Friday 14th March 1997
Search entire news archive by day | Search entire news archive by text |
Definitive Lifestyle Guide to over 5000 Australian webs | Global Web Builders Gold |
The Kid's Locker Room | World Wide Websters |
Issues - The banking system under the spotlight. We have had a couple of cases in the last few days where white Australians have posed as indigenous Aborigines in an effort to gain recognition for their works. The ploy seems to have worked remarkably well.
In Western Australia an elderly female painter established an Aboriginal non-de-plume and submitted her work to an art gallery. She was suddenly awarded recognition for significant and sought after artwork....before being exposed.
In the latest case Leon Carmen (a white adult male) posed as a female Aboriginal writer and produced a manuscript called "My own sweet time".
He did this because he believed that there is an anti-white male publishing bias in Australia and by submitting the book in the name of an aboriginal (Wanda Koolmatrie) felt that he would have more chance of being published.
How right he was. The book was published by Magabala books (an Aboriginal publisher) after being rejected by Reed Books and the University of Queensland Press. The book then won an award after being acclaimed as "a distinctive new voice" in Aboriginal women's autobiography. It was used in the 1996 New South Wales HSC English exam and was included in an anthology of Australian autobiography alongside a veritable "who's who" of Australian writers.
Since his exposure all hell has broken loose around Carmen who is being hammered from all corners for his "insensitivity". It appears that his follow up manuscript called "Door to Door" has very little chance of seeing the light of day.
Lydia Miller director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board said that the key issue was that Carmen had "deliberately deceived and engaged in trickery to obtain monies".
"In any other context it would amount to criminal behaviour," she said.
The very wealthy in Australia are the target of the latest Tax Office (ATO) probe. Some 280 people and their families are the attention of a special task force called the "High Wealth Individuals Tax Force" (HWITF) whose goal is to "enhance the ATO's national inquiries into high wealth individual's compliance with the income tax laws".
It appears that the campaign was sparked off by former treasurer Ralph Willis who revealed that 80 of Australia's wealthiest had declared taxable incomes of just Au$20,000 each despite the fact that they had a net worth of at least Au$30 million. Apparently the source of the initial leads was the Business Review Weekly's (BRW) annual list of Australia's 200 wealthiest individuals.
The HWITF have sent off a 16 page document with 80 questions to an initial target of 180.
The move has outraged those who have received the questionnaire as they claim it:
Colston, who was accused of double dipping on nine out of sixteen ocassions said he had repaid the money to the university saying that the money was to be used for "needy students".
Well isn't he a generous old man then...
Extensive political commentary and links can be found on Palmer's Australian Politics page.
Dear Editor,
"Understandable", you say? Because police are reluctant to touch aborigines and teenagers, they take out their "frustrations" on white pensioners?
I think you're being a bit over-charitable. It seems to me the officers involved have the wrong temperament for the law enforcement business, especially considering they carry side-arms as well as handcuffs.
But unequal treatment by the law according to race and age has to stop, whether it was the underlying cause in this case or not.
Cheers, Graham.
The result was boosted by Au$44.6 million in property sales.
The result was a good start for the new chief executive Dennis Eck who took over from Peter Bartels who resigned in December.
My young 6 year old son who has his own web page loves computers and who could show many teachers a thing or two about them has been asked to sign a "Student Technology Agreement" by the West Moreton Anglican College.
Under the heading Internet access it states:
‘Students have access to the world wide computer network commonly known as the Internet. When utilising this access, students are representing the school to the global population who inhabit the Internet. Students who are required to send correspondence via electronic mail, must have the contents of their mail visually checked by their supervising teacher before it is sent.
Students who access an inappropriate site (pornographic, unethical, racist or otherwise) or observe such an access, should report the address of that site to their supervising teacher and should not access that site again.
Any student who fails to observe these conditions when accessing the Internet, will have their Internet account/access suspended for an unspecified amount of time. Repeat offenders may incur a complete ban for the operation of all equipment computer and otherwise.’
Above where the student is supposed to sign the agreement reads as follows:
‘I have read and **understood** the terms and conditions outlined in this form and agree to adhere to the expectations and subsequent consequences.’
My understanding is that even PREPS (4 year olds) at this school are being asked to sign this agreement.
Return to Australian National News of the Day