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Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." @Bigfellah, with your permission, I would like to add that I thank you sincerely for acknowledging my success at being a ... more
Bella on Preferential voting FIRST PAST THE POST ~ is not as democratic as you may like to think.In a preferential system every registered voters final ... more
steve on A few facts on illegal boat people Hey Wendy - I'm an immigrant - I've lived here for 40 years and have learned to ignore people with attitudes like yours but ... more
James Weir on A few facts on illegal boat people Wendy, I'm surprised anyone lives in Adelaide. Even the Welsh born redheads are getting out of the place. more
Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." @Bigfellah. Again in typical Socialist Fashion, you are denying me my right to form an opinion. Mr. and Mrs. Newton ... more
Meg on "He's a dog..." I believe that any ordinary person who assaults women would have been charged and jailed not sent to rehab. Has Matthew ... more
Wendy on A few facts on illegal boat people Look around..In Adelaide now, you cannot spot an Aussie. Everywhere you look its Chinese/Asians, Indians and Pakistani's. ... more
bigfella on "He's a dog..." Hi z,The point is: How the heck would Phil of Springwood know what sort of parents Bert and Patti were to their son? For all ... more
z on Bob Brown Lazarus Where is the costings that they demand of everyone else, thier 5 minutes of fame will be up shortley more
Shanelle on System failure The whole system is stuffed. I have been apart of it for 10years now and still im confused. Im in a bad place at the moment ... more
James Weir on Barnaby Joyce How many Clem 7's would you like in your Super Fund, Barnaby? It lost $1.5B in it's current reporting period. Only Govts can ... more
Steve Martin on "He's a dog..." Rebecca Wilson as per normal is just plain out of touch.The hitting of women is wrong but personalising this with "he's a ... more
Ronny Of Brighton QLD on Preferential voting MichaelIve just come back from a holiday.That bloke Dean Jaensch Siad that if someone(call Him RONNY) had 40% he said 60% of ... more
z on Preferential voting the way it is working at the moment is the first loser joins with 2nd loser and so on untill they beat the winner, so a ... more
brisman on Bob Brown The guy is not green he absolutley red through to the core. His environmental visions are shallow and don't serve ... more
z on "He's a dog..." bigfella, Phil of Springwood is not talking from so called flippantly expertise, Ivory tower stuff but more from commonsense ... more
robert goodchild on Support our Diggers the sticker Idea is great.I would happily part with $20 for one and would like to see the profit go to families who have ... more
Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." Hey Bigfella, back again so soon after your mobs magnificent defeat by the Tories, I thought you and the rest of your Left ... more
z on "He's a dog..." Hey Phil, why don't you say what you really mean more
bigfella on "He's a dog..." Congratulations to Phil of Springwood,We've become accustomed to his astute political and social commentaries based on ... more

Being Australian

Posted by: Michael Smith | 26 June, 2009 - 2:44 PM

Yesterday we spoke a bit about being indigenous.

Many of our callers spoke about the benefits available exclusively to indigenous people.

One of my callers said that he always says he’s indigenous – it’s got him quicker medical treatment and other benefits.

My grandmum’s brother, Les signed up for the First World War. His great-grandfather arrived in Tasmania as an assigned servant – he’d been “found on the King’s estate” which was legalise for poaching in Ireland. So the first of our tribe in Australia was a convict when he arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in the early 1880s.

See the certificates here. Link 1 Link 2

When Les joined up he was a fully paid-up member of The Australian Natives Association. That was a group of Australians who all paid in money – the idea being that if any of them were wounded they could draw some money out of the pool. Well Les was wounded in The Great War.

On the other side of the family my grandfather Percy was wounded severely and his brother John was killed by the Germans in front of him. The other brother on that side Les was in the Royal Australian Navy and was active in The Mediterranean Ocean during the war.

I don’t hold it against the Germans who are alive now. Just like I don’t hold it against the Japanese who were shooting at my family in the Second World War.

So why don’t the Aboriginal Industry in this country learn to get over the past and get on with life?

I can’t be anything other than an Australian, just like them. That’s it. It’s time the government drew a line under all the apologies and got over it.

Blog comments

I'm confused, I thought it was my fundermental human right to be able to say I'm indigenous to a particular country. I mean everyone else gets to say it, aboriginals,american indians, chinese, indians,africans etc. so when I say I must therefore be indigenous to england I'm then told there's no such thing.(maybe it's because they don't want to ofend the newcomers). since I can't be indigenous australian because I'm not aborigonal , then where am I indigenous to?

rick Friday 26 June, 2009 - 6:38 PM