Part 1 - Slavery in Australia. Is the 'Let 'er rip" attitude on visas for overseas workers going to be stopped? The Robinvale experience

Above - Indigenous Mexican people caught up in slavery

Thank God it doesn't happen here in Australia?

You are sadly and badly mistaken.

A visit to this site will disabuse you of the fact that slavery is a thing of the past.

And...

Last night, Four Corners in their program, Slaving Away, did just that too.

To some Australians, I feel sure that the contents of last night's Four Corners program will have been a revelation.  To many of us, it was not.  To many of us, it is close to home.  One of the towns (and there were quite a few) which was highlighted last night was Robinvale, situated on the Murray River in north-western Victoria.

I have posted twice before on this blog in connection with Robinvale.  Please background yourselves with these.  

The segment in last night's program showed nothing that was new to the inhabitaants of Robinvale. 

In one of the posts linked above, I embedded an article about Robinvale written by the well- known journalist Elisabeth Wynhausen.  This was published in The Australian almost seven years ago.  Little has changed.  Those who own the fruit get fatter. The labour hire Simon Legrees around Robinvale prosper.  The enslaved play dodgem and try to remain invisible.  

To see or to find the invisible slaves one has to be up early - about 5.30am - and be around at pick-up time, about 4pm.  There is a view in Robinvale that the drivers of the pick-up and deliver buses claim Centrelink benefits. With their bus-driving work, probably cash in hand, taking place outside office hours it is not difficult for them to give an appearance of being unemployed.  Last night, showed the oppressors as Chinese - but my information from Robinvale says that the Tongans are pretty good at this.  There is a significant Tongan population in Robinvale - even to having its own churches. 

People are packed into their accommodation, cooking in their rooms and living space.  This is of concern to the local Fire Brigade  who have noted the people packing in local houses and accommodation.  There have been no people burned to death - but it is always of concern.  One motel  burned to the ground last year and has not been rebuilt.  The motel was thought to have housed 80 to 100 people enslaved in a labour hire program.  The fire occurred about 8.30 am. The occupants had been taken to the farms.  But the shudder comes as people imagine what might have occurred at another time of day.

There are queries in Robinvale of how the powers-that-be might effectively tackle this rural slavery. There are queries about taxation - is it being paid or is it being avoided?  There are queries about occupational superannuation - is it being paid or is it being avoided?  Does the enslaved labour understand occupational superannuation?  Should the labour be still around at retirment, do they know how to claim any payments (if there are payments) and what happens to support them in their later years?

As reported in my previous posts Robinvale thinks it is being screwed; done-over; short-changed by what is happening.  Housing availability can be categorised as DIRE.  Nearby Swan Hill has no housing problem.  Any money available for housing in the area, seems to end up in Swan Hill while nearb Robinvale needs at least 100 houses.  It is estimated that, overall, the town is short by 750 beds. 

The locals would like to see a recognition of vertical integration of the whole labour hire rorting - which may mean bringing together ovelapping departments, adjoining interests.  There's taxation; wages; health; superannuation and retirement income; industrial relatioons; immigration ..... 

And there has to be enforcement, severe clamping down.  But is there an inclination to do this at the Federal level?  You see, the Federal Government has made it clear that they are going to expedite the Working Holiday Visa (417) and the Employer Sponsored Work Visa (457).  To do this, the current Federal Government has introduced the concept of Designated Areas.  In short our current Australian Government is aiding and abetting the shady side of the street in regard to the easy use of 417s and 457s.  All this at a time of very high youth unemployment and underemployment.  

So what does this really mean - what is the end result?

1. The government has surreptitiously introduced policies that fit into a total picture of driving down wages.  Is this to convenience employers? Is it so Australia can compete againswt low-wage countries, particularly those in Aisa?

2. If there is increased employment under 417s and 457s, what is the government doing to ensure there is no exploitation of workers in these categories.  Rorts and abuse under 457s have a long history. Recent rorts and abuses can be seen here >>>  

FWO concerns over 417 visas

Hungarian workers on 457s told to go home after complaining about pay rates

Adelaide businesses face court over alleged workplace breaches involving 457 visa-holders

sc417 visa holders abused and encouraged not to pay tax 

Dispiriting report on how to turn an encouraging exhibition of public support into a tawdry tale

How many journos does it take to run the News Corp Indigenous smear machine

 Mark Pearce 4 May 2015, 6:00pm  1,180  19

 Indigenous AustraliaMedia

Herald Sun, pages 4 and 5, 2/5/15

How three experienced Herald Sun reporters used deception and trickery to distort the critical closure of remote Aboriginal communities issue into a propaganda piece about ‘commuter chaos’. Mark Pearce reports.

ON SATURDAY 2 May 2015, an insert article on page 5 appeared in a Herald Sun double page spread, connected with front-page headlines concerning a protest rally against the closures of remote Aboriginal communities that shutdown Melbourne’s CBD.

In the age of media restructures and budget cuts, apparently it takes not one, not two, but three journalists to undertake the reporting and writing of a two-hour event.

Throughout the insert article 'Protest against WA government’s policy shuts Melbourne CBD again', we witness a plethora of heavy-handed right wing language, unofficial reporting, no fact checking and omitted information.

You might imagine that three qualified journalists writing a lead news story for Melbourne’s primary newspaper could have the capacity to pull together all their skills and write an in-depth discussion (with an educational or informative approach) depicting the real Australian Indigenous issues of today. None of this seemed to occur.  

To begin, lets examine part of the headline phrase: “WA Government Policy”. The WA government has not released anything in the form of an official written policy vis à vis the closure of remote Aboriginal communities. They obviously have some sort of a plan – perhaps an unplanned plan – but no official policy.

A few paragraphs into the article, we read [IA emphasis]:

'… hundreds of thousands of people trying to get home were severely inconvenienced as anangry throng of more than 12,000 people jammed the streets.'

(Page 5 of the Herald Sun, 2/5/15)

'An angry throng of ... people'? Really?

This event was a peaceful march and rally attended by young and old Australians; families with children, mothers, fathers, uncles and aunties, sisters and brothers of all colour and race. If this was an 'angry throng of 12,000 people' as suggested, where are the arrests or violent outbreaks? After all, if 12,000 people were angry, surely at some point hostility provoked somebody? But there was none of that. No arrests, just a peaceful protest.

The photograph from the same article speaks a thousand words; a peaceful "sit-down" listening to leaders who voiced their concerns about governance and humanity — an act also known as "democratic free speech". So was this a throng of 12,000 angry people, or 12,000 people just following their spirit?

Not an 'angry throng' but  a remarkably peaceful assembly 12,000 passionate people out expressing their support the rights of the First Australians (Image by Nick Harrison)

Halfway through the article, there is mention of one protestor’s response that the reporters – allegedly – interviewed:

When asked to name a specific community under threat, or the political leaders responsible for policy decisions, some protesters were stumped. “With the amount of issues I follow worldwide, you couldn’t expect anyone to remember the specifics like that”, said one.

Assuming the journalists attended the event and spoke with some of the 12,000 protesters, surely at least one human being would have obliged them with their name?

If the journalists had researched this issue, they would recognise the fact that there has never been and never will be any naming of any community “to be closed” or “not viable” as WA Premier Colin Barnett has not declared which ones are in the firing line, just that up to 150 outstations may be closed. Everything else is silence.

This act of government silence is the incident that has incited 98 organised protests held around the world on 1 May 2015.

Further down in the article, the story shifts to 71 year-old Faye, with no surname or town of residence published. Faye allegedly said:

"Looks like I’ve got to walk… I’ve got an injured knee and I’m not looking forward to it.”

Where is Faye walking to, or from for that matter? If anyone has ever visited a CBD, at some point you know you need to get out of a car, or tram, or train, or office, or shop and walk to your destination. Perhaps Faye just forgot to bring along her magic carpet?

The article ends on a comment by Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews who suggested:

“Peaceful protests are best done when the police have been properly consulted.”

No violence or anger here — from police or protesters (Image by Nick Harrison)

Apart from the all day “rolling live coverage” reported from the Herald Sun website to bring citizen awareness of the event, Victorian Police officers safely guided the march of 12,000 protestors, including dozens of police waiting in place at the city square destination. What on earth wasn't “properly consulted” with police?

If we want to talk about proper consultation, perhaps Mr Andrews’ Victorian State political counterparts might think about having detailed discussions with Aboriginal leaders and the people who live in the WA remote communities, rather than deflecting "consultation problems" back at the (Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance) organisers, who staged a successful and peaceful event.

Yes, shutting down the CBD was part of attaining mainstream awareness of the issue, however the dysfunctional disinformation, including the inflated figures of football fans affected and the front-page headline “City Highjack”, is the same perpetual propaganda machine still squeaking.

The rust-ridden cogwheels (our governments) keep asking themselves is: “How do we make the Aboriginal argument more palatable today?”

Governments and media organisations don’t grind this primary school disinformation out to people who are already on board with what they’re saying but, rather, to the people who need to swallow the pill a little more slowly.  

For the last 200-plus years, the machine has been tinkered with, but the same sounds of “the savages”, “the uncivilized” “the uneducated”, “the morally deficient”, and “the second-class citizens” still exists. Their culture is “primitive”, they’re “not progressive” and, today, they’re living an “unviable” or “unsustainable lifestyle” we hear — in one of the richest countries on the planet.

Accordingly, we see the same rattling of the machine in this double page spread headline 'Still Selfish, Still A Rabble'. Which was an unapologetic follow up from their April front page about another Indigenous rally, which declared peaceful demonstrators to be: 'Selfish Rabble' (see below). 

This dehumanization has always been the argument; therefore you can’t negotiate with them.

There are members in all factions of society that can’t be reasoned with, but the fear-mongering component is effective with Aboriginals living in remote communities because it plays on the “othering”. If you never see, or hear from another group of people it’s very easy to demonize them.

 

History shows us how the British negotiated with the First Australians previously. Is there any negotiating with Aboriginal communities today? Has anything fundamentally changed?

The fact is, very little has changed, except the actual policies, which eventually remove Traditional Custodians from their land anyway.

The policies and their proceedings have resulted in the gradual disintegration of cultural standards, including fringe communities in urban areas, rising rates of alcoholism, incarceration and youth suicides, and ultimately the disempowerment of the people.

It’s clear that government and sections of their sidekick media corporations want to fashion the Aboriginal issue around personalized emotive issues like we can’t “subsidise lifestyle choices”, which equates to “draining the tax-paying purse”, and then allow other nonsensical matters to take flight such as focusing on “commuter chaos”, caused by "angry throngs" of protesters affecting the elderly and city workers who may end up getting home a little late for dinner.

A peaceful sit-down as 12,000 human rights supporters respectfully listen to speakers discuss the issue of remote community closures and Indigenous culture (Image by Nick Harrison)

The irony of the issue couldn’t be stronger.

It’s another chapter in perception deception, which over time ultimately allows government to drop the palatable pill so that it digests into dozens of petite ills and evils, eventually seeping into mainstream consciousness.

Amnesty International and United Nations back the fight against remote Aboriginal community closures. The three journalists and their editors seem to have omitted this all-important fact. Perhaps they too have contracted "Murdochian amnesia" when it comes to the issue of human rights. 

Mark Pearce is a Melbourne based filmmaker who has produced and directed a range of micro documentaries on Aboriginal and environmental issues that people of the Kimberley face. You can follow Mark on Twitter @balangara.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License

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WHAM ARTIST CONVERGENCE : BUANGOR (between Beaufort & Ararat) : MAY 3 2015 FROM 10AM TO 3PM

FROM THE WHAM FACEBOOK SITE:

Helen Lewers added photos to April 26, 2015.

26 April at 21:31

Say your goodbyes to these beautiful old redgums who've been living in the Middle Creek area long before it had that name - 200-400 years previously, at least. Say goodbye to the young trees too. There aren't too many growing on adjacent farmland. NONE of these trees are protected. 

Not by‪#‎VicRoadsVandals‬.

Not by the ‪#‎AndrewsGvt‬.

Not by anyone who has the power to protect them. 

Say goodbye.

AN INVITATION

Noticed any roads authorities vandalising ancient habitat trees

on the Western Highway lately? 

Come to Buangor on the 3 May - Sunday - 10am to 3pm 

and help record the treasures we are losing. 

Bring all your own materials, picnic, chair, etc. 

(NB - good toilets at Beaufort!) 

The enormous environmental damage being inflicted upon us all 

is to save a TOTAL OF 2 WHOLE MINUTES of travel time 

between Beaufort and Ararat! 

For more details contact as per poster or via WHAM on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/867523523309131/

Numbers to phone for more information:

0408 545 229

0400 713 175

Could you also bring Yellow Ribbons
to tie around the trees
As a symbol of our care for them
Please know, we are being positive about saving these trees
for future generations

Development plans before the #BallaratCouncil could be disastrous for #BallaratEast and its residents who access their homes and St Paul's through St Paul's Way. Please make your comments by 1 May 2015 if you wish to alter or stop this development.

Have your say on St Paul’s Way

Thanks to Ballarat East Network for the information

St Paul’s Way – have your say – up until May 1st 2015

Proposed Residential and Commercial Development 

‘Marvella Heights’ St Pauls Way, Bakery Hill:

http://www.ballarat.vic.gov.au/pbs/city-strategy/planning-scheme-amendments/on-exhibition/amendment-c191-and-plp2014829-marvella-heights.aspx

Amendment C191 to the Ballarat Planning Scheme proposes to:

• Rezone the land from Public Use Zone Schedule 5 (Education) to the Mixed Use Zone
• Rezone the road reserve to the west from Commercial 1 Zone to Mixed Use Zone and remove the Heritage Overlay (HO176) from the road reserve

Planning Permit application PLP/2014/829 is for a:

• Six lot subdivision
• Staged development of four multi-storey residential apartments
• 19 townhouses
• Four office and retail units with 2 associated residential apartments
• Waiver of carparking and creation of an easement

Miss Eagle's comments:

Could people please have a look at this and comment. I am not alone in thinking that this is over-development of the site. 

Access to historic St Paul’s will be severely affected. The Fire Station will have its views impeded, the Dean’s House at the back of St Paul’s will be overshadowed. Many houses that have their vehicle entry off St Paul’s Way will be affected and there is no visitors' parking on the site. My guess that St Paul’s Way will become untrafficable on a regular basis and houses and St Paul’s will be affected. 

I believe that perusal of the block by council officers was never undertaken at the time of maximum usage at St Paul’s – and it will be too bad when there is a huge funeral!!! 

See more at: http://ballarateast.net/have-your-say-on-st-pauls-way/#comment-249132

Lest We Forget - a pacifist's remembrance of the centenary of ANZAC Day - Part 2

"Fat" was a recurring figure in working class literature

of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

He was included in the work of Henry Lawson.

~~~

The Bulletin Reciter 

A Collection of Verses for Recitation 

from 'The Bulletin' Sydney 

The Bulletin Newspaper Company, Limited, Publishers
1880-1901

Glory of Women

You love us when we’re heroes, home on leave,

Or wounded in a mentionable place.

You worship decorations; you believe

That chivalry redeems the war’s disgrace.

You make us shells. You listen with delight,

By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled.

You crown our distant ardours while we fight,

And mourn our laurelled memories when we’re killed.

You can’t believe that British troops ‘retire’

When hell’s last horror breaks them, and they run,

Trampling the terrible corpses-blind with blood.

O German mother dreaming by the fire,

While you are knitting socks to send your son

His face is trodden deeper in the mud.

 Siegfried Sassoon

~~~

The Fat Man and The War

They sing of the pride of battle,

They sing of the Dogs of War,

Of the men that are slain like cattle

On African soil afar.

They sing of the gallant legions

A-bearin’ the battle’s brung

Out in them torrid regions

A-fightin’ the foe in front.

They sing of Mauser and Maxim,

And their doin’s across the foam,

But I hear none sit of the Fat Man

Who sits at his ease at home,

Contrivin’ another measure

For scoopin’ a lump o’ tin,

New coffers to hoard the treasure

That his brothers’ blood sweeps in;

Chock-full o’ zeal for speedin’

The sword of his Queen’s behest,

But other men’s legs to bear it

Is the notion that suits him best.

Nothin’ he knows of fightin’;

He was never built that way;

But the game of War is excitin’

When the stake’s worth more than the play.

An’ a fat little man in comin’,

When the turmoil has settled down,

An’ the dogs of war are silent,

An’ the veldt is bare and brown.

When the sun has licked the blood up

An’ the brown earth hid the bones,

His miners will go out seekin’

For gold and precious stones.

Like a ghoul from the reekin’ shambles

He grubs out his filthy pelf,

Reapin’ a cursed harvest

Where he dursn’t have sown himself.

Now, this is one man’s opinion,

An’ I think it is fair an’ right:

If he wants the land of the Dutchman

Let him go like a man an’ fight.

If the African mines have treasure,

An’ the Fat Man wants a bone,

Let him go by himself an’ find it,

Let him trek for the Front alone. 

By Magnet (a pseudonym)

~~~

Inscription for a War

Stranger, go tell the Spartans

We died here obedient to their commands

               Inscription at Thermopylae

Linger not, stranger; shed no tear;

Go back to those who sent us here.

We are the young they drafted out

To wars their folly brought about.

Go tell those old men, safe in bed,

We took their orders and are dead.

A.D. Hope

Perhaps some day the sun will shine again,

And I shall see that still the skies are blue,

And feel once more I do not live in vain,

Although beret of You.

Perhaps the golden meadows at my feet

Will make the sunny hours of spring seem gay,

And I shall find the white May-blossoms sweet,

Though You have passed away.

Perhaps the summer wood s will shimmer bright,

And crimson roses once again be fair,

And autumn harvest fields a rich delight,

Although you are not there.

Perhaps some day I shall not shrink in pain

To see the passing of the dying year,

And listen to Christmas songs again,

Although you cannot hear.

But though kind Time may many joys renew,

There is one greatest joy I shall no know

Again, because my heart for loss of You

Was broken, long ago.

Vera Brittain

The Country Women's Association even printed a card, to be left on a seat, that not only called for peace but also recognised the common humanity of the 'enemy':

But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine

O hear my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

A song of peace , South Australian CWA, Dowlingville Branch

Taken from this site 

The site linked above contains an Australian treasure trove

of poetry and song

some relating to protest against war.

Lest We Forget - a pacifist's remembrance of the centenary of ANZAC Day - Part 1

When one thinks of anti-war poetry, 
more often than not it is the poetry of World War 1, 
of the horrendous battlefields of the Western Front
of the poetry of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. 
Wilfred Owen is the author of what may be the best known anti-war poem,
Dulce et Decorum Est
Please go here for Dr Andrew Barker's analysis of Dulce et Decorum Est

As I write this, on the centenary of the landing at Gallipoli, thousands of Australians have left their homes to attend Dawn Services across the country, to keep alive the ANZAC tradition.  Other thousands of Australians have left their homeland to commemorate the Australian war dead in Turkey and France.  I have chosen to stay at home and write this reflection.

My own commemoration was done on Thursday night as I watched on television Kate Aubusson's wonderful remembrance, Lest We Forget What?.  Kate's film is the best thing I have seen or read about our ANZAC tradition - the research done, the people featured in the film, the things we didn't know and which are seldom revealed.  

I think this day on the war-time service of the men in my family - especially of the one who didn't return home, my great uncle Claude Gallaway.  He perished on the Western Front in France.  He was 26 years old.  Through the Australian War Memorial records we have been able to see the heart-breaking letters written regularly to the powers-that-be from my great grandmother and my three great aunts reminding them that their son and brother was still missing.

My grandfather, Jack (Rupert Franklin Gore) Gallaway, and his brother William Gallaway were Lighthorsemen. 

In World War 2, my uncle Roland Gore Gallaway served as a Coastwatcher on Manus Island and later in Japan with the Occupation Forces. My uncle, Jack Franklin Gallaway, served in the Royal Australian Navy in World War 2 and in Korea. Jack wrote The Last Call of the Bugle: Kapyong, Korea.  The title of the book refers to Korea being the last Australian conflict for which the call went out for volunteers.

My father, John Joseph (Jack) O'Carroll, served in Malaya in the 2/10th Field Regiment of the Eighth Division.  He was invalided home six weeks before the fall of Singapore.

For my generation, Vietnam was an issue and a horror.  It was then I became a pacifist. I have seen no reason in the decades since to resile from this decision.

Across history we have seen one conflict begetting another. World War 1 begat World War 2.  The American invasion of Iraq in recent decades has certainly influenced the current violence in the Middle East. There is the history of foreign military involvement in Afghanistan.  In recent generations, we have developed the so-called proxy wars. Australia is becoming enmeshed in these wars of empire.

I believe that pacifists fulfill the slogan we say each Anzac Day.  We are there to remind people of the cost, the horror, the futility of war ... Lest We Forget.

The Ode of Remembrance

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

Lest We Forget.

Should Labor talk to the Greens?

Open Labor is holding a debate in Melbourne to-night. The question is Should Labor Talk To The Greens?

Miss Eagle has written to Open Labor letting her views be known.  Miss E is dyed in the wool Labor - but is rather selective. Miss E was once, but is no more, a member of the ALP.  She is a twice-failed Labor candidate but bears no animus re that. It was a significant experience and it led to her becoming an organiser with the AWU - the first female organiser in Northern Australia and only the second female organiser in its history.  

Miss E still has quite traditional Labor views on many topics, particularly on work, labour, and workplace rights - but feels she has nothing in common with Labor in relation to its ambiguous stance on environmental matters and its progressively harsher stand on the matter of refugees and asylum seekers since 1992.   Both of these items, in Miss E's view, are highly moral in nature and values.  Labor's attitudes on these policy matters do nothing to attain the moral and advantageous high ground.  They send Australia and Australians deeper into a vandalistic and inhumane mire.

In light of these views, Miss Eagle has written to Open Labor as follows:

Dear Open Labor,

My view is that The Greens should enrol in the ALP and immediately establish a faction.  It's the only way I can think of for environmental concerns to get an authentic guernsey in the development of a collective environmentally concerned mind within the ALP.  

Under Rudd and Gillard, Labor made a mess of their attempts at being 'green' i.e. the pink batts (policy would have been helped by consultation with a relevant tradesman but where are they in the ALP - does anyone even sleep with a tradie anymore?) and giving tradeable electricity to homeowners (more to the rich and the middle class) instead of including renters (clearly don't give a darn about low income people, let alone pensioners and the unemployed, who rent! And completely ignore the situation of people living in public housing).  Should I mention here how a Victorian Labor Government upgraded public housing and privatised a portion of it thus decreasing the quantity of public housing available to Victorians.

The ALP is lagging and conservative.  Its careerist politicians are concerned with the Almighty $ and assuring for themselves lucrative post-politics careers.  I won't name names - but I don't think I need to.  We can all finger Labor politicians who are guilty of this.

I don't think Labor has clearly defined and delineated its role in this post-GFC world.  Without a clear path, ideology, or compass, it means that Labor will wax and wane in its policies instead of defining a clear path, a steady compass forward.

Sincerely,

Brigid Walsh

(once an ALP member; twice an ALP Federal Candidate; once an AWU organiser)​