Aboriginal MP Ken Wyatt gets racist hate mail

THE first Aborigine likely to be elected to the House of Representatives has received hate mail from people who said they would not have voted for him if they had known he was indigenous.

Mr Wyatt, 58, destined to be the first Aborigine to be elected to the House of Representatives, said his near-certain triumph in WA’s ultra-marginal seat of Hasluck had been tarnished by a racist backlash.

The upset Liberal candidate said his office had received at least 50 emails and telephone calls from angry voters who accused him of only being interested in indigenous issues.

He also endured racist abuse while walking through Guildford in his electorate, with one man calling him “Uncle Tom Wyatt” on Thursday. Mr Wyatt was with his 28-year-old son Aaron at the time.

“It’s a term used to describe a person who has sold out and denied their cultural heritage,” Mr Wyatt said. “My son asked me what it meant. I just said ‘Don’t worry about it, it’s a derogatory term’.

“It just surprised me that he used that term. I wouldn’t expect it in this day and age.”

But it’s the mail and phone calls that have surprised and hurt him most.

“I am surprised at some of the hate mail,” he said.

“Some said ‘Wouldn’t know you were indigenous - we wouldn’t have voted for you if we did’.

“And yet it was out there in the media all the time (that I was an Aborigine). It was on one of my flyers.

“After all the work that the Australian Government has done, I am surprised there are still individuals who hold these strong views and are prepared to commit (them) to writing.”

Ironically some of the criticism levelled at Mr Wyatt this week has come from Aborigines.

“Three Aboriginal people wanted to know why I had joined a racist party,” he said. “That’s not true at all.”

Mr Wyatt said he stood for more than Aboriginal issues.

“I stand for all political persuasions and all culturally and linguistically diverse groups in Hasluck,” Mr Wyatt said.

“I am proud of my heritage and absolutely exhilarated at being the first indigenous candidate in the House of Representatives, but for me it is about Hasluck and the people of Hasluck.

“I intend standing up for everyone in the party room and in the House, and I am going to stand up for WA.”

The Liberal candidate has not been officially declared the winner of last Saturday’s contest over Labor’s Sharryn Jackson. But with nearly 91 per cent of the votes counted, Mr Wyatt leads by 856 votes.Labor state secretary Simon Mead said that with nearly 3000 postal votes yet to be counted, Ms Jackson would not be conceding defeat.

Prior to contesting Hasluck, Mr Wyatt was the director of Aboriginal Health within the WA Department of Health. He received the Order of Australia in 1996 and the Order of Australia Centenary Medal in 2003.

Mr Wyatt plans to fly to Italy in December to marry long-time partner Anna-Marie Palermo.

Below is a brief summary of their candidacy.

Australia First

Founded by former Labor MP Graeme Campbell in 1996, the Australia First Party has undergone a number of ups and downs in its short life, its initial Sturm und Drang stolen from it by a red-haired fish ‘n’ shop owner from Queensland. In 2001 it underwent something of a revival when veteran fascist Dr James Saleam joined the NSW branch, became its Secretary, and began reconstructing the party on a more systematically right-wing basis. The party split in mid-2007, with Saleam becoming its undisputed leader. In 2009, Saleam was the subject of an extensive profile in the Good Weekend (‘The Audacity of Hate’, September 26/27, 2009), one which — notwithstanding Saleam’s numerous objections to its alleged inaccuracies — provides a rather damning portrayal.

While it has participated in numerous elections before — its only success being the election of Bruce Preece to local council in Adelaide — 2010 is only the second that AF has contested since re-registering with the Australian Electoral Commission, and the party is standing just a handful of candidates in NSW, QLD and VIC. In NSW, its candidates are Tony Pettitt in Greenway and Mick Saunders in Lindsay. In QLD Peter Schuback and Nick Maine are running for the Senate, while in Victoria Alex Norwick is standing for the seat of Deakin.

None are expected to gain more than a handful of votes.

Australian Protectionist

Formed as a split from AF in 2007, the APP is currently unregistered, and is standing just two candidates in NSW for the Senate: party leaders Darrin Hodges and Nick Folkes. Hodges unsuccessfully stood for local council in 2008, while this appears to be Folkes first electoral contest. Hodges is a former member of AF, while both men are reputed to be former Liberals. The pair took part in a small rally in Newtown last weekend, but received a hostile response from locals. The APP’s principal concern is getting rid of Muslims, but it otherwise expresses a routine form of white nationalism, albeit one which veers between an assimilationist and rejectionist model.

One Nation

The One Nation party — best known for its earlier association with The Wicked Witch from Ipswich, Pauline Hanson — is a shadow of its former self, having undergone a sudden rise in the late 1990s, and an equally sharp decline in the early 2000s. The party lost its last MP, Rosa Lee Long, in the 2009 Queensland state election. While the party may be down it’s not gone, however, and is fielding candidates in NSW, NT, QLD, SA, VIC and WA.

In NSW, ON is putting up patriots in a total of fourteen (14) Lower House seats: Banks, Bennelong, Blaxland, Chifley, Cook, Hughes, Hunter, Kingsford Smith, Macarthur, New England, Paterson, Riverina, Robertson and Shortland. In NT it’s standing someone for the seat of Solomon. In SA, ON is contesting Makon and Sturt, in QLD Bowman, Fadden and Wide Bay, and has thrown up just the one candidate in Moore, WA. The party is also taking part in Senate contests in each of the mainland states.

Of the few dozen aspiring ON politicians, a handful are noteworthy. One is Kate McCulloch, the ON candidate in Macarthur. Briefly coming into the media spotlight during the course of a campaign against the construction of an Islamic school in Camden, it remains to be seen if she really is the Great White (Red Haired) Hope. More recently, the President of ON in Victoria, John Groves, has informed the world of his love of ‘Phoofter Bashing’ and his passionate hatred of Jews, the former comment prompted by Family First QLD Senate hopeful Wendy Francis comparing gay parenting to child abuse.

Another ON candidate (Riverina) who has gained some small degree of notoriety is Craig Hesketh, the party’s NSW publicity officer. Hesketh has received the official endorsement of AF, as he is a ‘nationalist’ and because he “has rightly spoken out against the refugee invasion of our country”. Quite strongly, too. On Facebook, Hesketh denounced “race traitors” and “immigrant whores”:

While he describes the Greens as “sick f*cks”:

On the other hand, as Hesketh noted in response to homophobic sentiment allegedly expressed by Nationals candidate Michael McCormack, “I think we’ve all said something [we've] regretted at some stage”.

See also Pride & Prejudice : Mark White investigates the rise of Australia’s far right… (November 8, 2009) for further background information.

The best way to attack TAbbott and his “4. stop the boats” business is to prove it wrong. Not try to go lower to beat it.

We agree.

Australia has plenty of infrastructure issues- but none at all are attributable to the less than 2000 asylum seekers annually arriving in Australia.

Attributing poor planning and insufficient spending on infrastructure to immigration is nothing but a dog-whistle intended to give cryptoracists a seemingly justifiable talking point.

You can do better, Ms. Gillard.

Asylum seeker policy ‘an appeal to fear and racism’

A social justice advocacy group says it is concerned that both sides of politics are attacking asylum seekers in the lead-up to the federal election.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he wants a return to Howard-era policies including temporary protection visas and processing asylum seekers in other countries.

But the director of the advocacy group the Edmund Rice Centre, Phil Glendinning, says the proposals are “an appeal to fear and racism”.

“The situation on Nauru was not properly resourced, people did not have access to rights of appeal or to law, and it was in serious contravention of Australia’s obligations,” he said.

“It wasn’t about the UN, it was about Australia. Ultimately, people who come into our jurisdiction seeking asylum have done nothing illegal; their claims need to be assessed fairly and justly.”

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has defended the Coalition’s plan.

“It’s a problem we solved in government last time and its a problem we’ll be called on to solve in government again if we’re elected,” he said.

Mr Morrison would not say which countries the Coalition hoped would take the asylum seekers, arguing that would be negotiated after the election.

Mr Glendinning says under the Howard-era policy some asylum seekers were sent back and killed in countries including Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

“I think that is a bridge way too far in order to win an Australian election,” he said.

He also criticised the Government for suspending the processing of Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum claims.

“That sort of measure opens the window for the Coalition to become far more extreme and to provide this grab bag of prejudices and fear,” Mr Glendinning said.

Amnesty International has also reprimanded the Government for the suspension of asylum seeker claims.

Three years’ jail for taxi driver attack
STEVE BUTCHER
May 24, 2010 - 10:52AM

A man who viciously bashed a Melbourne taxi driver and admitted the attack may have been “racially inspired” because he hated Indians was today jailed for a maximum of three years.

Murat Kilinc, 22, had told a psychologist the core issue of his and his family’s culture of hatred towards Indians was their apparent lack of concern for others.

The victim, 23, a student and part-time taxi driver, suffered a fractured skull, nose and cheekbone in the attack at dawn on February 16, 2008.

Prosecutor Jim Bessell last week told the County Court witnesses heard screams, moans and cries and two people running before finding the driver surrounded by blood in his cab.

Psychologist Rachael Freeland had said a combination of Kilinc’s alcohol abuse, anger issues and underlying hatred of Indians might have “contributed” to the offence.

But she said that subconsciously Kilinc’s offence may have been racially inspired, but not consciously.

Kilinc, unemployed, pleaded guilty to recklessly causing serious injury.

Defence barrister Gregory Hughan said Kilinc, then 19 and on bail for other offences, was on a downward spiral after his father left home and a relationship ended.

In his sentencing this morning, Judge Joe Gullaci agreed with the psychologist, saying that he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the victim was attacked because he was Indian.

Judge Gullaci said he was also unable to be satisfied whether the attack was preplanned or had happened after Kilinc and another passenger intended to evade the fare.

In ordering Kilinc to serve a minimum of 18 months, he said alcohol-fuelled attacks on taxi drivers would be denounced by courts and dealt with severely.

Judge Gullaci said such vulnerable people going about their normal business must be permitted to work without fear of being attacked by cowards, bashed senseless and left unconscious in deserted back streets.

Secret British report into Kiwi death to be released

British police are to finally publish a report this week into the death of New Zealand teacher and anti-racism activist Blair Peach at a demonstration in west London in 1979, which is expected implicate former officers.

The Press Association reported prosecutors have completed a review of the document and passed their findings back to the Metropolitan Police.

Relatives of Mr Peach have been campaigning to obtain a secret internal review of the killing for many years.

Some 2000 pages of documents are expected to be released, including the previously secret police report drawn up months after Mr Peach’s death which concluded that the blow which killed him was likely to have been struck by a police officer on duty, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Six officers have been identified as the ones likely to have struck Mr Peach but they have all been unable - or unwilling - to identify the guilty party. All the men have since retired from the force.

It was understood a copy of the report has already been passed to solicitors representing Mr Peach’s partner Celia Stubbs.

A shadow has hung over the death of Mr Peach, 33, since he was hit over the head at a demonstration against the National Front in Southall, in 1979. Members of the force’s Special Patrol Group were suspected of hitting him with a rubberised police radio or a lead-filled cosh.

NZPA

The report has now been released.

From the BBC:

Police publish report into death of Blair Peach in 1979

A police officer is likely to have “struck the fatal blow” which killed a protester in west London 31 years ago, a Scotland Yard report reveals.

[...]

The 1979 report said: “Whilst it can reasonably be concluded that a police officer struck the fatal blow, and that that officer came from carrier U.11, I am sure that it will be agreed that the present situation is far from satisfactory and disturbing.”

It went on: “The attitude and untruthfulness of some of the officers involved is a contributory factor.

“It is understandable that because of the events of the day officers were confused, or made mistakes, but one would expect better recall of events by trained police officers.

“However, there are cases where the evidence shows that certain officers have clearly not told the truth.”

From the SMH:

Pauline Hanson’s Muslim ban ‘illegal’
DANIEL HURST
April 28, 2010

Former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson would be breaking the law if she refused to sell her home to a Muslim buyer on religious grounds, the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission says.

Ms Hanson, who is selling her home in Coleyville, south-west of Brisbane, before she moves to Britain, told Seven’s Sunrise program she would not accept any offers from Islamic buyers.

“Because I don’t believe that they are compatible with our way of life, our culture,” she said.
It’s not for everyone … Pauline Hanson says her home in Queensland’s Coleyville, above, won’t be offered to Muslim buyers.

It’s not for everyone … Pauline Hanson says her home in Queensland’s Coleyville, above, won’t be offered to Muslim buyers. Photo: Getty Images

“And I think we are going to have problems with them in this country further down the track, so I have no intention of selling my home to a Muslim.”

Acting Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Neroli Holmes said Ms Hanson’s intention to ban Muslim buyers put her at risk of breaching the state’s discrimination laws.

“The act clearly states a person must not discriminate against another person by failing to sell them land or by placing terms on which it is offered for sale,” she said in a statement.

“If a person of the Muslim faith wishes to purchase a property and is denied that opportunity because of their religion, they have the right to lodge a complaint with the commission.”

Ms Holmes said the rule applied whether the land was offered by an individual or by an agent acting on their behalf.

LJ Hooker Yamanto agent Keith Edwards confirmed his client had spelled out her intentions, but said he would not discriminate when talking to potential buyers.

“I am required by law to present all offers … and I will do so irrespective of race, creed, gender or religion,” he told brisbanetimes.com.au.

“It is not my decision to present or not to present [an offer] and I will do so as the true professional that I am.”

Mr Edwards said he had already received an inquiry from someone purporting to be a Muslim and if it were a solid offer he would present it to Ms Hanson for her consideration.

The agent said he would not ask potential buyers to specify their religion.

“No mate - it’s against the law. I’m not allowed to do that,” he said.

“No, you must quote me as saying I would not discriminate on any inquiry.”

Ms Hanson announced this year she would move to Britain. Her home is listed for $2.15 million.

Ms Hanson’s hardline views on race sparked a national debate over immigration policy and Aboriginal disadvantage from the time she entered Parliament in 1996, the same election that made John Howard prime minister.

Ms Hanson, on a tour of her home with a television crew, said she would not allow certain members of the Australian community to buy the property.

Asked if Asians were welcome to express interest in the property, Ms Hanson said she would not sell the home to an Asian who lived overseas.

But she had no problem with selling the property to “an Australian who is of Asian background”.

“No problems whatsoever,” she said.

Asked if she would be prepared to sell the property to a Muslim, she said she would not.

The president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ikebal Patel, said that, if Ms Hanson felt she could discriminate even as she left Australia, it was ”a good thing that she’s gone to England”.

”If she feels even in her final shot in selling her house she can still discriminate against the greater population of the world, then that’s one person we don’t need to live in this country,” Mr Patel said.

”And it’s a good thing that she’s gone to England then.”

Mr Patel also questioned whether people from the communities Ms Hanson singled out would want to buy her house.

”People might think there will be people from the Asian or Muslim communities that might be clamouring to buy this house but that’s far from the truth.

”Whether people from these communities would want to buy this house is another thing that we can question.”

- with Glenda Kwek and AAP

From the SMH:

Muslims unwelcome as Hanson’s home buyers
April 28, 2010

FORMER One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s Queensland home remains on the market, but not for everyone.

Muslim buyers, for example, aren’t welcome.

Ms Hanson, who has put up for sale her million-dollar property in Coleyville, south-west of Brisbane, announced she was moving to Britain earlier this year.

Her hardline views on race sparked a national debate over immigration policy and Aboriginal disadvantage from the time she entered Parliament in 1996, the same election that made John Howard prime minister.

While taking the Seven Network’s Sunrise program on a recent tour of her home, she said she would not allow certain members of the Australian community to buy the property.

Asked if Asians were welcome to express interest in the property, Ms Hanson said she would not sell the home to an Asian who lived overseas.

But she had no problem with selling the property to ”an Australian who is of Asian background”.

”No problems whatsoever,” she said.

Asked if she would be prepared to sell the property to a Muslim, she said no.

”Because I don’t believe that they are compatible with our way of life, our culture.

”And I think we are going to have problems with them in this country further down the track, so I have no intention of selling my home to a Muslim.”

Don’t miss the SMH poll question.

Five jailed for racist Alice Springs killing

By Jano Gibson

Kwementyaye Ryder died in the dry Todd River
bed in Alice Springs.  (Reproduced with
permission of Ryder family: NT Police, via ABC)

Five men who fatally attacked a man in Alice Springs last year did so in part because he was an Aboriginal person, the Northern Territory Supreme Court has found.

Anton Kloeden, Timothy Hird, Joshua Spears, Glen Swain and Scott Doody were today sentenced to jail terms of between four and six years after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Kwementyaye Ryder.

The men, all in their 20s, received non-parole periods of between 12 months and four years.

In his judgement, Justice Brian Martin said the case had caused deep divisions in the Alice Springs community because of the belief that it was racially motivated.

It was a belief Justice Martin agreed with.

“It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the nature and rapidity of the reaction, and the actions of some offenders in kicking and striking the deceased while he was on the ground were influenced, at least to some degree, by the fact that the deceased was an Aboriginal person,” he said.

The five men had been partying throughout the night of July 24, 2009, with all but Kloeden heavily intoxicated.

In the early hours of July 25, he was behind the wheel of a four-wheel drive when he decided to travel along the dry Todd River bed, where many Aboriginal people camp.

Justice Martin said Kloeden had no initial intention of harassing the campers, but the journey soon turned volatile as he drove at speed to within a metre of an elderly man who could not run away in time.

Minutes later, he drove over the top of the swag of the elderly man, who had by then managed to get out of harm’s way.

“I have no doubt that if white people had been camped in the riverbed in tents, you would not have set out to harass them in the aggressive manner in which you set out to harass the Aboriginal people who were camped there,” Justice Martin said.

The men left the riverbed and picked up an imitation pistol with blank ammunition at one of their houses, before returning the area where Hird fired the gun to scare campers.

Seeing their vehicle heading his way, Ryder, who was also heavily intoxicated himself, threw a bottle at their car.

“This precipitated an angry reaction and, in the next few seconds, the tragedy unfolded,” Justice Martin said.

Kloeden drove directly at Mr Ryder, who tried to run away. But Hird, followed by three others, jumped out of the car and chased him.

As the Crown told the court: “The deceased fell to the ground where the offender Hird kicked him to the head one time, the offender Swain kicked him twice to the head … Spears struck the deceased with a bottle.”

One of the men said, “Don’t f— with us”, before they ran away, leaving Mr Ryder lying on the ground.

Despite the “cowardly and violent” assault, Justice Martin said it was impossible to know if Mr Ryder’s fatal brain haemorrhage was caused by him hitting his head when he fell, or by the blows inflicted.

Justice Martin said Mr Ryder had a pre-existing aneurism, which could have burst at any time.

He said Mr Ryder’s death devastated his family.

“In the words of the deceased’s mother, it felt like ‘the end of the world’.”

Justice Martin said every crime of manslaughter is serious, but the manslaughter of Mr Ryder was on the “lower end of the scale of seriousness” because none of the offenders were aware of the substantial risk of causing death.

He sentenced Doody to four years’ jail, suspended after 12 months.

Swan was sentenced to five years and six months in jail, with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

Kloeden, Hird and Spears were each sentenced to six years in jail, with a non-parole period of four years.

Mr Ryder’s mother, Theresa Ryder, walked out during the sentencing, saying loudly: “Always good on the outside, inside there’s racism straight out.”

But outside the court, Ms Ryder said she was satisfied, especially after the family of one of the men came to offer their condolences.

“They come up and said they were sorry and comforted me and I appreciate them for doing that to me and it sort of made me feel satisfied.

“I guess I’ve been waiting for that.

Mr Ryder’s sister-in-law, Karen Liddle, said the family is happy with the sentences but there are no winners.

“I feel sad for everybody: us for our loss and also those families too for how foolish those boys were,” she said.