Category Archives: Australia/Oceania

April 28, 2012

‘I wish we’d left Benefits Britain long ago’: Hard working dad of 12 who emigrated to Australia is thriving

They have far stricter immigration policies, he said and devote an entire day to their war dead rather than just two minutes of silence. Mr Jones also warned that if the Government continue to ignore the people of Britain, last summer’s riots could become a regular fixture on Britain’s streets.


New start: David and Jackie Jones and their 12 children have only been in Brisbane, Queensland, for two weeks but are already reaping the benefits of the Aussie way of life

A father of 12 who moved his family to Australia says he wishes he’d left ‘benefits Britain’ long ago.

David Jones, his wife Jackie, 43, and their children aged from four months to 18 have only been in Brisbane, Queensland, for two weeks but are already reaping the benefits from the Aussie way of life.

Mr Jones says he has had six job interviews and is due to start work as a machine fitter shortly.
The family also say they have also been overwhelmed by the welcome they have received from complete strangers.

Speaking to The Sun, Mr Jones said: ‘They (Australians) just seem to have a completely different outlook on life. People don’t expect something for nothing. They work for what they get and they value their leisure time.’

Mr Jones hit the headlines in 2010 for refusing to live on benefits despite the financial strain of providing for so many children.

The 42-year-old from Barrow, Cumbria, instead chose instead to make up the extra money by working gruelling 12-hour night shifts in paper mill Kimberly-Clark.

This brought in about £38,000 a year, with a further £5,000 in overtime and bonuses. The family also received child tax credits and child benefit of £617 a month.

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Original source.


March 27, 2012

Anzac centenary organisers walk in PC minefield

The report said centenary planners did not know what recently arrived Australians thought of the idea, and there was concern about how to involve and include “non-Anglo” groups, especially those who were once enemies.


The centenary of Anzac Day is fast-approaching.

The 21st century is closing in on Australian authorities planning the centenary of Anzac Day.

Researchers have warned that celebrations could cause divisions within the nation’s multicultural society, upset former enemies and inflame tensions if the nation was embroiled in an unpopular war in April 2015.

On the other hand, many Australians would be incensed if the celebrations were watered down to satisfy political correctness, failed to respect past traditions, or were diminished by gambling and boozing “like Australia Day”, focus groups told social researcher Colmar Brunton.

The company was hired by the Veterans Affairs Department to judge attitudes to the centenary, which is being planned by a federal commission that has already presented the Government with a range of recommendations.

“Commemorating our military history in a multicultural society is something of a double-edged sword,” the Colmar Brunton report said.

“While 100th anniversaries are thought to provide some opportunity for creating a greater sense of unity, it is also recognised as a potential area of divisiveness.”

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Original source.


March 22, 2012

Greek Community of Melbourne Supports Multiculturalism

The Greek community in Melbourne has voted for calling on the Federal Government to pass a new bill on voting a special law establishing and protecting multiculturalism.

[Note: This article was originally posted on December 17th, 2011. The IFNM website was attacked by hackers and many articles are now gone from the archives. As a public service, IFNM is now reposting said articles.]

Without too many or too long proceedings, the Annual General Assembly of the Greek community in Melbourne has voted for calling on the Federal Government to pass a new bill on voting a special law establishing and protecting multiculturalism.

The proposal was made by Mr. Zagkalis and was adopted by all members of the Board of Directors. At the same time, the Community has asked the Liberals and the Greens to support such an amendment.

According to the General Assembly, the Greek community must also cooperate with the other Greek communities around Australia, and especially with the communities of Sydney and Adelaide as being the two most important and representative organisms to meet with the Australian PM and the leader of the main opposition party in order to get their positive vote on the multiculturalism legislation.

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Original source.


March 18, 2012

Political correctness: an impediment to reconciliation

But there is a far more insidious problem associated with being offended by the term “Aborigine”. To be offended (which is a choice) actually communicates to the “offender” (that is the person using the “offensive” term) that he or she has more power over you, than you have over yourself.

[Note: This article was originally posted on December 15th, 2011. The IFNM website was attacked by hackers and many articles are now gone from the archives. As a public service, IFNM is now reposting said articles.]

Many would agree that political correctness (PC) has gone well beyond the stage of being useful and on to the stage of being a serious hindrance to addressing many of the social problems that plague society.

It has perhaps created more problems than what it was intended to solve. This is particularly true for the Aboriginal community, a topic I wish to discuss here. Specifically, I wish to discuss the use of the term “Aborigine” and whether it is appropriate or inappropriate to use it when describing people with Aboriginal ancestry.

As someone who teaches university students on Indigenous issues, I was surprised to recently learn that the term “Aborigine” is no longer the preferred term when referring to Australia’s Indigenous people. Actually, I heard this claim a couple of years ago, but dismissed it quickly. Apparently the preferred term now is “Aboriginal people/person/Australian.”

A quick search on the web shows that this is the case. Various government publications suggest that although the term “Aborigine” is grammatically correct, that one should be aware that it has “negative connotations with many Aboriginal people”.

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Original source.


March 9, 2012

No wonder the illegals are flooding in to Australia

Opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the revelations would disappoint families struggling with cost of living rises. “The cost of Labor’s border protection failures is a slap in the face to every Australian family trying to cope with rising costs of living, made worse by Labor’s carbon tax and their abandonment of private health insurance,” Mr Morrison said.

Washing machines, microwave ovens, DVDs and plasma TVs are among a 60-item welcome gift pack for asylum seekers offered rent-free homes in the community. To fulfil a promise to move an influx of families out of detention, the Gillard Government is now fitting out each home with up to $10,000 worth of furnishings and electronics. They are given food hampers upon arrival at rented homes where they wait for their claims to be processed.

The revelation comes as border protection authorities reveal they have intercepted two more boats carrying asylum seekers overnight, five boats in the past week, and middle – and high-income families struggling with cost of living pressures brace for cuts to private health rebates and the impact of the carbon tax.

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said this morning HMAS Leeuwin intercepted a boat carrying 65 people north north-east of Christmas Island late last night.

HMAS Ararat intercepted a vessel carrying 71 people west of Christmas Island early this morning, bringing to five the number of boats intercepted since last Saturday.

Everything from beds, fridges, mattresses and lounges to an alarm clock radio, clothes hangers and containers for biscuits are being bought in a “household goods formation package” that contains more than 60 items. It includes a television at a minimum size of 53cm.

An average family of five is eligible for $7100 worth of goods, while larger families of more than nine people can be provided with up to $9850 in furnishings, the Opposition has revealed after Senate estimates this week.

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Original source.


February 28, 2012

Full bladders, empty heads: Australian Crime Commission bungles revealed

A top national security agency has suffered a massive blow-out in breaches of its own security, exposing secret operations to outsiders in a trail of embarrassing Get Smart-style bungles.


Are Australian Crime Commission agents taking notes from Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway’s characters in Get Smart?

Australian Crime Commission staff are increasingly compromising or risking investigations as classified intelligence documents are lost, sensitive equipment is misplaced or stolen, and buildings left exposed in often comical circumstances.

Breaches have risen six-fold over the past five years and include a stressed investigator with a full bladder hearing his car being broken into while urinating on a beach.

Secure cabinets have been left open, a package was sent to the wrong address and a sensitive video conference accidentally beamed into the wrong room.

In a “major security breach” in Melbourne last October, security minutes indicate the ACC was forced to suppress a person’s information from the public, change their phone and re-register a vehicle after an investigator left intelligence papers on a car roof.

Left it on the bus

“I left carpark, inadvertently leaving the vehicle log book/folder on the roof tucked under the roof rack of the vehicle,” the official explained. “An ‘ACC HIGHLY PROTECTED’ document has been placed within the vehicle log book/folder (instead of a secure briefcase).”

An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has learned the ACC has recorded at least 48 internal security breaches over the past two years after only 24 cases in the previous three.

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Original source.


February 17, 2012

Australia: Asylum packs send wrong message – Tony Abbott

Providing asylum seekers with rent free homes and household goods is sending the wrong message to people smugglers, federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says. “That is the last message the federal government should be sending.”


Tony Abbott

News Ltd on Friday reported household goods worth thousands of dollars, including DVDs and plasma TVs, are being included in welcome packs provided to asylum seekers being housed in rent-free homes while their claims are processed.

“The message is going out loud and clear to the people smugglers and their clients and potential customers: the red carpet is being rolled out, there is a welcome mat waiting for you here in Australia,” Mr Abbott told the Nine Network.

“That is the last message the federal government should be sending.”

Mr Abbott said most asylum seekers should be in detention while they are being processed.

“As far as is humanly possible, we don’t want to keep kids in detention, but this is taking community release to a whole new level of what looks like to luxury,” he said.

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Original source.


February 15, 2012

Pay for our trips home – the Islamic Women’s Welfare Association

New migrants should get taxpayer subsidies to visit overseas relatives, an Islamic group has told the Federal Government. The Islamic welfare association is based in Lakemba, Sydney, which has one of the highest Muslim populations in Australia.


The Islamic Women’s Welfare Association says new migrants should get taxpayer subsidies to visit overseas relatives.

The Islamic Women’s Welfare Association also says Muslims prefer to live close to their own people and Australia should consider how to “facilitate the purchase of homes for new migrants”.

In a submission to a federal multicultural inquiry, the association has urged the Government to give tax deductions to newly arrived migrants so they can visit relatives in their homelands.

“Migrants face a lot of sacrifices such as having to travel long distances to visit relatives, spending on communication costs, missing out on some events occurring in native countries etc,” the submission said.

“This loss should be compensated by the Government in one way or the other to retain migrants in their country of adoption.”

Victorian Muslim and president of the Australian Council of Bosnian Organisations Senada Softic-Telalovic said while some help might be justified for needy refugees who had to go overseas to settle their affairs, she didn’t support travel compensation for all newcomers.

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Original source.


February 9, 2012

Swift action on fight video

University of Southern Queensland manager (counselling and health student services) Dr Nancy Hoare said there was the potential people would attempt to copy the actions witnessed in online videos, particularly those that went viral. “We are very social creatures,” she said.


A woman attempts to intervene in a fight between two Harristown State High School students while other students jeer and shout racial abuse.

A VIDEO posted online of two Harristown State High School students fighting outside the school was pulled by the Department of Education yesterday.

The graphic video, which went live on YouTube last Thursday, captured two male students dressed in school uniform trading punches and kicks. It appears to have been shot by another student.

A woman attempted to intervene in the fight but was unable to halt the violence.

Students could be heard shouting racist abuse at one of the students involved and encouraging the other to “hit him”.

A Department of Education spokesman said once notified the department took “immediate action” to remove the video from YouTube.

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Original source.


January 28, 2012

We are Australian

Let’s close off the claim to Indigenous Australians, and just move on as Australian’s on equal footing, sharing the same rights, the same laws and the same flag, for they did no more than colonise in Australia in a similar way to what we did years later.

Up until the 1950’s, it was widely believed that Australia wasn’t inhabited by the Aboriginals until 10,000 years ago. The breakthrough use of Carbon 14 dating extended the date to around 40,000 years ago, more complex dating procedures have extended this to 60,000-70,000 years ago.

This extension to 40,000 and then 60,000+ years has occurred since the discovery of Mungo Man. He was largely given the tag of the first Indigenous Australian aborigine and in essence this is true, as he predates the Australian aborigine by some 50,000 years and his DNA is now non existent.

Mungo Man is dated up to 60,000+ years ago and has a genetic tag that is now extinct, prior to his discovery the current Australian Aborigine is only dated back to 10,000 years, it is really logical to conclude that Indigenous Mungo Man is not related to the current Australian Aborigine and therefore they can no longer claim to be Indigenous to Australia.

The word Indigenous means being the “original inhabitants” of a territory

ANU evolutionary geneticist Simon Easteal set about analysing the DNA from Mungo Man and comparing it with sequences of the same gene from the other early Australians, not to mention 45 living Aboriginal people, 3,453 people from around the world, two European Neanderthals, and finally chimps and bonobos, or pygmy chimps.

Easteal produced a likely “evolutionary tree” for the gene, which is only passed on by women. It went like this: first to branch off were the chimps and bonobos; next the Neanderthals, then Mungo Man’s clan, and after that, the common ancestor of all people alive today.

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Original source.