When the actual Lone Pine service finishes in the early afternoon of Anzac Day, the problem for so many Australian attendees, who haven’t slept for the previous 36 hours is that it takes as long as – and I’m not making this up – EIGHT HOURS for the jam of buses to clear. Finally, though, most of the last lot get to the wharves where a ferry awaits to take them across the straits of the Dardanelles to Cannakale. They’re all, not to put too fine a point on it, buggered, and slump in their seats. At least most of them do. Not, however, the Barker Choir and Band, some 200 strong. Even as the ferry waits for the last stragglers to arrive, the young’uns assemble on the foredeck and start to sing and play. Oh, how they sing and play. The ethereal harmonies of Waltzing Matilda, Run To You, Nearer My God To Thee, the Australian and New Zealand National anthems rise rich and beautiful into the Turkish twilight, as even the passengers on other ferries come out to watch on their verandas. They clap, they join in, some dance ‘neath the diamond sky, with one handwaving free, silhouetted by the sea. And now, the final touch. As the last stragglers arrive and the Turkish guides who have been so good to them all start to wave goodbye and walk to the bus that is to take them back to Istanbul, the Barker choir instantly switches into a fabulous rendition of the Turkish national anthem. The guides stop, the wharf workers and security guards stare open-mouthed, the police and soldiers snap to attention. At the end, the Turks, the Australians and New Zealanders all together – 100 years on to the day since the beginning of the devastating battle that killed over 100,000 of our citizens – cheer and clap wildly.
Peace between our fine nations. It looks like this.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop informed the Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance (ATA-Australia) that it was Australian foreign policy not to define the Armenian case as genocide, and that it was unconstitutional for Australian territories to promulgate their own foreign policy. The Foreign Minister’s policy affirmation was in response to the inquiry of Barrister and ATA-Australia Sydney President Ertunc Ozen in the wake of a New South Wales parliamentary resolution wrongfully defining the Armenian case as genocide.
ATAA and ATA-Australia commenced cooperation last March when Australian Turks hosted ATAA past president and current Trustee Gunay Evinch to speak on best practices in public advocacy. Evinch, gave the example of the case of Movsesian, explained that the United States Supreme Court let stand a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision invalidating a California law that had defined the Armenian case as genocide, because it was U.S. federal policy not to define the Armenian case as genocide, and to encourage further research, debate, discussion and dialogue on the matter. Evinch stated the Australian constitution provided similar protections.
ATAA – ATA-Australia collaboration is a part of a broader Anglo-Turkish Diaspora Cooperation Program in which Turks in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand share best practices based on a common jurisprudential and political heritage. ATAA hosted ATA-Australia at the Turkish American National Leadership Conference and Washington DC Gallipoli Memoriallast April.
According to AFP, Russia on Monday imposed a ban on Australian beef byproducts such as offal over the use of a growth stimulant allowed in some nations but that Moscow considers unsafe.
The temporary restrictions also affect Belarus and Kazakhstan — two ex-Soviet nations that are part of a Moscow-led Customs Union.
Australia Beef
Australia is the world’s third-largest exporter of beef after the United States and Brazil. It reported shipping 30,000 tonnes of beef to Russia in 2013.
The Interfax news agency said Australia had sent 13,000 tonnes of beef byproducts to ex-Soviet countries in the first 10 months of last year — most of them to Russia — worth $21.3 million.
Russia’s agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said the ban was imposed after the discovery of the growth stimulant trenbolone “in several shipments” of Australian beef byproducts.
Rosselkhoznadzor chief Sergei Dankvert told Interfax that the ban applied to beef byproducts because they accumulate the steroid in greater quantities than regular meat.
Russia has frequently imposed temporary bans on meat products over the use of hormones that are allowed in nations such as the United States but restricted by Moscow’s more stringent regulations.
Tony Abbott repeats his statement of regret Wednesday evening, as Indonesia orders an end to bilateral co-operation.Labor continues to backs the government in ‘a team Australia moment’.
Australia’s asylum-seeker measures in Indonesia have been thrown into disarray with Jakarta pulling the plug on all military co-operation in retaliation for the Abbott government’s refusal to explain the phone tapping of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Dr Yudhoyono: “It is no longer the Cold War era.” Photo: Achmad Ibrahim era.
God willing, tonight I will send a letter to Tony Abbott demanding Australia’s official stance and explanation … and then we will see what we can do in the future
According to Karuni Rompies and AAPRelations between Canberra and Jakarta have descended to their lowest level since the East Timor crisis as the Indonesian President ordered his country’s troops to stop joint exercises with Australians in Darwin, and the navy to halt any joint patrols to combat people smuggling.
n the latest development, the Australian embassy in Indonesia is bracing for protests outside its offices on Thursday. It is understood that the government will take precautions to ensure the safety of staff at the embassy.
And in the US, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, visiting Washington for Ausmin talks, refused on Thursday to discuss intelligence matters. US Secretary of State John Kerry also said that the US did not talk about intelligence matters in public and it wasn’t going to start now.
But opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek accused the Coalition of making ”some injudicious” comments before the September 7 election on asylum seeker policy.
Ms Plibersek said the government could not allow the diplomatic row with Indonesia, over spying claims during Labor’s time in government, to fester, insisting the opposition was committed to helping the government restore the relationship.
But she would not say whether she thought Prime Minister Abbott should pick up the phone and talk to Mr Yudhoyono, a move suggested by Labor leader Bill Shorten.
Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said that he was confused by Labor’s position.
On the one hand, he said, the opposition was saying it supported everything the government was doing to repair the relationship. ”On the other hand, they’re still trying to play politics on foreign policy,” Mr Pyne said.
Indonesia’s President on Wednesday said: “How can we do all this if we are not sure that there is no tapping of our military, which is working for the interests of the two countries?”
The sudden deterioration in ties sent the Abbott government into crisis talks, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott requesting time to address the House of Representatives at short notice to emphasise his respect for the relationship and his desire to see it repaired.
”I want to express here in this chamber my deep and sincere regret about the embarrassment to the President and to Indonesia that’s been caused by recent media reporting,” he said for the second time that day.
“The President indicated that he would shortly be writing to me. I would like to reassure the House that I will be responding to the President’s letter swiftly, fully and courteously. As always, I am absolutely committed to building the closest possible relationship with Indonesia, because that is overwhelmingly in the interests of both our countries.”
In response, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten described it as a shared problem.
”This is indeed a team Australia moment. This is something that has happened to both Indonesia and Australia. We need to walk this road together. Other nations have resolved these similar issues, we can too,” he said.
Only last month Indonesian defence minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro agreed to deploy his navy’s maritime patrol aircraft to monitor people-smuggling activity along southern coastal areas, and to beef up naval patrols.
An Indonesian navy spokesman confirmed on Wednesday night that these patrols had been suspended, but said the moves would not affect the police force, which provides most of Indonesia’s assistance to Australia on people smuggling.
Dr Yudhoyono said after a crisis meeting at the presidential palace with his foreign minister, co-ordinating minister for security and intelligence chief that the suspension of military co-operation would remain in place until he had obtained “a clear explanation [from Australia] and for Australia to take responsibility”.
“God willing, tonight I will send a letter to Tony Abbott demanding Australia’s official stance and explanation … and then we will see what we can do in the future,” he said.
The explanation should “not be given through the Australian domestic setting”, he added.
The President spoke warmly of the relationship with Australia, but said he had ordered the suspension or review of several areas of co-operation, particularly on information sharing and the exchange of intelligence.
“I have also asked my military to temporarily stop the joint army and navy exercises and also to temporarily stop any co-ordinated military operations, the joint patrols,” he said.
“As you know, the people-smuggling issue has troubled both Indonesia and Australia, so we have co-ordinated military operations or co-ordinated patrols in the ocean, but until this issue is all clear it will be stopped.”
Dr Yudhoyono also called for a binding code of conduct between Australia and Indonesia on co-operation on military, intelligence and people-smuggling issues.
He said the decision by Australia to tap his mobile phone and those of his wife and their inner circle was ”difficult to digest”.
”It is no longer the Cold War era. It was a common thing then to spy on countries of different blocs, but today it is not like that any more. Hostile countries can tap each other, but between Indonesia and Australia we are not of different blocs, let alone hostile each other … why tap a friend, not foe?”
Position expressed via Twitter
Indonesian president Yudhoyono again took to twitter overnight to summarise his position, telling his 4.023 million followers via @SBYudhoyono that he would take three steps “while waiting for an official statement from the Australian Government”.
The first was to wait for “an explanation and for Australia to take responsibility”.
The second was: “A number of agendas for cooperation will be re-examined: the exchange of information, intelligence and training between the Republic of Indonesia and Australia, and the issue of people smuggling”.
The third was to demand a “Necessary protocol, or code of ethics, and guiding principles relating to cooperation in various fields to sustain the relationship the two countries”.
At the same time, there has been an outpouring of anger towards Australia on Twitter. The hashtag #GanyangAustralia , which means “Crush Australia”, has become a popular rallying point for Indonesians to respond to the spy allegations and Australia’s response so far.
Mr Yudhoyono and several senior ministers were said to be targeted
Indonesia is recalling its ambassador to Australia over allegations that Canberra spied on phone calls of the Indonesian president.
According to BBC, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the first lady and Vice-President Boediono were reportedly amongst those targeted.
The allegations came from documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden which were published by broadcaster ABC and the Guardian newspaper.
Indonesia said the ambassador was being called to Jakarta for “consultations”.
It is the latest in a series of spying allegations that have strained relations between the two allies.
On 1 November Indonesia summoned Australia’s ambassador amid reports that Australia’s Jakarta embassy was used as part of a US-led spying network in Asia.
The latest leaked document showed that Australia spy agencies named Mr Yudhoyono, the first lady, Vice-President Boediono and other senior ministers as targets for monitoring, the reports said.
The presentation from Australian spy agency the Defence Signals Directorate (now known as the Australian Signals Directorate) showed that agencies attempted to listen to Mr Yudhoyono’s calls at least once, and tracked calls made to and from his mobile phone, in August 2009, theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation and the Guardian added.
The news organisations published slides from the presentation, which appeared to show a list of Indonesian “leadership targets” and the handset models used by each target, as well as a diagram of “voice events” of the Indonesian president in August 2009.
One slide entitled “Indonesian President voice intercept (August ’09)” appeared to show an attempt to listen to the content of a phone call to Mr Yudhoyono.
‘Research’
On Monday, Indonesian Finance Minister Marty Natalegawa said: “This is an unfriendly, unbecoming act between strategic partners.”
“This hasn’t been a good day in the relationship between Indonesia and Australia.”
Indonesia was reviewing all of its agreements related to information exchange with Australia, Mr Natalegawa added.
Djoko Suyanto, Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security Affairs, told the BBC that Jakarta would summon the Australian ambassador for questioning.
However, Sofyan Djalil, the former minister for state-owned enterprises whose name was also on the list of targets, told AFP news agency: “Diplomatic relations always have their ups and downs. This has caused anger in the short-term, but in the long-term we are still neighbours and I think we will overcome this.”
Earlier on Monday, responding to questions in parliament, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: “The Australian government never comments on specific intelligence matters.”
He added: “I will never say or do anything that might damage the strong relationship and the close co-operation that we have with Indonesia, which is all in all, our most important relationship.”
Last week, commenting on the earlier claims, Mr Abbott had described the term spying as “kind of loaded language” and suggested that “researching” would be more appropriate.
Indonesia has publicly voiced anger over previous allegations of Australian spying.
Vice-President Boediono, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said last week that the Indonesian public were “concerned” about the spying allegations.
“I think we must look forward to come to some arrangement which guarantees that intelligence information from each side is not used against the other,” he said.
Australia and Indonesia are key allies and trading partners.
Australia requires Indonesia’s co-operation on the asylum issue, as many asylum seekers travel via Indonesia to Australia by boat, but there are tensions on the issue.
Earlier this month, Indonesia declined an Australian request to receive a boat of asylum seekers whose vessel, bound for Australia’s Christmas Island, had got into trouble after it departed from Indonesia.
The reports are amongst the series of documents leaked by ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with the unauthorized disclosures.
Racism takes many different forms. It can range from abusive language or discriminatory treatment to genocide, simply on the basis of someone’s ‘race’ or colour.
Every day, science proves more clearly that humanity, although diverse, is one family and one people. Sadly our common experience also shows that racism, hatred or dislike of others simply because of their origin or culture is a common human failing.
The definition of racial discrimination is contained in Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to which Australia is a party:
“The term “racial discrimination” shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life”.
Myths and stereotypes are a key component of racism:
they reduce a range of differences in people to simplistic categorisations
transform assumptions about particular groups of people into ‘realities’
are used to justify status quo or persisting injustices
reinforce social prejudice and inequality
Three out of four Indigenous Australians experience racism in their everyday lives.
At an individual and interpersonal level racism often amounts to:
an instant or fixed picture of a group of people, usually based on negative and ill-informed stereotypes
a preconceived negative opinion
limiting the opportunities (intentionally or not) of certain individuals or groups because of personal characteristics such as race or colour
Labelling of Indigenous Australians including stereotypes such as dark skin, despair, levels of alcohol consumption, laziness, levels of intelligence, ability to work and care for children, and levels of criminality are all part of the myths and stereotypes that perpetuate racism in Australia.
Eradicating racism is a task we all share.
Sadly racism is common in Australia. Here, we have put together some stories about the shape that racism takes in Australia of today.
A story from Alice Springs
A group of young leaders from Yuendumu, a remote central Australian Aboriginal community were ejected from an Alice Springs backpacker hostel in March 2008 because some tourists staying there complained they were ‘afraid of Aborigines’.
The 16 people in the group which included women and small children, had driven the 300 kilometres to Alice Springs for lifesaving training run by the Royal Lifesaving Society. Most were young leaders, chosen specially for their standing in the Yuendumu community.
As they were moving into their rooms the resort manager told them they’d have to pack up and go because some tourists in the hostel had complained of being ‘afraid of Aborigines’ and these tourists ‘bring in a lot of money’.
The organisers of the trip are stunned. Angry about the incident, the CEO of the Royal Lifesaving Society is describing it as ‘pure racism’.
5½ hours – a story from Brisbane
Delmae Barton aged 62, a prominent Indigenous Elder and an opera singer, lay for more than five hours on a bus stop seat near Griffith University’s Nathan Campus in July 2006, unable to reach out for help after vomiting from a suspected stroke or diabetes attack.
For five and a half hours, commuters, students and bus drivers ignored her plight until two young Japanese men asked if she needed water and help.
Her friend and the director of the Gumurri Centre at the university Boni Robertson, says it is a disgrace that Auntie Delmae’s plight was ignored by hundreds of commuters as buses came and went.
She said ‘nobody would stop to help me. Is this all I’m worth?’ She believes people thought she was a drunk or a drug addict, and that the colour of skin encouraged them to walk on by.
The then Premier Peter Beattie told parliament he was ‘really disappointed’ by the incident and apologised on behalf of Queenslanders.
A story from Townsville
Aborigines can no longer receive a fair trial in Townsville according to survey results to be released in July that show a majority of residents would be unable to expel racist attitudes in court. The survey was conducted to demonstrate the need for the Lex Wotton Palm Island Riots case to be moved from a scheduled hearing in Townsville to Brisbane to ensure a fair and just trial.
In the survey, commissioned by Sydney-based law firm, Levitt Robinson, over half of Townsville residents claimed they could not disregard negative beliefs held about Aborigines, even if instructed by a judge in a courtroom setting.
These results bring to light a segregated city rife with racist views with only one in ten Townsville residents having a positive attitude towards Aboriginal people in the community.
Ignorance seemed to be a major factor with only one in four people correctly attributing the cause of the Palm Island Riots to a death in custody.
A story from Sydney
In April 2008, a world-renowned Aboriginal composer, buzzing after a standing ovation at the Sydney Opera House, was turned away from half-empty Kings Cross haunt Hugo’s. He and his friend were told, “You can’t expect us to just let anyone in.”
William Barton, a son of Delmae Barton, who has been to some of the world’s top bars over his acclaimed career, was told the venue was “at capacity” as he tried to get it at 9.30pm on a Sunday to celebrate a friend’s birthday. His friend immediately fronted Hugo’s door staff – and was rudely told: “You can’t expect us to just let anyone in.”
Racial discrimination is against the law
The Racial Discrimination Act (1975) makes it illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of their race, colour, descent or ethnic or national origin. It is unlawful to discriminate against someone when it prevents them from enjoying their human rights, such as employment, land/housing/accommodation, education, access to public places and facilities, access to goods and services (e.g. doctors, lawyers, applying for credit, entry to pubs, etc.).
