Tony Smith

  • Time to revisit Agent Orange

    The recently deceased former Nationals Leader Tim Fischer was widely respected for his sincerity and integrity, two qualities in short supply in parliament today. He always behaved with dignity and self-control. While some of that self-discipline might be attributable to his time in the military, his service in Vietnam could have shortened his life. (more…)

  • Capital punishment will not stop gun violence

    It is perhaps understandable that in their anger and grief, people who have lost loved ones in gun violence call for the perpetrators to be executed. It is however, inappropriate for political leaders to pretend that capital punishment is an effective way to deal with the issue. It is little more than a diversionary tactic to forestall the adoption of policies that might prevent shootings.

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  • Time to stop this marginal madness

    The reputation of the New South Wales Coalition Government in the area of environmental management has taken yet another tumble. Along with decimation of National Parks, poor management of Murray-Darling water, failure to act on carbon emissions and ignorance of species extinction, it has decided to allow wilful destruction of habitat through deforestation.

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  • TONY SMITH. Here come the boats – and the boots.

    When the Australian Government allowed the USA to establish a permanent military base in the Darwin area, it began a process likely to result in expansion. Regardless of how local ‘Hawks’ might try to depict the latest plans for ‘investment’ the announcement shows how little they care for Australian autonomy, and indeed, border security.

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  • TONY SMITH. Two ears, one mouth. Not quite enough listening yet.

    While every Australian must wish Ken Wyatt well in the portfolio of Indigenous Australians, he still must operate in a system which has shown itself unsympathetic to the needs of first Australians. His intention to present a referendum on recognition might be a good one, but he will succeed only if political leadership on the issue is strong. While the Uluru Statement languishes, this seems unlikely.

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  • TONY SMITH. Time to revive the ‘most appalling’ list.

    As a naive teacher of undergraduates I always assumed that research findings about wealth distribution in Australia would be of vital interest to students in any discipline. Understanding the extremes of wealth and poverty and their causes seemed to be essential to understanding individual behaviour and to making collective decisions. Sadly, the trend has always been towards greater social inequality.

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  • TONY SMITH. Christchurch: a challenge to the sincerity of Australian politicians

    Two weeks after the massacres of worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealanders held a moving multilingual commemorative service emphasising unity. Among the speakers was Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel who said that it was important that each of us looks into our hearts to acknowledge and eradicate any prejudice. Successive speakers emphasised the importance of beginning the quest for peace by changing ourselves. This is a challenge for Australian politicians unused to critical self-analysis.

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  • TONY SMITH. Disability and disenfranchisement: the social construction of political disadvantage

    Thanks to the determination of disability advocates such as Senator Steele-John, national attention is being drawn to ways in which society fails people with ‘disabilities’. Indeed, in our general disregard for the needs of Australians of different abilities, we exclude many people from full participation in social, economic and political life. The difficulties of voting in the 2019 New South Wales election show how we construct social disadvantage. Aspects of the election were discriminatory enough to amount to disenfranchisement.  (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. The environment – top issue for New South Wales voters

    Traditionally, New South Wales election campaigns are tightly controlled affairs. Perhaps because the major party planners think that most elections will be close, they concentrate on one or two key statewide issues and hope that local campaigning will see them through in marginal seats. Law and order ‘auctions’ dominated through the late 1990s and corruption has been the theme of several polls. In 2019 the issue which should determine the outcome is the environment. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. Last hurrah for New South Wales Coalition Government – a festival election?

    The Coalition Government in New South Wales faces the fixed four year election in late March. It has been looking desperate for the last couple of years and has come under pressure recently about drug deaths at music festivals. Its decided course of action in this area might well alienate younger voters and prove to be the final nail in the Coalition coffin.

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  • TONY SMITH. Refusal of custodianship and environmental crises.

    Whitefella criticisms of Australia Day have argued that 26 January is a significant date mainly for New South Wales and especially Sydney. Recently, fish kills in western waterways and the wind erosion of topsoil have shown that the state faces environmental catastrophe. The same mindset which refuses to acknowledge Indigenous concerns over the celebrations on 26 January is responsible for threats to the environment.

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  • TONY SMITH. The unacceptable road toll.

    We should not accept that it is inevitable that people will die on our roads. While drivers must behave responsibly, governments need to take actions which might seem radical in a society obsessed with cars.  (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. What is a good MP?

    It is hardly surprising that, as female Liberal Party parliamentarians have expressed dismay over the way that they were bullied during the removal of Prime Minister Turnbull, party powerbrokers have reacted by seeking to  prescribe the role of the politician.  Sadly, no-one has questioned the obvious bias in the offered definition of ‘parliamentarian’ as requiring toughness. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. Hostage to the masculine sense of entitlement.

    When a society seems unable to ameliorate its social problems, something is obviously amiss. People in the USA might despair of ever breaking free of the pervasive firearms culture which is implicated in frequent mass shootings. In Australia, we have at least two persistent catastrophes: horrific road tolls and the scourge of domestic violence which leaves a woman dead every week and creates lives of misery for survivors. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. Under siege – the ABC, the Coalition and News Ltd.

    When the Liberal Party Council endorsed a motion that sought to make privatisation of the ABC party policy, it laid bare several realities about Australian politics and media. The most obvious is that the ABC is under siege by the Liberals and Rupert Murdoch’s News Ltd.  (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. A hope for the future?

    There is plenty to criticise in the current state of Australian politics. It is important that expert commentators continue to point out the shortcomings of the system and the poor quality of those attracted to politics. There are however, occasional reasons for optimism and the inaugural speech of the new Greens Senator for Western Australia is certainly one worth noting. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. Australia’s worst threat from terrorism lies in the home.

    The recent shooting in Las Vegas is a reminder that massacres are not the preserve of international terrorists. While the US Ambassador in Canberra has suggested Australia’s firearms laws could be a useful model for the USA, we cannot feel complacent while we tolerate domestic violence. Yet, politicians seem not to appreciate that cultural change is needed to address this scourge. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. The farcical appeal to ‘family values’

    Some opponents of marriage equality have resorted to spurious arguments about ‘family values’. The record of arch-conservatives on war, overseas aid, asylum seekers, Indigenous affairs, the social safety net, free market capitalism, the working poor and the monarchy suggests that the reference to family values is a hollow and hypocritical rhetorical device. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. In Defence of the Yarra Council

    Local government leading the way on an important political issue? Who would have thought it? Well, anyone with an eye to federal ossification on Indigenous policy will welcome the move to stop calling 26 January ‘Australia Day’ as a potential circuit breaker. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. After the high hopes of Garma, disappointment sets in.

    Last weekend, Indigenous leaders gathered at the Garma festival in north east Arnhem Land. The coverage on NITV showed a distinct slide from initial politeness and hope to disappointment and anger. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. The ‘Masked’ Man on Horseback.

    When Prime Minister Turnbull announced changes to the way Australia’s security is conducted, he was accompanied by a member of the military. There is nothing unusual about that – except that the soldier was masked. The Prime Minister seemed to miss the irony in this masking which made our defenders resemble the people who are portrayed as threatening our security. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. The political ugliness we cannot hide

    Half a century ago in The Australian Ugliness Robin Boyd reminded us what  happens when architectural planners embrace utilitarianism and abandon aesthetics. During the days of the Howard Coalition Government, examining the invasion of Iraq and policy on asylum seekers, moral philosopher Raimond Gaita reminded us what happens when decision-makers abandon ethical considerations. Under the Turnbull Government, mendacity, hypocrisy and arrogance are producing an observable ugliness in its spokespersons. The great fear is that this ugliness is reflecting our own grotesque faces back to us. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. Company tax cuts by any other name

    The federal government might have called its company tax cuts bill by another almost Orwellian name, but semantic disguises should not fool anyone. Tax cuts are being delivered to Australian business.   (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. Hope in diversity and real cases, not ideological claptrap

    Self-righteous people, believing themselves to be ‘self-made’ are prepared to punish children along with single mothers and so entrench disadvantage for generations. 
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  • TONY SMITH. Media ignorance of disrespect for parliament and people

    It is a shame that at a time when government is so hollow, only a handful of journalists can escape the cliché and find a basis for critical analysis of policy, which ought to be the basis for judging a government’s performance.   (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. A nasty government

    The compact between government and citizen is being destroyed.  (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. The US presidential election: no Australian perspective

    We can’t get enough of Donald and Hilary!

    John Tulloh correctly identifies US influence in the priorities of Australian media. Half a century ago Henry Mayer argued that while media might not influence how we think, they do decide what we think about. This was before television was firmly established, before big conglomerates destroyed diversity and before the ’24 hour’ news cycle shaped politics. Add the immediacy of the internet and social media and the how-what distinction remains a useful theory but hardly describes media influence adequately. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. Hopes End: the cynics must not prevail

     

    Dear Prime Minister Turnbull

    Congratulations on your election success. Two years ago very few observers believed the Coalition Government deserved another term so you have a personal achievement of which you can be proud.

    While you were busy campaigning, I distracted myself by reading Coral Lansbury’s Sweet Alice. * What an enjoyable read that is! Critics are correct to compare the book with Tom Sharpe’s farces about life, manners and politics. The novel explores the fortunes of the central character Alice and her son Alaric. With her home in England being demolished around her, Alice learns that she has inherited a property called Mockery Bend near Hopes End in north-west New South Wales. The problem is that the will has been made in spite and Alice cannot claim her inheritance while several cousins have claims. Alaric sets out to contact the cousins because Alice believes that reasonable women would be happy to have a sharing arrangement. (more…)

  • TONY SMITH. A major madness

     

    It is only the most naive among us who equate democracy with majoritarianism. The ‘Brexit’ plebiscite certainly returned a majority in favour of Britain leaving the European Union, but the distress caused by the decision shows that the plan is far from the ideals of democracy. Democracies behave moderately. They demand a degree of consensus. Realising that there may be large numbers adversely affected by majority decisions, democracies ensure that minorities remain part of considerations. The implementation of Brexit threatens to create impacts that will be felt deeply by some sections of society, and in many cases, these sections saw the dangers and voted ‘no’. (more…)

  • Tony Smith. There is a hole in my heart where NITV News used to be

    There are times when the rhetoric about ‘closing the gap’ between
    Indigenous Australians and the rest of the population sticks in the
    throat. This week I turned on my preferred television news source – the
    5.30 bulletin on National Indigenous TeleVision (SBS4) – and found that it
    had disappeared.

    The ‘gap’ refers to the statistics showing the disadvantages suffered by
    the Indigenous peoples relative to other Australians. In fact, there are
    numerous gaps, in almost every social indicator: employment, income,
    housing, incarceration, violence, kidney and heart disease, literacy,
    education, infant mortality and life expectancy. At times, governments
    seem committed to finding solutions to these problems. At others, they
    seem to do little more than go through the motions while tacitly endorsing
    processes of assimilation. But any realistic solutions must acknowledge
    the ravages of dispossession and make urgent attempts to allow Indigenous
    people to regain their unique identities, something they will surely do if
    the broader Australian society avoids the kind of discrimination we have
    hitherto practised.

    NITV News had the motto ‘our stories, our way’ and was faithful to this
    aim. Here were stories that were not reported on mainstream channels and
    were generally ignored by media with a few exceptions. There were reports
    about threats to sacred sites, potential damage to fragile environment,
    overt and covert racism, government policies, bureaucratic bungling and
    proposed legislation. But the reports were always presented in a humble
    fashion without the pontification customary on other news sources.
    Relevant Ministers were approached often and whenever they appeared, were
    given generous time to put the government side. Again, this is unusual in
    television today when reporters seek to provide their own context, so
    skewing stories to their own views.

    Very importantly, NITV News carried positive stories about Indigenous
    people and their achievements: positive developments in health, justice
    and employment and stories about members of the community supporting one
    another.

    NITV News provided many positive spinoffs. As a result of turning to NITV,
    I discovered programs about Indigenous cooking, traditional culture,
    dancing and music among the young, grassroots sports action, classic
    movies and even found the Maori news report on weekends.

    Successive governments have found Aboriginal affairs a difficult policy
    area. They have thrown money at Indigenous ‘problems’ but the problems
    remain. They have devised slogans such as Reconciliation. They have
    advanced a woolly idea about Constitutional recognition. But they have
    failed to create mechanisms whereby diverse Indigenous voices could be
    heard. Indigenous leaders have continually appealed for genuine
    consultation but these appeals have not been heard.

    Perhaps we really do not want to listen to what Indigenous people have to
    say. Apparently we doubt that the people who preserved the fragile
    Australian ecosystem for hundreds of bicentenaries have anything to teach
    us. Perhaps it is part of a broader re-focussing of our listening away
    from small, local communities on the ground towards what big business says
    through its mouthpieces in politics. Generally, the propaganda is about
    job creation and being able to ‘afford’ environmental concerns. We can’t
    dig up the Hunter Valley, the Liverpool Plains, the Pillaga Scrub to
    export if we listen to grassroots voices like those on NITV News, can we?

    Tony Smith is a former academic living in Wiradjuri country.