Can Angela Shananan really be so stupid as her columns seem to indicate?
Canberra is a country town in may ways but we can hold our head high next to the big cities when it comes to mindless right wing newspaper commentary.
Angela Shanahan writes an opinion piece for the Saturday Canberra Times. Her husband is the Chief Political Reporter for The Australian. I normally don't mention this kind of thing, but as she bangs on about having dinner with the Howards and her nine children I thought I'd just pop it in for the hell of it.
Anyhoo, this week's article is titled "Ideology at fault for imperilling the lives of Aboriginal women and children". Shanahan was enraged by a Canberra Times editorial which said the situation could only be described as "a law and order issue" by "right-wing commentators and strict law and order advocates".
It is obviously a law and order issue to Angela - it's a straightforwad solution to a problem that doesn't have any other dimensions. It seems to me that there need to be more Police assisting Aboriginal communities, but having more Police isn't enough. For a start people need to be safe and supported to make complaints, to cope with giving evidence and dealing with Court experiences, to be prepared to lose a case or for an offender to be released. Saying "more cops" just doesn't cut it.
She winds up saying: "The notion of Aboriginal autonomy under the law and Aboriginal welfare in general has been for a long time dominated by the left - as if they invented the notion of self-determination and freedom."
Look mate, your team's been the frickin' government for ten (long) years, six of them after the horrifying report by Boni Robertson that you mention. The fact that so many Aboriginal people are living in such brutal abjection can't just be because TEH LEFT isn't satisfied that more cops is the whole answer.
Angela Shanahan writes an opinion piece for the Saturday Canberra Times. Her husband is the Chief Political Reporter for The Australian. I normally don't mention this kind of thing, but as she bangs on about having dinner with the Howards and her nine children I thought I'd just pop it in for the hell of it.
Anyhoo, this week's article is titled "Ideology at fault for imperilling the lives of Aboriginal women and children". Shanahan was enraged by a Canberra Times editorial which said the situation could only be described as "a law and order issue" by "right-wing commentators and strict law and order advocates".
It is obviously a law and order issue to Angela - it's a straightforwad solution to a problem that doesn't have any other dimensions. It seems to me that there need to be more Police assisting Aboriginal communities, but having more Police isn't enough. For a start people need to be safe and supported to make complaints, to cope with giving evidence and dealing with Court experiences, to be prepared to lose a case or for an offender to be released. Saying "more cops" just doesn't cut it.
She winds up saying: "The notion of Aboriginal autonomy under the law and Aboriginal welfare in general has been for a long time dominated by the left - as if they invented the notion of self-determination and freedom."
Look mate, your team's been the frickin' government for ten (long) years, six of them after the horrifying report by Boni Robertson that you mention. The fact that so many Aboriginal people are living in such brutal abjection can't just be because TEH LEFT isn't satisfied that more cops is the whole answer.
posted by Zoe at 7:07 pm
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