Comments on: Left and lefter: Keane v Sparrow on political racism

By: Tom McLoughlin

Tom McLoughlin — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Right on Grace, suspension of the RDA is sick. But I suspect it's really a symptom of a deeper problem which brackets Hanson and the Blackfellas together. And that is the systemic poverty in our society. Not just of money, shelter, health services but also eduction. Colourblind poverty perhaps. When there is serious inequity of distribution - well then the poor fight for survival and generally they fight amongst themselves, which ironically is exactly where the privileged like to keep things.

What did Keating say - if you are not in Sydney you are camping out? Funny eh. He dared say that in a country with diverse tribal groups that have been here 40,000 years each as proud as ever of their own particular patch. They weren't camping out champ. We bog Irish were the ones camping out over from Eire or UK etc. The guy gave a big speech at Redfern true enough but did he really have a clue? Howard even less.

How for instance can anyone really believe in uncapped executive wages. I've never believed it. Never will. Even Richard Carlton on capitalist 60 Minutes referred to the "perfect capitalism" of a South Korean shipyard where the CEO got 5 or 10 times the lowest wage. How the story got to air I can't imagine.

The endless sophistry behind the rationale of the market is as thin as a pizza in Rome. Very skinny. (Amanda Vanstone is probably going hungry right now.)

By: Grace

Grace — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I regret that comment at the end my piece because it has diverted your attention from my main point; how can a Parliament full of reasonable people suspend the Racial Discrimination Act and cause so much suffering amongst their fellow Australians. The majority of Indigenous Australians are not abusers!

By: Mark Duffett

Mark Duffett — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

“Having always regarded myself as a bit of a right-on lefty, albeit with rather libertarian tendencies, it came as a bit of shock upon moving to Crikey to discover that I wasn’t exactly the ravingest socialist in the collective.”

Join the dots, please, Crikey management. Crikey badly needs rebalancing away from the Left.

By: Grace

Grace — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I don't think that its an ideological position to question the motives of both major parties who are responsible for the continued suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act; with the result that people who have worked all their lives, now have their pension quarantined and micro-managed by Centrelink? That this is happening to people who, despite their circumstances, take great pride in the education and care of their children are treated so disparagingly as if they are all alcoholics!

Clearly, you and I don't live on the same planet Bernard.

By: Bernard Keane

Bernard Keane — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Indeed, Grace. I’m on Earth. You?

By: susan

susan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Things have clearly moved on (forward) since Hanson was on the scene and Bernard was right to point this out. Much action now needs to be taken but attitudes have at least impoved.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I think that’s probably a fair cop. The article was overstated, though in fairness, if you’re writing these things as a freelancer you do need to bang them out pretty quickly.
The point I did want to make was simply that Hanson had shifted the political climate, that she couldn’t simply be dismissed as a nonger, and that the comments that originally got her disendorsed would no longer be seen as exceptional.
Clearly, Ruddism isn’t the same as Hansonism, otherwise there would be no point worrying about the possibility of a renewed form of Hanson-style populism — which was meant to be the main point of the article.
As for sharing emails with others with whose views we don’t agree, well, it’s different strokes for different folds, isn’t it!