Pfitzy
George Gregan (70)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/25/1232818247982.html
: People basically accused me of being a racist/redneck when I first brought up my opposition to "Sorry Day". At the time I said it would achieve bugger all without some meaningful action***, and that there would still be a significant proportion of indigenous personalities with enough media clout to keep asking for compensation. My equal-third favourite thing in the world is saying "I told you so".
Fortunately Warren Mundine saves it with a few sensible words (from same article):
:thumb Well played that man. Knows that its going to take a heck of a lot of elbow grease after the flaming disaster that was ATSIC, and the NT Intervention, to put this to rights.
My favourite Mick Dodson quote of the day:
Well Mick, you're going to get bugger all policy change without the government involved, so good luck with that. You twit.
*** Interesting to see since then how good the Rudd Govt is at saying something but doing nothing
WITHIN minutes of accepting the Australian of the Year award yesterday, the indigenous leader Mick Dodson told the Rudd Government it needed to move the date of Australia Day because January 26 represented a "day of mourning" for many of his people.
...
Professor Dodson, a lawyer, also called for financial compensation for the stolen generations and for changes to government policy, including on the Northern Territory intervention.
A Yawuru man, he said he felt so strongly the current Australia Day excluded indigenous people that he considered refusing the nomination for the award but decided to accept it after listening to his family. Australians were "mature enough about it now" to consider moving the date, which currently commemorates the First Fleet's arrival in Sydney - "the day on which our world came crashing down".
Professor Dodson suggested February 13, the date the Rudd Government last year formally apologised to stolen generations.
: People basically accused me of being a racist/redneck when I first brought up my opposition to "Sorry Day". At the time I said it would achieve bugger all without some meaningful action***, and that there would still be a significant proportion of indigenous personalities with enough media clout to keep asking for compensation. My equal-third favourite thing in the world is saying "I told you so".
Fortunately Warren Mundine saves it with a few sensible words (from same article):
But another Aboriginal leader, Warren Mundine, an Australia Day ambassador and former national president of the Labor Party, took a swipe at Professor Dodson. "The best news today was Sydney FC's four-nil defeat of Newcastle," he said.
While Mr Mundine congratulated Professor Dodson, he said Australia needed to focus on practical reconciliation, not symbolism. "He has no practicality whatsoever and that's why he's been ignored for 13 years," said Mr Mundine, who was at the forefront of reconciliation talks during the Howard years.
:thumb Well played that man. Knows that its going to take a heck of a lot of elbow grease after the flaming disaster that was ATSIC, and the NT Intervention, to put this to rights.
My favourite Mick Dodson quote of the day:
Professor Dodson, co-chair of Reconciliation Australia, said the movement for change would come from the public: "We should have a conversation about it. If the Government want to be part of it, well and good."
Well Mick, you're going to get bugger all policy change without the government involved, so good luck with that. You twit.
*** Interesting to see since then how good the Rudd Govt is at saying something but doing nothing