GetUp team. PS - If you have a story you'd like to share with us (and haven't already) about high-loss poker machines, like the ones Woolworths' owns and operates, and how they have impacted you or a loved one, please email us at: info@getup.org.au so we can include it in the booklet of stories we're putting together in advance of the EGM. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY 6.50am Saturday 7 July 2012 When I published the GetUp! letter last night, I did not have the news story published by the ABC. So Networkers have the whole picture here is the link to the ABCNews story. |
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Woolworths, Coles, the TV Corporates, and the banned ad
Have you seen our banned ad?
It's all over the news: the TV ad GetUp members funded calling on Woolworths and Coles to make their poker machines safer, has been blocked by Channels Ten, Seven and Nine.
Nine actually told a journalist straight: it would be "illogical to ruin relationships with valued, and longstanding,clients for the sake of GetUp's campaign."[1] We won't let that stop us.
Already, a GetUp member with expertise in cinema advertising has volunteered to help, and we've booked cinema ads right across the country to get around the TV blackout. Thanks to a great discount rate, we can actually reach even more customers of Woolworths and Coles.
Now is our chance to show the TV bosses that they can't stop our movement spreading the truth. We we won't let a network ban stop us from having our voices heard -- and by blocking us on TV, they've only given us more media attention for this important campaign.
Check out the ad TV stations don't want you to see. A $57 donation will buy a full weekend of ads in one cinema, reaching hundreds of Coles and Woolies customers.
 http://www.getup.org.au/ Thanks for fighting back, The GetUp Team. 'Networks refuse to air anti-pokie ads', Richard Willingham. The Age, May 16, 2012 |
Saturday, 18 February 2012
A media-polling-betting fast on Ash Wednesday? It could ease the tension in all our lives
''We all know why it was on at that time,'' wrote the London Telegraph's rugby correspondent, Mick Cleary. ''TV, the ogre of the age, the monster that must be obeyed at every turn. As long as there are bums on TV seats, anything is possible or permissible.''
From Here's to Mug Punters by Greg Baum
How could one disagree with Mick Cleary. He is spot on. Miss Eagle is a dedicated Rugby League gal and Storm supporter. Ask Storm supporters what they think of News Limited involvement in their club. Ask Rugby League supporters how they rank involvement of News Limited in League. I reckon they'd just say "Rank". Fortunately, the establishment of the new Australian Rugby League Commission (don't they have a website coz I can't find it?!) appears to have seen off News Limited but the Murdoch corporation is still embedded at Storm. Media and everything connected to it now controls sport whether it be cricket or football. And, as Greg Baum says - the monster must be obeyed at every turn.
It's not only sport, though, is it Networkers? Seems to me that the The Media have now taken over politics but does it include as well the political influence that the corporations buy, bribe, co-opt? It seems to me that The Media are now the true political dictators on the Australia scene. Hence...
It's not only sport, though, is it Networkers? Seems to me that the The Media have now taken over politics but does it include as well the political influence that the corporations buy, bribe, co-opt? It seems to me that The Media are now the true political dictators on the Australia scene. Hence...
Picture from here
Does Shaun Carney want to give us date and time for the play-off?
Certainly the betting agencies are making up their own minds...
And aiding abetting The Media and The Bettors are The Pollsters.
We turn the process into a headcount of limited numbers.
It seems poll after poll is being done and The Media publishes the results.
Then there are the polls we don't hear of.
These are the ones done for the corporate players to advise
who will be whom in the forthcoming playoffs which
in turn influences their conversations and donations.
And where is The Australian Voter in all this?
Nowhere.
Buried in a mire of manipulation.
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Lent is almost upon us.
This is the period of 40 days & 40 nights leading up
to the greatest feast day in the Christian calendar - Easter.
It is a time of fasting not feasting -
of reflection and going without.
How wonderful it might be if we could shut up
The Media
The Bettors
The Pollsters
for forty days and forty nights
so that we might reflect on what is good for this nation.
Forty days and forty nights is almost certainly asking too much.
However, would it be too much too ask that
on Ash Wednesday, next Wednesday 22 February 2012
The Media
The Bettors
The Pollsters
keep their traps shut
and that
The Voters
Their Elected Representatives and Senators
actually reflect on what will be most important
for the welfare of Australia and its people.
A political fast!
Aaaaaahh!
Feel the tension ease....
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Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Woolworths : can you trust a grocer who owns the largest number of high-loss gambling machine venues in Australia
Senator Nick Xenophon with a sign that tells the story.
~~~~
Australia is home to the largest number of dangerous high-loss pokie machines in the world – and grocery giant Woolies is the king of the hill: the largest pokie machine venue owner in the country, with more pokie machines than the top five Las Vegas casinos combined![1]
Why? Pure dollars: owning hotels with pokie machines is reportedly three times more profitable than selling groceries. No one would know this better than Australia's trusted household brand, which now has more than 12,000 computerised gambling machines in around 300 hotels across the country.[2]
These machines have been called the "crack cocaine" of gambling. Players are estimated to lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually.[3] They’re designed to be highly addictive, especially to those already prone to problem gambling, making them uniquely profitable to big corporations and destructive to the lives of thousands of Australian families. Plenty of Woolworths customers – and shareholders – are not happy that the ‘Fresh Food People’ are heavily profiting from an industry that’s taking the food off so many family tables. Together, we’re taking our voices to the top by presenting your petition directly to senior executives at this Thursday's Woolworths AGM.
Imagine the look on the faces of these back room executives when we tell them directly how many shareholders, employees and customers of Woolworths want them to better serve their customers by coming out in support of pokie reform. We won't reveal your name to Woolworths but the total number will be powerful. Can you let us know if you are a Wooloworths customer, employee or shareholder?
http://www.getup.org.au/
It’s alarming enough that a trusted family brand has out-invested the top five Las Vegas casinos in pokie machines – but they’ve also made it clear that they don't think that their many customers who have been devastated by the impacts of problem gambling are their problem. Earlier this year the head of Woolworths' gambling subsidiary spoke in front of a parliamentary inquiry and shamelessly compared gambling addiction to hamburgers by saying: ''I think the product is safe. Some people have addictions, be it to fast food or drugs…are we asking, is a hamburger safe?" [4] Woolworths representatives sit on the executive board of the Australian Hotels Association, who are jointly responsible with Clubs Australia for the so called '$20 million' mass advertising campaign against pokies reform.[5]
Woolworths may have the dollars, but with more than 585,000 of us across the country – many of whom are Woolies' shareholders, employees and customers – we can change the direction of the company. Some concerned individuals have already volunteered to allow GetUp to send “proxies” on their behalf to the AGM – spokespeople who will represent them, and speak directly about their personal experience of the devastating effects of problem pokie gambling (and present your petition). It's a rare opportunity to take our message directly to the top and have it delivered, not by an outside group of activists, but through the company's own concerned shareholders. Add your voice now: let us know if you’re a Woolworths shareholder, employee or customer and be part of the message to company executives on Thursday.
http://www.getup.org.au/
An Annual General Meeting is the one chance we get each year to bypass the usual spin doctors and media gate holders and speak directly to the company chair and senior executives, publicly, and on the record.
The truth is, Woolworths can more than afford to curb problem gambling and still profit handsomely from recreational pokie players, alongside all their other business. We frankly expect better of a trusted Australian family brand than to fund a massive and misleading ad campaign against pokie reform. We've already got a 45,000 strong petition of Australians supporting reform to limit problem gambling, and now we will tell Woolworths just how many of their customers, shareholders and employees have signed it.
Thank you for all that you do,
Erin, for the GetUp team
[1]"Woolworths hits the jackpot with pokies after signing deal with Laundy hotel group", Daily Telegraph. November 11, 2011
[2]"Woolworths in pokie grip talks", Sydney Morning Herald. April 18, 2011
[3]"Woolies is poker machine king", Daily Telegraph. November 12, 2011
[4]"Playing pokies just like eating a burger, says Woolies subsidiary", Sydney Morning Herald. February 15, 2011
[5]"Woolworths revealed to own more pokies than the Adelaide Casino", News.com.au. April 16, 2011
Further reading:
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
ALP gambling policy: straight from 1984 or Animal farm: will Robinson hold his seat?
I dips me lid to the Deakin University researchers who interviewed more than 200 staff at Melbourne's Crown Casino, without the company's knowledge. Now that's what I call good research.
Couple of questions though? Did this go through Deakin's Ethics Committee and get the OK for methodology? If the Ethics Committee has not heard about this research method, I'll bet London to a brick on that they will have by now. Phone calls, emails, and no Twitters from Crown management!
Couple of questions though? Did this go through Deakin's Ethics Committee and get the OK for methodology? If the Ethics Committee has not heard about this research method, I'll bet London to a brick on that they will have by now. Phone calls, emails, and no Twitters from Crown management!
Anyway, I love it because there is an authenticity about what has been reported here ever so briefly as some of the research findings.
Some of the workers said they would not intervene if a patron was distressed, and failed to recognise the signs of problem gambling.
Other staff have reported poker players urinating and defecating on the gaming floor because they did not want to stop playing poker machines.
The report claims the casino would call taxis instead of ambulances for injured patrons and staff in an effort to cover up the number of incidents at the venue.
I find Casinos and pokies palaces charmless places. And I have waxed lyrical on previous occasions:-
Can we have a Royal Commission into the Spirit of Australia...
There is no doubt. So many citizens keep shovelling it up to the government, cartloads to the door: research, public opinion, stuffed ballot boxes, broken lives, broken footballers. Still there is little done. And when we take some moves forward against this pernicious invasion of our lives and our spirits, there are always the legislators and their friends in the gambling and licensing industry to take things backward.
I live in the electorate of the current Minister for Gaming. Don't ya love it! He's the minister for Consumer Affairs as well. I find that an irony. So electors of Mitcham just remember.
Back in August the Victorian Government was telling us this about ATMs and EFTPOS. Yesterday we were told this:
A device that could be used to sidestep a new ban on automatic teller machines in poker machine venues has been given the all clear by Gaming Minister Tony Robinson.
Honesty? Deceit? Transparency? Truth-telling? Responding to the electorate? Responding to corporate heavies? Responding to political donors? Responding to gamblers? Responding to consumers? And, now for the hardest bit, would the Liberal/National Parties be any different?
Back in August the Victorian Government was telling us this about ATMs and EFTPOS. Yesterday we were told this:
A device that could be used to sidestep a new ban on automatic teller machines in poker machine venues has been given the all clear by Gaming Minister Tony Robinson.
Honesty? Deceit? Transparency? Truth-telling? Responding to the electorate? Responding to corporate heavies? Responding to political donors? Responding to gamblers? Responding to consumers? And, now for the hardest bit, would the Liberal/National Parties be any different?
Related reading:
Further reading:
Friday, 5 November 2010
Xenophon backs Mayne and Beyer against the pokies in the Victorian election
No pokies Senator backs No Pokies Victorian candidates
Independent Senator for South Australia, Nick Xenophon, will today throw his support behind two Independent candidates for the Victorian State election; Dr Lorraine Beyer for Macedon and Stephen Mayne who is running for the Northern Metropolitan Region in the Upper House.
"Independents in politics are crucial to ensuring that the Government and Opposition are truly held accountable," Nick said.
Senator Xenophon says Lorraine Beyer and Stephen Mayne share his stance against poker machines and their successful election will be positive for Victoria.
In particular, Lorraine Beyer and Stephen Mayne support full and uniform pre-commitment on poker machines, credit limits on phone betting for new users and a ban on sports-betting advertising at venues and on apparel, and during G-rated television programming.
"It is a real sign of the times to see more and more Independent candidates running for election at both a State and Federal level," Nick said. "Independents have a real ability to cut through on issues that matter to the community."
Lorraine Beyer was a key player in ensuring that no poker machines were allowed to be introduced into the Romsey Hotel.
Stephen Mayne is a journalist and Councillor for the City of Manningham. He has been an outspoken campaigner against poker machines.
"Lorraine and Stephen have my full support and I hope that Victorians will get behind them and vote for serious action on poker machines," Nick said.
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Crown Casino Creep.....and creeps
Not yet, though. Looks like we're into Casino Creep - this time absorbing in a creep by creep fashion some of the public area on the Southbank promenade. I guess all this public space not producing a dollar is a bit to much for the money hungry ones to bear. They don't gived a you-name-it for people - just mustn't impede the rush of the almighty $ into their hands.
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Crime and gambling linked in Victoria - what a surprise!
A report has been quietly released which shows a causal relationship between gaming and crime in Victoria. Does this come as a surprise to you, Networkers? Not to your Miss Eagle it doesn't. She has long regarded casinos, for instance, as venues for money laundering and wealth transferrence.
A sardonic smile flitters across Miss Eagle's face in these matters. You see here in Victoria not only do we see a government addicted to gambling income but a government unduly influenced by high rollers like James Packer and the rest of the casino 'establishment'. What Packer wants Packet gets, it seems to me, and - if I am wrong - could someone please publish the long (haha) or very short (ahem) list of wht James asked for and didn't get? I reckon one day Melbourne will wake up and it won't be called Melbourne anymore. We will be called Crown Casino City. Won't that be wonderful.
So back to the issue of crime and gaming. Networkers, do you think there should be a sequel (or perhaps prequel might be a better word) on crime, gaming and corruption in Victoria? You see if we leave the story only at crime and gaming we are left with images of the poor pokie sods committing armed robbery at the petrol station or the 24 hour grocery or the middle class embezzling their banking employers. In reality an official inquiry of the kind which asks the question, Which comes first the chicken or the egg? Buying political and bureaucratic influence or the decision?, might be more helpful.
And all this from holier than thou Victoria which has had to be dragged kicking and screaming (and I am not speaking of only the current Labor Govt but the Liberal/National Party lot as well) to set up some sort of anti-corruption commission. Not for Victoria, though, the effective models of the ICAC in NSW or the CMC in Queensland.
No, Victoria has gone for a highly customised version which is set to be complex, complicated, difficult and it won't have the effect of frightening the horses. Whether it will ever frighten corrupt cops, criminals, politicians and bureaucrats will remain to be seen. The proof of the VIACC pudding will be in the eating.
Further reading:
Pathological Gambling and Criminality: Crime Promoting Economic Income and Pathological Gambling
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Organised crime and criminals at Crown Casino, Melbourne.
Click to enlarge
Scene on Southbank near the Crown Casino from here
Always makes me think that this could be a foretaste of the fires of hell?!
So many people seem to like to celebrate with a night out at Crown. I have been coming and going from this part of Melbourne over the last week as I volunteer at the Parliament of the World's Religions which is being held at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre in the heart of Melbourne's entertainment and dining precinct. Across the road is the Crown, operated by the Packer family. At night I can chose to wander home past what I call the 'fires of hell' which, needless to say, put out quite a bit of heat.
It's a pity the heat is not put on Crown Casino by the Victorian Government and the Victorian police. However our government is a gambling addict and facilitates Crown and appears to give it everything it wants and more.
What I don't understand is why so many people associate Crown Casino with a good night out and so many major functions are held there. Mixing with organised crime and criminals on a celebratory night out is not my idea of fun. And, yes, there appear to be admissions that - surprise, surprise - organised crime and criminals are alive and well and at Crown. Have a Casino and it is my view that you have organised crime. They are inseparable. Casinos are the simplest, easiest and quickest way of laundering criminal money and turning it into 'clean' cash.
This report appears in The Age to-day. I am publishing it here so that it doesn't disappear.
This report appears in The Age to-day. I am publishing it here so that it doesn't disappear.
Thousands of crimes at Crown
JASON DOWLING
December 8, 2009
THERE is a lot more that goes on at Melbourne's ''world of entertainment'' Crown casino than roulette and blackjack.
A police report has highlighted money laundering, prostitution, cheating and thousands of other offences, including robbery and assault, over a three-period at Victoria's monopoly casino.
The October 2007 report was part of the review of the Melbourne casino operator's licence and was obtained by The Age under freedom of information.
''There has been an identified need to initiate and actively pursue persons suspected of being involved in organised criminal activities, including money laundering at Crown Casino,'' it said. The report said ''meetings with Crown to formulate a strategy to identify and deal with suspected money laundering and unlicensed money lending problems have been initiated''.
Mark Zirnsak of the InterChurch Gambling Taskforce said the police report ''confirms the taskforce's view that casinos are always going to be magnets for criminal activities''.
The police report also referred to prostitution at the casino. While it said there had been no arrests for prostitution, ''it is reasonable to speculate that escort agency females frequent hotel rooms and accompany persons on to the gaming floor, however, provided these are registered persons no offence is committed''.
The report showed 33 people had been excluded from the casino under the Victoria Police Chief Commissioner's exclusion powers, but added, ''This process is on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by a prominent organised crime figure against his exclusion.''
Police were unable to say last night if the exclusion process was still on hold.
Over a period of three years from mid-2003 to mid-2006 3125 offences were committed within the Crown Casino complex, the report said.
The offences included 445 assaults, two kidnappings or abductions, eight sex offences (not rape), 32 cases of handling stolen goods, 13 weapons offences and 344 cases of theft from cars.
Crown Casino spokesman Gary O'Neill said the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation's review of the casino operator's licence said ''the Victoria Police report did not identify any probity issues'' and concluded that there no issues ''that would adversely affect'' its ability ''to continue holding the casino operator's licence''.
Mr O'Neill said: ''A lot of successful prosecution of criminal activity is brought about by the sort of reporting regime that Crown adheres to.'' He said Crown had 45 million visitors in the relevant three-year period.
State Parliament is expected to pass laws this week allowing for the biggest expansion of Crown Casino's gambling capacity in a decade, with a 43 per cent increase in its number of table games.
Friday, 13 November 2009
Thrills and spills: communities winning and losing their battles
The Coal Ash Spill into the Clinch River under the governance of the Tennessee Valley Authority is one of the greatest environmental disasters ever. The spill is nearly 50 times as big as the famous 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill in Alaska. It occurred around 1am on December 22nd when a wall holding back 80 acres of sludge from the TVA’s Fossil Plant gave way. Eight days later, the TVA has yet to release sampling data from the ash pile, and they’re actually trying to claim that the fly ash is not toxic.
Now as if all this was not bad enough,
It makes me wonder, firstly, how much can human communities bear and how much can our planet bear. Then, secondly, I wonder about Australia.
We have been fortunate in not having disasters of quite the same magnitude as the USA manages to produce. Is it their larger population - more than ten times the number of Australians? If so, this has consequences for us as our Prime Minister seems to optimistically encourage and imagine a much larger population for Australia. His projections are still a long way from the population figures for the USA - but on the driest inhabited continent on earth with scarce arable soils what are the conseqneunces of unchecked population increase for Australia and its people? Then again is all this part of the USA's weddedness to capitalism, even laissez-fare capitalism as demonstrated by their determination to be the only country in the developed world without a national system of medical insurance? I doubt that, The responsible authority is a publicly owned utility.
What does concern me is the attitudes abroad in Australia from corporate and political and bureaucratic big-wigs to the person in the street. The Top End of Town likes to be inclusive of its own and often acts to exclude wider interests and the well-being of whole communities. Although, communities have triumphed twice this week: on the matters of the Traveston Dam in Queensland and poker machines in Romsey, Victoria. Congratulations! These Australians cared about their communities and their well-being - and they won through.
Communities and the electorate-at-large have to remain aware and vigilant. If they don't, they can suffer the same fate as the Clinch River residents - overcome by poor decision making and corporate, political, and bureaucratic complacency. Better to remain on watch than to be faced with messes that can't be cleaned up and corrected.
All my sympathies go out to the affected communities and citizens of the Clinch River. Please God, save Australians from themselves and show them how to emulate the determined citizens who stopped the Traveston Dam and the pokies at Romsey.
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Can we have a Royal Commission into the Spirit of Australia...
...and while we're at it can we also have National Just Take A Look At Yerself Month!
Yep, I get the miseries just thinking about us and me and you too. We're nice folk, aren't we? Ordinary every day folk, aren/t we? Even those of us who are rich and inhabit exclusive clubs thinks we are nice and ordinary and every day, don't we/you (tick whichever is applicable)?
Then why do we let so many crook things happen - to our land, too its people, to its animals, to the planet?
I am hopping mad at the in the face actions of the Victorian Government. Now I can't say I am lining up to vote for any of the other parties who will put themselves up at the Victorian election due late next year. But how can the current mob justify some of their decisions? Can they just stand back and take a look at themselves?
Perhaps this blog ought to lead the charge with a Just Take A Look At Yerself category, so here goes the first entry.
The Victorian Govt has done yet another deal with Crown Casino. I reckon one morning we will wake up and find that where we live is no longer called Melbourne. It will be called Crown Casino City - and (surprise, surpise) the community will have had no say in it at all. This latest deal will do what so many have done before it. It will increase the tax reaped by our gambling addicted government.
Now some of us might think that this means more money to do more and better stuff. You jest, don't you? If there was to be more money directed to more and better stuff, then why is the Victorian Government defunding Reconciliation Victoria? Oh sure, the Victorian Govt has tried to redirect RecVic so that it can receive much reduced funding from Aboriginal organisations. RecVic, in my view quite rightly, refuses to take this path. It refuses to take money from the Aboriginal pot - a pot which never has enough resources to do what needs to be done.
But have a look at the sort of spirt, the sort of ignorance that lies behind this. You will recall, dear Reader, how the former Australian Prime Minister used to speak quite often about "practical reconciliation" while dodging things like an Apology to the Stolen Generations. Now, considering the disrepute into which Aboriginal policy under the Howard Government fell, you would think that no politician worth his or her salt would want to use the term ever again in living memory. Nup! Yer wrong, aren't yer. Richard Wynne, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the Labor Government in Victoria, said on 5 May 2009:
...the Brumby Labor Government would build on the National Apology through practical reconciliation, such as support and training for Indigenous Victorians and additional measures to help close the gap in life expectancy.
Clearly, we are being taken for mugs. Aboriginal people are being taken for mugs. Australians who want a greater understanding of and role for Aboriginal people and culture in Australian life are being taken for mugs. They think we can't join the dots. But, Mr Wynne and Mr Brumby, we join the dots much better than you - because you let those dry, sterile, non-productive words of "practical reconciliation" through. You have let them through to wound once again.
Just take a look at yourselves.
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