A question for the women.

Imagine being Aboriginal and wanting to buy a house? Bet that wouldn't be easy.

It's much easier than us - http://www.keystart.com.au/key/aboriginal.htm

'With a Low Deposit loan, you may only need a deposit of $2,000 or 2% of the purchase price if the property you are purchasing is $450,000 or less.'

I've also heard of double ABStudy, half price home loans, but have not verified.

All the aboriginals I know, without exception, are white skinned, blonde hair, blue eyes. How does THAT work?

See above.
 
Living in Western Sydney, I know quite a few aboriginals, and the kids, through school know even more. Most are fair skinned and show little to no evidence of being aboriginal. I can't remember what the percentage is, but I do remember that it is quite low. Basically it is something in the way of 1 grandparent (maybe even great grand parent) needs to be aboriginal.

You would be surprised at the amount of funding that they get. Not only do they get the special home loans & abstudy but they get a lot of extras. Like free driving lessons, from NRMA, I think. Cheaper TAFE courses. Lower UAI for Uni, etc. There are a lot of jobs advertised in the papers with one of the criterior being that you must be aboriginal. Try advertising that for any other nationality.

I believe that it is discrimination in reverse. I have heard my kids mention that so-and-so got (insert benefit here) and the response is "I deserve it. I'm aboriginal!" That is a good way to breed the entitlement mentality. What is wrong with the same rules for everyone, black or white, and everyone in between.
 
This is interesting - I must be completely insensitive to being treated in a gender-specific way as I never notice. Tradies, investment-related stuff, work, nup, I really don't notice being treated any differently. There are a lot of females in the IP related business (especially RAs) and they (male or female) are either patronising to both DH and me (which means we leave and have a really good giggle about it, especially if RAs come up with really stupid stuff) or they treat us the same.

Like most of the other ladies in the thread I'm the one doing most of the research & negotiations so people either treat me well or I walk away (assuming bad customer service rather than anything gender-specific).

Or it's just being in Brisbane rather than in those redneck Southern cities :D;)

kaf
 
Living in Western Sydney, I know quite a few aboriginals, and the kids, through school know even more. Most are fair skinned and show little to no evidence of being aboriginal. I can't remember what the percentage is, but I do remember that it is quite low. Basically it is something in the way of 1 grandparent (maybe even great grand parent) needs to be aboriginal..

It isn't even that. If someone wants to claim their heritage as Indigenous, then they can and no-one is allowed to dispute it. The percentage is not determined anymore.

We heard of a young girl who was applying to do a course at Uni (think it was Law) that had a high entry mark. She ticked the 'Aboriginal or Torres Island' descent without thinking. She got her entry mark but it was below the 'advertised' cut off. So she thought she had missed out. But then she received an acceptance letter, along with a letter from an Indigenous Board congratulating her on her achievement. :eek: Sigh. She came clean and told the Uni that she had made an error in her application, but I think they allowed her to do the course anyway.
 
Living in Western Sydney, I know quite a few aboriginals, and the kids, through school know even more. Most are fair skinned and show little to no evidence of being aboriginal. I can't remember what the percentage is, but I do remember that it is quite low. Basically it is something in the way of 1 grandparent (maybe even great grand parent) needs to be aboriginal.
I don't know many at all and I was quite surprised when someone said that X and Y families were Aboriginal ... but my area is shockingly homogenous, there's virtually noone you can pick as being any particular race. There's only one Asian that I know of within 50km, and she's only here because she married a generic white mongrel Australian who dragged her over here. Rural areas obviously attract a different sort to the cities, go to Adelaide and you can't go three feet without falling over someone who looks quite clearly African, Asian, Italian etc.

Disclaimer: I'm a generic white mongrel Australian. Eastern European x Pom, the pair of us.
 
It isn't even that. If someone wants to claim their heritage as Indigenous, then they can and no-one is allowed to dispute it. The percentage is not determined anymore.

.
A mate of mine found some old photos when he was cleaning out his mothers house,in some of the old photos were Aboriginal peoplehe knew nothing about his past he father had shoot through when he was very young and they just did not talk about that sort of things,this was 50 years ago.he grew up in his grandmotheres house that became his mothers house-then his,he took those photo into the local Aboriginal health centre at west end,they helped him track back his past
then one day someone rang him from Canberra to tell him he was Aboriginal and that was it, but as he tells me several times that has opened a lot of doors for him..imho willair..
 
Willair, we also have a family secret.

My father-in-law grew up in an orphanage. His mother fell in love with a man that the family disapproved of. They sent him away, but it was too late, she was already pregnant. He found out when she was in labour & decided to come back and marry her. She died in labour and so did one of the babies. She was carrying twins. The cruel thing is they never told the father that there were twins and that one of them survived. He went away again heartbroken.

The grandmother raised him for a little while, but that became too much for her & he was put into an orphanage.

So, we don't know the name of this man, or his heritage. Hubby has one brother, who looks quite aboriginal. He is not dark (more olive) but when he grows his beard long he just has "that" look about him.
 
Willair, we also have a family secret.

My father-in-law grew up in an orphanage. His mother fell in love with a man that the family disapproved of. They sent him away, but it was too late, she was already pregnant. He found out when she was in labour & decided to come back and marry her. She died in labour and so did one of the babies. She was carrying twins. The cruel thing is they never told the father that there were twins and that one of them survived. He went away again heartbroken.

The grandmother raised him for a little while, but that became too much for her & he was put into an orphanage.
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Skater,very sad story ,my mate was very lucky that he had good people
around him,but as he has told me several times the main reason that he was not told was that his mother was always scared the they would take him away if he was Aboriginal,different world back then but i think anyone
that has been in this country for over 50 years then they may well find a few boomerangs and spears falling out of their family tree:).willair..
 
Skater,very sad story ,my mate was very lucky that he had good people
around him,but as he has told me several times the main reason that he was not told was that his mother was always scared the they would take him away if he was Aboriginal,different world back then but i think anyone
that has been in this country for over 50 years then they may well find a few boomerangs and spears falling out of their family tree:).willair..

Yeah, I would not be surprised to hear that on one side of my family there may be a few aboriginal relatives as I might be the case for me, though I'm white as can be, a tan for me is that 2 day period after a burn where your skin turns brown before it peels off.

But my great grandmother had 13 kids and 3 of them are quite a bit darker and have a bit of a wider nose than the others and they just happened to live in a rural area, right next to an aboriginal commune.

Perhaps I should have been ticking all those boxes for my uni apps ; D
 
Have any of you women felt completely patronised by (not all) but quite a large number of (usually male) people that you have to deal with when investing in property? You know, brokers, bank staff, REA's, solicitors, etc.

It might be because I am dressed casually, the fact that DH is the income earner and I am a SAHM, or it could be the baby I am holding and the two young kids underfoot (a babysitter would be nice, but in most cases unnessecary) - But I seem to have a sign stuck to my head that says "Explain it all to my DH, I am 'just' a SAHM, so of course I wouldn't understand anything" :rolleyes:

Of course those people who do treat me like an idiot don't ever see us again, but it is just so patronising! I shouldn't have to explain to anyone (and I don't) that I am the one who dedicates my time and energy to researching everything (and then explain it to DH) and that I have a commerce degree (with a minor in accounting) and a law degree (majoring in property and conveyencing), etc...

Now don't get me wrong my DH is also a bright spark, but I simply have more time and energy to dedicate to my research, while he has work commitments to focus on.

I have little patience for idiots, but sometimes it just seems that there are just too many of them out there.

So is it just me? Or have other people come across this too?

This whole psyche became the subject of a very successful tv show with Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist called Remington Steele.

Art imitating life? She couldn't get anywhere until she hired Pierce to be the front man for her, while she did the real work.

It does exist for sure.

But I'll bet you love it when they find out you are waaay smarter than you've initially been given credit for? ;)
 
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