Courtesy of the Age/Herald, the latest monthly federal voting intention numbers from Resolve Strategic have with Labor down a point to 36%, the Coalition up one to 34%, the Greens up one to 12% and One Nation steady on 5%. As ever, no two-party preferred result is provided, but I make it to be 55-45 to Labor based on 2022 election preferences compared with about 55.5-44.5 last time.
As with last week’s Newspoll, the poll gives Anthony Albanese his first net negative personal rating as prime minister, with approval down four to 40% and disapproval up five to 47%. Peter Dutton is up four to 35% and down one to 44%, with Albanese retaining a 43-28 lead as preferred prime minister, in from 46-25.
The worst news for the government comes once again from the Indigenous Voice, with a forced response question now putting no ahead 57-43, out from 54-46 a month ago. A question allowing for an uncommitted response has no leading 49% to 35%. Combining this month’s results with last month’s to get reasonable sub-samples, no leads 56-44 in New South Wales, 51-49 in Victoria, 61-39 in Queensland and Western Australia and 59-41 in South Australia, with yes leading only in Tasmania by 56-44 off a particularly small sample.
The poll was conducted Wednesday to Saturday from a sample of 1604.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
Here’s David Crowe’s take on the latest Resolve poll. It’s headlined, “Voters continue to turn against the Voice – and Albanese along with it”.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/voters-continue-to-turn-against-the-voice-and-albanese-along-with-it-20230910-p5e3fy.html
Mark Kenny has written a good (as he always does) article about the rise of the right in politics – even on the left.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8342724/rise-of-the-right-even-on-the-left/
Sean Kelly writes that, in misreading the times, Labor’s bad week has become Albanese’s long-haul mess.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/in-misreading-the-times-labor-s-bad-week-has-become-albanese-s-long-haul-mess-20230908-p5e35t.html
Michelle Pini piles into Dutton over the Voice.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/peter-dutton-needs-another-referendum-to-find-his-voice,17880
The Reserve Bank’s outgoing boss will be seen as a man caught by the changing tide, a victim of the economics profession’s then failure to see what everyone these days accepts as obvious, writes Ross Gittins in a constructive contribution.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/how-philip-lowe-was-caught-on-the-cusp-of-history-20230910-p5e3fm.html
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has suggested that Qatar Airways not fully utilising its current access to secondary Australian airports was partially responsible for the Albanese government’s decision to block more flights.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/marles-suggests-qatar-was-not-using-all-its-existing-capacity-20230910-p5e3gb
State-owned Forestry Corporation’s latest effort to start logging Oakes State Forest is threatening the NSW Government’s promised Great Koala National Park. It’s attracting local consternation and global condemnation, Sue Arnold reports.
https://michaelwest.com.au/complete-habitat-destruction-scientists-rally-against-nsw-forestry-corporation-clear-felling/
Perry Duffin explains how a vascular surgeon has shown that many of his patients were hooked on cheap black-market tobacco. The doctor has made it a personal crusade to expose how the crooks are amassing fortunes while undoing 50 years of public health advocacy in the tobacco space.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/surgeon-unmasks-open-secret-making-underworld-fortunes-20230830-p5e0qn.html
Michaela Whitbourn tells us that the Federal Court would make legal history if it empanelled a jury in the defamation battle between Sydney MP Alex Greenwich and former NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mp-s-defamation-suit-against-latham-could-make-legal-history-20230810-p5dvjx.html
From the dodgy politician getting a mining license against the wishes of landowners, to the multimillion-dollar government IT contract awarded to a company belonging to a friend of a federal minister. Corruption is rarely visible but its impacts are felt by every Australian, Clancy Moore reports.
https://michaelwest.com.au/the-invisible-hand-of-legal-corruption-costs-every-australian/
An SMH editorial says that a sweeping overhaul of the state’s mathematics curriculum will be rolled out in all NSW schools from next year as part of a major drive to channel more students into calculus-based advanced and extension HSC courses.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/maths-revamp-could-pave-way-for-student-excellence-20230910-p5e3hj.html
Looking at the case with Gavin “Capable” Preston, who was shot dead in Keilor Village on Saturday while enjoying a coffee with one of his few remaining mates, also wounded in the attack, veteran crime writer John Silvester says, “Major gangsters are like politicians. They need more friends than enemies if they are to stay in power.”
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/in-the-underworld-losing-the-numbers-game-can-be-fatal-20230910-p5e3j9.html
The Age says that hopes for an early resolution of the legal dispute between Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto and his exiled MP Moira Deeming faded in the middle of last week, with Pesutto telling ABC radio that attempts at mediation had gone, well, nowhere really.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/deeming-offers-an-out-well-sort-of-20230910-p5e3io.html
Passengers between Melbourne, Albury-Wodonga and Sydney face a return to slow and bumpy journeys unless Victoria agrees to start paying for track upkeep.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/massive-problems-v-line-stoush-could-mean-track-downgrade-to-freight-standard-20230910-p5e3h6.html
Cartoon Corner
David Rowe
Matt Golding
Vintage Cathy Wilcox
A Glen Le Lievre gif
https://twitter.com/i/status/1700667863290499363
Jim Pavlidis
Peter Broelman
Spooner
From the US
I think the case can be made that what the Referendum debate has done so far is entrenched Dutton in the Liberal leadership for now.
I find it difficult to comprehend that No is behind in every mainland state, even Victoria.
Has the referendum polling reached preamble results in 1999?
If so, what happened to our enlightened Gen X’ers?
Beware the creep of conservatism as one ages.
5 more weeks of this to go. Not impossible that bludgertrack which is +1.5 on the election is evens or even behind by the time the ref is up.
I think todays resolve – hasn’t been added into the average by William yet.
Indigenous people make up such a small percentage of our population that it is nonsensical to blame Aboriginal people for the referendum loss.
What has given the perception of division is that the No campaign has prominent Aboriginal voices which has given people leaning No justification in firming No. But it is unrealistic to expect that Aboriginal people will be 100% in favour of an issue – Aboriginal people are people like anyone else, with varied opinions.
As for Price and Mundine, time will tell what they get out of opposing a constitutionally enshrined voice. Lidia Thorpe’s opposition to the Voice has cost her her party membership which will eventually cost her her Senate seat.
I think there is a fair argument that everyone across the board loses from the voice ref being defeated .
Thanks BK!
Who knew that rejecting a Middle East airline additional carrying capacity in Australia would become such a political issue right now?
A Chinese academic here on a research trip was reportedly offered $2000 in a paper package by the “federal government” for intel about his network back home, Guardian Australia says. Sources said a person approached the professor (who the paper didn’t name) in a Brisbane café but wouldn’t say what department they were from — just three days later the Chinese man’s laptop and mobile phone were seized in a raid of his accommodation by the AFP and ASIO. The man, who works at a major Chinese research university as an expert on Sino-Australian relations, flew home early sans tech, freaked out by the surveillance. It comes as a British parliamentary researcher working on China policy has been arrested in the UK for allegedly spying for China, something news.com.au called “one of the biggest-ever spying breaches at Westminster”. The unnamed man had “links” to senior Tories such as Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, whatever “links” means.
Elon Musk’s Starship grounded after explosion during debut launch
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is facing a major setback as US federal regulators have grounded its Starship launch vehicle after investigating the explosion during its debut launch in April this year.
https://indianexpress-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/indianexpress.com/article/technology/science/elon-musk-spacex-starship-rocket-grounded-8931690/lite/?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16943540104674&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Findianexpress.com%2Farticle%2Ftechnology%2Fscience%2Felon-musk-spacex-starship-rocket-grounded-8931690%2F
Elon Musk’s SpaceX faces a major setback as the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the company to ground Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, until it takes many corrective actions. The launch vehicle’s debut launch in April ended in an explosion.
FAA announced Friday that it closed its investigation into the explosion and cited multiple causes that could have led to the mishap. SpaceX must now take 63 corrective actions to ensure that such an incident does not happen again. After making all the corrections, the company will have to apply for and receive a license modification from the federal regulation before it can attempt another launch.
Yes, we all lose if YES goes down.
Being Australian will become an international hallmark of something rather small and mean-spirited, in ways we can’t yet fully see or fathom.
Time for some people to wake up to that.
#weatheronPB
Clear cool air again,
Empty blue spaces again,
Perfection. Again.
Griff says:
Monday, September 11, 2023 at 7:35 am
Thanks BK!
Who knew that rejecting a Middle East airline additional carrying capacity in Australia would become such a political issue right now?
——————————-
As per normal its the lib/nats and their propaganda media units who have misread the room
The propaganda of airfares will become cheaper if Qatar was given extra services has been exposed as false
the back tracking has already begun , – Prices will not drop unless more international airlines get extra services
Airfares are not expected to come down until end of next year
Also what exposed the propaganda by lib/nats and media the main complaint was not about families , but for tourist to travel
So if cost of living was high and people were struggling to cope, how can they afford these flights to go on holidays
From the previous thread, because it snuck up on me:
meher baba @ #651 Monday, September 11th, 2023 – 7:05 am
c@t: “Unlike some, I’m not giving up on the referendum. People really should read the Jennifer Rubin article I posted, rather than spending their time writing eloquent treatises to its failure.”
That article reminds me of a lot of the stuff that was said and written by supporters of the Whitlam Government in 1975, as all the opinion polls incidated a landslide defeat for Labor, notwithstanding the huge crowds turning out and changing “We Want Gough”, etc . I recall that, to his credit, Mungo MacCallum was the one left-leaning journo at that time who backed the polling rather than the vibe.
I would suggest you read KB’s latest article. These are the most salient words:
“…referendums proposed by Labor governments, held in mid-term and lacking bipartisan support all have poor track records individually, and this one is all three.”
All of us should have realised that the referendum was dead the instant that the Coalition refused to support it. I’ll give a strange sort of credit to the Government and the Yes proponents that they convinced even me that, despite this, there was still a chance that the referendum would succeed. I now wonder why on earth I ever thought that.
Yes, Kevin Bonham, a polling guy, has analysed the polling entrails and pontificated upon them. Big deal. What he says doesn’t resonate with me, and it’s probably why I don’t go to his website that often. Lots of numbers and ‘thoughtful’, beard-stroking analysis, which appears to be missing the point these days about polling, which Simon Rosenberg, whose Substack blog I subscribe to, and Jennifer Rubin, have picked up on. That is, it’s no longer fit for purpose.
So that’s why I’m going to keep campaigning for ‘Yes’ and I will never blame Anthony Albanese for doing the right thing and respecting Indigenous Australians who asked for it. Oh, and ignoring deathriders like Lars Von Trier, who would like nothing more than to see the PM fatally damaged by a referendum loss. I’m not that easily influenced by doomsayers.
What I have been influenced by, is Dan Bourchier’s journalism about the referendum. He is actually putting in the legwork to get opinions from everywhere and then writing actually balanced articles about it. Maybe you should read the latest one. It saddened me to read it, but at least there were some rays of sunshine among the clouds:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-11/voice-referendum-australia-answers-complicated-four-corners/102832900
gollsays:
Monday, September 11, 2023 at 7:49 am
Lefty_e @ 6.40am
“Like it or not, if YES doesn’t get up, we’re gonna look a right pack of arseholes down here.”
As it stands Australia looks like “a right pack of arseholes down here”,
Particularly highlighted by the recent outburst of the still only recently departed ex PM, Morrison, unable to extradicte himself from the deluded opinion he has of himself and walloping at the hands of the voters at the 2022 election.
Dutton, Morrison and the LNP are continuing to live in denial of many things.
The recognition of “First Australians” is but one.
Morrison’s LNP government was a textbook “third world” disgrace, a blight on the short history of “white Australia” and can now only be expunged by a win for the “yes” vote in the the upcoming referendum.
Whether enough Australian voters will have the foresight to see beyond their obsession with greed and the superficial adormnments of the success of the greed is on display at the referendum.
History is swamped in instances of narrow horizons and false presumptions and the disastrous consequences of these.
The referendum to acknowledge the Indigenous Australians is a test of the maturity and resolve of a modern country to display some self awareness and balance to move into a future that will examine the best of governments.
The previous Morrison LNP government is being declared with every disclosure, a deceitful, disingenerous political disgrace.
The LNP together with Dutton, Joyce, Abbott, Howard, Palmer, Hanson and others own the “no” vote, the lack of integrity and dishonesty that is associated with the “no” vote and the implications for Australia’s reputation in the future.
This group is the rightful “pack of arseholes down here” and need to be repudiated at the referendum.
Morning all. Thanks for the roundup BK. One good news story from the weekend regarding AUKUS was how it will be used to fund needed urban infrastructure near HMAS Stirling.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-10/hmas-stirling-freedom-of-entry-to-city-ahead-of-aukus-project/102821796
Conditions for sailors is a big issue in RAN crew retention. Spending $1 billion (out of $268+!) on housing near Rockingham is a drop in the bucket for AUKUS, but very welcome for the RAN, Rockingham and the Perth housing market. The navy could build over 1000 homes.
Re the Tasmanian vote: I wouldn’t be surprised if Yes snuck over the line down here, but 56-44 seems to be a little far-fetched.
Re Michael Mansell’s opposition to the Voice, that some posters commented on here yesterday. I suspect that he and the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) have similar problems to the proposal that they had with ATSIC: namely, that it opens up the fraught issue of who is entitled to identify themselves as being an Aboriginal Tasmanian.
As I understand it, all the people that the TAC recognises as Aboriginal Tasmanians, or palawa, are descended from a handful of nineteenth century Aboriginal women. The TAC applies a strict benchmark based on genealogical records. Notwithstanding this, the proportion of people identifying as Indigenous in Tasmania has burgeoned in recent years. In the 2021 Census, it stood at 5.4 per cent of the State’s population, up from 4.6 per cent in 2016 and 3.6 per cent in 2011. In the Circular Head region (the north-west corner of the State, including the towns of Smithton and Stanley), the proportion in 2021 was a staggering 17 per cent, approaching Northern Territory levels.
The proportion nationally is only 3.2 per cent. In Queensland, long recognised as the State with the most significant concentrations of Indigenous peoples, the proportion is only 4.6 per cent.
Of course, some of the 30,000 or so Tasmanians who self-identify as Indigenous have moved here from other parts of Australia, but the overwhelming majority are locally-born. It is statistically impossible for most of these to be descended from the handful of women recognised as the survivors of genocide by the TAC: yes, most British people are possibly descendants of Edward III, but that outcome has taken the best part of seven centuries to achieve.
Therefore, most of the growing numbers of self-identified Tasmanian Aborigines base their claims on unverifiable family traditions or – in the case of the Lia Pootah group of the Huon Valley – on descent from “lost tribes” of Indigenous people who hid from the colonists in the bush until the late nineteenth century. The TAC claim, with some justification, that most of these people are self-identifying as Indigenous in an attempt to gain financial or other benefits. But the numbers of these non-palawa self-identifying Aboriginal Tasmanians continues to increase quite rapidly, and they would now seem to outnumber the TAC/palawa group quite significantly.
In the ATSIC years, the dispute between the TAC/palawa group and other Tasmanian people claiming to be Indigenous resulted in litigation and a great deal of controversy in the media. I suspect that Mansell fears that the Voice will re-ignite this dispute on potentially an even larger scale. I must say that I have a fair degree of sympathy for him, at least on this issue.
There is a morbid irony in the concept of ‘too many’ Aboriginals as a result of self-identification.
@Confessions – “The Indigenous community is not divided about the referendum. The majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want a constitutionally enshrined voice.”
I hope so – but it’s up to the Yes campaign to prove it, because perception is reality and the perception of division in the Indigenous community has been created across all media through endless visibility given to Indigenous No voters.
@C@t: I have not given up on the Referendum but I’m acknowledging the very serious problems that Yes needs to also recognise to stand any chance of turning the ship around. And suddenly turning against polling when the polling isn’t favourable is a bit shoot the messenger.
Meher
You are very brave.
It would be the height of ignorance for Labor decision makers to put the decline in Albo/Labor’s polling down to the referendum.
Blaming the voters shows the yes camp supporters aren’t getting the message of why they are losing.
Mehar baba – The Resolve state figures are based off the last two surveys. Even then the number Tasmanians polled is still extremely small (probably around 80 people). The best that could said using a sample of that size is that it is not blow out – (if a poll of 80 shows 75% in one way or the other, that side could be said to be winning).
Even the SA and WA figures are pretty small samples, but they are in line with other polls and not particular close either (if they were 47-53 you could make the case that it was too close to call).
Groff: “There is a morbid irony in the concept of ‘too many’ Aboriginals as a result of self-identification.”
Yes indeed. However, it will become a very significant concept indeed if reparations ever become a reality.
BS Fairman: Yes, the numbers in the Resolve poll are small. Other polling, with equally unreliable numbers, has shown No to be ahead down here. I still believe that Yes can quite possibly win in Tasmania, which is an increasingly progressive place these days.
The result will partly depend on how strongly Mansell and his crew decide to campaign against it. So far they don’t seem to be going particularly hard.
MB – Certainly the south is looking more and more like an inner city Teal seat. The north looks more like a provincial area and the North West looks like…. well…. it is it’s own beast.
Rex Douglassays:
Monday, September 11, 2023 at 8:25 am
It would be the height of ignorance for Labor decision makers to put the decline in Albo/Labor’s polling down to the referendum.
_____________________
Spot fires everywhere at the minute. It’s like the country has been transported back to the chaotic days of the Gillard govt.
Previous Thread:
C@tmomma @ #589 Sunday, September 10th, 2023 – 9:24 pm
The misinterpretation is widespread, extending it appears to RN Law Report. To say that imprisonment rates are a state issue and therefore not touched on by the Voice is a nonsense. Sentencing might be a state issue, but the First Peoples’ well being and self respect and sense of national community that Voice sets out to address and correct underlies a lot of the disorder and behaviour that drives high incarceration rates. Of course the Voice addresses imprisonment rates, state borders be damned.
meher baba says:
Monday, September 11, 2023 at 8:30 am
Groff: “There is a morbid irony in the concept of ‘too many’ Aboriginals as a result of self-identification.”
Yes indeed. However, it will become a very significant concept indeed if reparations ever become a reality.
________________
If we are arguing hypotheticals, reparation is likely to be tied to mob rather than individuals. If someone want to join a mob and they are accepted, so what?
Are the Lia Pootah a mob?
A bit ironic suggesting that indigenous people who didn’t agree with the proposal for a “Voice” should have remained silent.
Oakeshott Country says:
Monday, September 11, 2023 at 8:57 am
Are the Lia Pootah a mob?
___________
I am not in a position to say they aren’t. I am also not in a position to say they are 🙂
It’s tedious to keep seeing the repeated line that the Referendum should be pulled or put with a different proposal.
It’s the fulfilment of an election promise. It specifically proposes what First People asked for. To change either of those is to take the White Man Knows Best patronising position, as usual.
If it tanks, it will not be the fault of those dissenting First Peoples. To expect them to be homogeneous (unlike white man) is to fail to understand who they are and how they arrive at their positions. They’re certainly not helping, in that they give some comfort to those who by prejudice, selfishness, or doubt want to vote No. But the reason people will vote No in the *winning* numbers the current polls indicate is because of the vile Lies, and more Lies, the Ten Reasons To Vote No lies pummelled into peoples brains by the Liberal National and Media Machines working overtime to spread fear and filth. The polls reinforce that – Yes looking successful until the Lie Machine went into overdrive. There’s a lot of money being thrown at this.
That the Yes campaign fails to address the lies with the specificity and depth that they are being spread is the major failing I see. Also, while the whole shebang fulcrums of what First Peoples have asked for, I think Black Man telling White Man what to do is an issue. It’s sadly counter-intuitive. It’s so ironic. They are asking for input into decisions made about them, and at the starting gate, the very first decision we make about them, we are telling them NO, we’re not having a bar of that nonsense, you having input into what is best for you, thank you very much, but no thanks.
Price challenged the minister to a debate she should have taken it on. The yes campaign has been poor.
Griff
And I suspect that may be an unspoken issue for many who will vote No.
I think Black Man telling White Man what to do is an issue. It’s sadly counter-intuitive.
————————
Australia is not 97% white.
C@Tmomma,
“That article reminds me of a lot of the stuff that was said and written by supporters of the Whitlam Government in 1975, as all the opinion polls incidated a landslide defeat for Labor, notwithstanding the huge crowds turning out and changing “We Want Gough”, etc . I recall that, to his credit, Mungo MacCallum was the one left-leaning journo at that time who backed the polling rather than the vibe.“
Would this be the same Whitman Government that arrogantly assumed Neville Bonner, Australia’s first indigenous MP, would join the ALP without checking with him first? How about some respect for aboriginal people?
No Australia is 77% or so “white”…. depending on how one defines “whiteness”.
Oakeshott country says:
Monday, September 11, 2023 at 9:16 am
Griff
And I suspect that may be an unspoken issue for many who will vote No.
____________
Oh I agree that there are Australians that are concerned about ‘their’ wealth being given to others that will vote no. A high correlation with those that are concerned with ‘dole bludgers’ and ‘boat people’ as well.
Mexicanbeemer @ #36 Monday, September 11th, 2023 – 9:16 am
I don’t know what you mean to say.
What a f’ing joke. I like Wales. I want them to do well. But f me, that was one of the most biased displays of referring I have ever seen. Between that and handing 3pts for dropkicks to England – I am starting to sour.
I dont really mind drop kicks that decide games in the dying minutes. But relying on them through the game is nuts. Make them one point. No brainer.
B.S. Fairmansays:
Monday, September 11, 2023 at 9:22 am
No Australia is 77% or so “white”…. depending on how one defines “whiteness”.
——————-
The point being that by saying this is about white Australia ignores those that would not identity as white and many white people are supporting the yes campaign.
I had to look ‘Lia Pootah’ up.
A mob is a big number of anything isn’t it, although there’s an undercurrent or it’s mostly used wrt animals – mob of roos, big mob of cattle, etc.
ItzaDream @9.am
“But the reason people will vote No in the *winning* numbers the current polls indicate is because of the vile Lies, and more Lies, the Ten Reasons To Vote No lies pummelled into peoples brains by the Liberal National and Media Machines working overtime to spread fear and filth. The polls reinforce that – Yes looking successful until the Lie Machine went into overdrive. There’s a lot of money being thrown at this.”
Thanks for stating the current polling as they indicate.
Someone mentioned earlier the concept “reparations” which is the exact type of fear mongering being perpetrated broadly and repeatedly to defeat “the voice”.
ItzaDreamsays:
Monday, September 11, 2023 at 9:23 am
Mexicanbeemer @ #36 Monday, September 11th, 2023 – 9:16 am
I think Black Man telling White Man what to do is an issue. It’s sadly counter-intuitive.
————————
Australia is not 97% white.
I don’t know what you mean to say.
——————
The yes campaign has to talk to modern Australia that is culturally diverse not some imaged one.
Mexicanbeemer @ #45 Monday, September 11th, 2023 – 9:28 am
We are at cross purposes I think.
ItzaDream says:
Monday, September 11, 2023 at 9:25 am
I had to look ‘Lia Pootah’ up.
A mob is a big number of anything isn’t it, although there’s an undercurrent or it’s mostly used wrt animals – mob of roos, big mob of cattle, etc.
_________
Also used, self-referentially at times, for a group of First Nation Australians.
Griff: “If we are arguing hypotheticals, reparation is likely to be tied to mob rather than individuals. If someone want to join a mob and they are accepted, so what?”
In principle, I tend to agree.
However, I think that, in the event of reparations, we might well see some further litigation around the High Court’s “tripartite” definition of indigeneity as requiring 1. self-identification, 2. biological descent, and 3. recognition by an identified Indigenous community.
We might have seen the High Court make an interesting further refinement of this definition if the Albanese Government had not chosen to drop the Home Affairs portfolio’s challenge to the Federal Court’s ruling in the case of Shayne Montgomery: a New Zealander who had no biological descent from Indigenous people but who had been adopted and initiated by the Mununjali community in Brisbane, which the Federal Court ruled put him in the same category as two biologically Indigenous people without Australian citizenship whom the High Court had ruled could not be deported because Indigenous people are “ab origine” (by definition, belonging to Australia from its origins as a place inhabited by humans).
The recent expansion of the Indigenous population as recorded by the Census is significantly fuelled by the self-identification as Indigenous by a large number of people who grew up in ostensibly white families who were not part of Indigenous comunities but who carry (or at least claim to carry) some Indigenous DNA. Some of these people make no use of their claimed indigeneity, but others seek to participate in various programs and activities which are reserved solely for Indigenous people. The general expectation by both the courts and by Indigenous communities has been that they will only be permitted to do this if the relevant Indigenous community to which they claim to have blood ties accepts them as belonging to it.
However, the Montgomery case raises the possibility of the biological requirement being bypassed in future in favour of, say, a process of initiation: which would be consistent with some historical evidence from the early colonial period which reports people fleeing from one Indigenous community being permitted to become initiates of another community and also some instances of escaped convicts being so initiated.
I’m going to be interested in where these matters end up going. The approach that most Indigenous communities and leaders have taken up to now (with the major exception of Mansell and the TAC) has been to cautiously welcome anyone who claims to belong to their mob. Can this state of affairs continue?
Djokovic cruises to his 24th singles slam with a 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 win over
Medvedev, making it 24, tying with Pastor Maggie.
ItzaDreamsays:
We are at cross purposes I think.
————–
The yes campaign might not realise its doing it but when yes supporters say they are asking white men just what message is that sending to the millions of Australians that are not.