Andrew Bolt ... Free speech goes down.

[our obsession]

Anita Heiss:

BOLT: ''[Associate Professor Anita] Heiss … won plum jobs reserved for Aborigines at Koori Radio, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board and Macquarie University's Warawara Department of Indigenous Studies.''




BROMBERG: ''Each of those assertions was erroneous. Mr Bolt accepted that they were wrong because they were exaggerated. One of the positions that Mr Bolt claimed Ms Heiss had won as a 'plum job' was a voluntary unpaid position. The other two positions were not reserved for Aboriginal people but were positions for which Aboriginal people were encouraged to apply.''


Pat Eatock:

BOLT: ''[Pat Eatock] thrived as an Aboriginal bureaucrat, activist and academic.''

BROMBERG: ''The comment is unsupported by any factual basis and is erroneous. Ms Eatock has had only six to six-and-a-half years of employment since 1977.''

BOLT: ''[Ms] Eatock only started to identify as Aboriginal when she was 19, after attending a political rally.''

BROMBERG: ''This statement is untrue. Ms Eatock recognised herself to be an Aboriginal person from when she was eight years old whilst still at school and did not do so for political reasons.''

 

[our obsession]

Professor Larissa Behrendt:


BOLT: ''The very pale Professor Larissa Behrendt, who may have been raised by her white mother but today, as a professional Aborigine, is chairman of our biggest taxpayer-funded Aboriginal television service.''

BROMBERG: ''The factual assertions made were erroneous. Professor Behrendt's Aboriginal father did not separate from her mother until Professor Behrendt was about 15 years old. Her father was always part of the family during her upbringing, even after that separation.''

BOLT: ''Larissa Behrendt has also worked as a professional Aborigine ever since leaving Harvard Law School, despite looking almost as German as her father … But which people are 'yours', exactly, mein liebchen? And isn't it bizarre to demand laws to give you more rights as a white Aborigine than your own white dad?''

BROMBERG: ''To her knowledge, there is no German descent on either her father or mother's side of the family although she assumes that because of her father's Germanic surname, there may have been some German descent.

Her paternal grandfather came to Australia from England. Mr Bolt also referred to her father as being white. Her father had dark skin.''

 

[RPI]

I think that if it goes to appeal at the High Court, Bolt may well be successful. There are a couple of Reasons for this:

The High Court has found that there is an implied freedom of political communication in the Constitution. This has been criticized by recent appointments such as Callinan J and Heydon J, but the majority as this stage still support it. My impression is that Bromberg J doesn't support it, but I haven't seen him state that view expressly. Kirby J was a major supporter of this and imho would have not found Bolt guilty due to that freedom.

I think Bolt mentioned in his articles that the people chose their identities to gain advantage, and the advantages gained were, scholarships for uni and other Commonwealth funded areas. Any discussion related to these sort of areas are classed as political discourse and as such would be covered by the implied freedom mentioned above.

I think that the phrase 'likely to' used in the context of s 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act is too wide. This led Bromberg J to take too wide of an interpretation of Bolt's articles and to try to assess what might be implied from the articles, that people might read between the lines etc. I think that this goes beyond the 'reasonable person' test utilised in law. Section 18C itself also goes beyond 'reasonable proportionality', that is that the law should be in reasonable proportion to its aims. The law could have achieved its aims using a stricter reasonable person test.

It would have already cost a couple of hundred grand in legal fees to get to this stage so that may put Bolt off of appealing further. Also a High Court challenge on the constitutional validity of a law will not be cheap. I am somewhat confused as to why Bolt's legal team did not go the constitutional route in the first place.

PS I agree with Senator Brandis' comments that we do not require an express freedom of speech or a bill of rights. The framers of the Australian Constitution were fully aware of America's 14th Amendment and other bills of rights and chose not to incorporate it into our constitution. Instead they thought that citizens rights are best protected by the common law and the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy. Our constitution allows parliament to make laws and courts to throw out bad laws, a bill of rights almost shifts the law making to the courts.

PPS the plaintiffs in the Bolt case obviously believed that they didn't have enough chance of winning under the common law tort of defamation or statutory defamation law, which imho is sufficient to balance the right of free speech v individuals rights not to be insulted etc. S 18C goes too far and should be repealed.

 

[our obsession]

Wayne and Graham Atkinson:

BOLT: ''Take the most prominent Yorta Yorta leaders - Melbourne University academic Wayne Atkinson and Victorian Traditional Owners Land Justice Group co-chair Graham Atkinson. Both are Aboriginal because their Indian great-grandfather married a part-Aboriginal woman.

''How can Graham Atkinson be co-chair of the Victorian Traditional Owners Land Justice Group when his right to call himself Aboriginal rests on little more than the fact that his Indian great-grandfather married a part-Aboriginal woman?''

BROMBERG: ''The facts given by Mr Bolt and the comment made upon them are grossly incorrect. The Atkinsons' parents are both Aboriginal as are all four of their grandparents and all of their great grandparents other than one who is the Indian great-grandfather that Mr Bolt referred to in the article.''

Let's see, Andrew Bolt conceded he made errors, BUT ''none seemed to me to be of consequence''...

 

[our obsession]

RPI, yes, I heard Kirby say as much, was quite interesting.

 

[jaycee]

Sorry if my post was a bit confusing; I wasn't complaining that I'm not allowed to say all that stuff...

I don't go around saying it to 'em, and never will.

Only pointing out that they are oft first to trot out the disrespect, and then whine the loudest when it is returned serve, and this is all the while when the whole Country now is trying to help out and improve...they just keep going on, and on, and on.
And mostly the serve is never returned; but they just keep on serving up aces that most ignore and move on, shaking their heads.

Well that' the crux of the issue isn't it.... we all "know", a I've trotted out 100's of times, it's not rocket science.. that part, is what Basil Fawlty called "the bleeding obvious"..... Of course it' perplexing, othersie, it wouldn't exit as a problem...

The hard part is of course, to try and answer the question why i it like t is depite all the thing you see as good efforts etc - fairly....

At this point of the conversation most people swear at me like I'm to blame, or they start using racist terms to describe aboriginals.

 

[Aaron_C]

Your 's' key not working well today jaycee?

 

[jaycee]

Your 's' key not working well today jaycee?

Seemed like I was having trouble with the "s" key yes

You do know, based on previous posts by other kind forum members that you can call them spelling mistakes and question my grasp of the english language.. even if in the very post you ridicule me on you make mistakes of your own, again based on previous examples

 

[BayView]

and question my grasp of the english language..

Nothing is further from the truth.

No-one has questioned your grasp of the English language; just your reluctance to show some respect and at least make an attempt to edit.

There have been others like you before you, and they have all copped the same (deserved) spray.

But that's cool; just keep on spewing out that stuff, make no effort to fix it....we can all do that - it takes no effort at all.

 

[jaycee]

Nothing is further from the truth.

No-one has questioned your grasp of the English language; just your reluctance to show some respect and at least make an attempt to edit.

There have been others like you before you, and they have all copped the same (deserved) spray.

But that's cool; just keep on spewing out that stuff, make no effort to fix it....we can all do that - it takes no effort at all.

Hi bayview, I wasn't referring to you, but to someone else who did suggest that at their guess, english isnt my first language right ?!

I think my basic english skills interpreted that the way it was meant to be interpreted based on the rest of the person's post..

perhap my post came across to others as their posts have come across to me, yeah I should really try harder.....

btw, have my typo's been that bad of late to show "a reluctance to show some respect" ?

Have you been checking and noticed that all my post remain unedited all the time ? Cause that would show the reluctance wouldn't it ?

Not sure how complete your checking has been if that is the case

Maybe I can argue "freedom of speech" gives me the right to say what / type how I like without consequence like others !

But I won't.....

....anyway.....

 

[Sunfish]

English IS my first language but my typing and spelling are atrocious. I try hard to make my posts readable by using my spell checker and carefully reading my posts before hitting the "submit" button.

If you don't care to do so, cop the flack in good humour. Your choice.

 

[jaycee]

English IS my first language but my typing and spelling are atrocious. I try hard to make my posts readable by using my spell checker and carefully reading my posts before hitting the "submit" button.

If you don't care to do so, cop the flack in good humour. Your choice.

I did mean my reply to Aaron C asking if I was having trouble with my "s" key as a reply in bad humour, but apoloigse if it was in poor taste like in previous my reply to bayview (this bit wasn;t taking the mickey out of anyone: perhap my post came across to others as their posts have come across to me, yeah I should really try harder.....)

As to the last part of my post, perhaps it' gone unoticed but I think I have tried to edit my posts and typo's to make them legible.

And you know what I had to edit the most in this post ? Missing "s" in words, maybe the key is sticking.........

 

[Sunfish]

perhap my post came across to others as their posts have come across to me, yeah I should really try harder.....)

A stitch in time saves nine! (ask your Grandma)

Just a little effort with the original post would have saved you the angst and time of defending a carelessly typed post.

 

[jaycee]

A stitch in time saves nine! (ask your Grandma)

Just a little effort with the original post would have saved you the angst and time of defending a carelessly typed post.

Yeah we're all human, I missed a few glaring errors won't be the last time either, I'm 40 yrs old now you know... but seriously I have been trying to edit my typo's and can't help but feel the sting in people's replies telling me I am unable to spell or speak english when 1/2 the time, in the very post that they have quoted (as I have pointed out at the time) whilst reponding like that, there were only very few typo's and 1/2 of them were a word with 2 letters transposed not missing or replaced with something wrong...

as I said, anyway thanks for putting up with me........


this s key is now giving me the hits (no, that's not a f in typo)

and..... anyway.........

 

[StefanA]

Chris Kenny nails it in the Australian today

Liberal progressives care more about symbolic victories rather than practical solutions re Aboriginal welfare.

They celebrate with great joy and gusto Bolt being silenced and the perpetuation of the welfare trap. Meanwhile, nothing has changed for rural Aboriginals under Labor.


Candid critic of indigenous welfare trap
"Bob Beadman focused at once on the core problems of the remote Aboriginal Territory: poor education, mass unemployment, infrastructure shortages, pandemic substance abuse. He began from a clear standpoint: "We have seen what a welfare state can do. We must now give economic development every chance.""

 

[our obsession]

Here ya go Stef, something to buy for your friends, while supporting your cause of stupidity:

King of Stupid's Greeting Cards...

 

[Sunfish]

Stefan, my parents have been dead "long time" but both were involved in Aboriginal welfare way back BETWEEN the wars.

I am unable to make definitive statements but I know that nothing is as it is portrayed. They suffered worse than forced separation and while some of that was BAD, not all. Only the survivors of the "stolen generation" are able to complain, the dead who weren't "saved" will never be heard.

Mrs H was born in the west and family links and friendships have survived. She has an "uncle" who was left behind when the family went "walkabout". "It'll be OK Mrs, come back later!" Never did. That child had a decent upbringing. Was he "Stolen"?

BTW As late as the '60s state, churches and hospitals connived to "steal" babies from unwed mothers, often telling them their baby was still-born. Are they unworthy of consideration just because they were white?

 

[Dazz]

So, on post # 98, nothing has been resolved....yet again.


Right leaning conservatives haven't changed their mind and left leaning socialists haven't changed their mind. No surprises there.


With Andrew Bolt being on the right wing of politics, it comes as no surprise that those whom view the world with the values system of the right, agree with the thrust of his views in general. Those who subscribe to the values system of the left, disagree with the thrust of his views in general.


Of course, those journalists being on the left wing of politics, and the issues they raise, the opposite is true for both wings.


...and so the wheel turns...

 

[evand]

What would you expect from the Australian. The most right leaning media outlet in the Murdoch conservative regime.

Chris Kenny nails it in the Australian today

Liberal progressives care more about symbolic victories rather than practical solutions re Aboriginal welfare.

They celebrate with great joy and gusto Bolt being silenced and the perpetuation of the welfare trap. Meanwhile, nothing has changed for rural Aboriginals under Labor.


Candid critic of indigenous welfare trap
"Bob Beadman focused at once on the core problems of the remote Aboriginal Territory: poor education, mass unemployment, infrastructure shortages, pandemic substance abuse. He began from a clear standpoint: "We have seen what a welfare state can do. We must now give economic development every chance.""

 

[StefanA]

What would you expect from the Australian. The most right leaning media outlet in the Murdoch conservative regime.

Easier for ideologues to bleat a 3 second sound bite like SORRY than take a dose of HTFU and address problems that perpetuate intergenerational Aboriginal maladaptation.

Meanwhile the grinding growing welfare funded snowball of misery rolls ever onwards for rural Aboriginals, bowling them over grim reaper like, community after community...while city progressives are once again smug fine and dandy getting on with dissecting honing and repackaging their string of symbols.

And now that Bolt is done, progressives will forget about harsh reality for rural Aboriginals until 'next time', when this burnished symbol once again is taken from the shelf and given a polish.

Now, good progressives everywhere, will turn their attention to why national public debt cannot, indeed should not, be paid down in the next 3 years, or even 10 years.

Poor fella my country.