Hope Not Hate

This is one of those blogs, one hopes never to write, but given the events of the last weeks, it seems unavoidable. 

What unfolded in New Zealand is heart breaking, but expected - sooner or later. What one didn't expect, was that it would be New Zealand, to put it bluntly, given the that a number of Australian politicians (and parties) in Australia have been using intolerance, hate and fear as political currency for around two decades; Australia seemed the more likely scenario. And indeed, this did turn out to be an Australian white supremacist, fueled by hate and made brave by Australian politicians normalising. 

What followed in Australia, should be of concern to all -of gigantic proportions.  The comments made by one Australian Federal Senator (voted in by a whopping 19 votes), in particular were, and continue to be...... actually, there are no words to describe the repulsion of this individual, nor the media outlets which continue to allow others like him to continue spin their bile message directly to a mass audience. The fact that, the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) have not revoked their licenses is truly incompetent and illustrates all to clearly the failings in legislation. 

Lets be absolutely clear - HATE SPEECH, IS NOT FREE SPEECH - IT IS HATE SPEECH. Free speech stops the moment it creates a dangerous 'Us verses Them' narrative. 74 years after the conclusion of WW2, it appears humans are too stupid to learn.

As Labor Party Leader, Bill Shorten made clear, after 50 innocent people (including children) were confirmed dead and another 12 rushed to intensive care as result of the Christchurch terrorist attack, on the 15th March 2019;

Hate speech, doesn't always lead to violence; but violence ALWAYS starts with hate speech. 

The entire history of humanity, into the present day, already provides far too many examples of exactly this.  

Regardless of the ideology on which hate speech is based, it is at its core utterly repugnant and pure evil. 

The election of Mark Latham into the Parliament of New South Wales, over the weekend - should not just raise warnings, as to how normalised hate speech masquerading as free speech has become, but also place Australian anti-terror organisations and Police services on greater vigilance, increase watch lists - if not raise their internal alert levels - considerably. Because if the patterns illustrated here continue the slaughter of Australians; regardless of religion, race, gender, age, sexual orientation will escalate, with any and all Australians becoming targets. 

So where does the responsibility rest? 

It rests with each and every individual. It rests with us: 

• report hate speech when we hear and/or see it. 

• report hate speech and content on social media, to that social media provider and to not share, re-post or retweet that content. 

• don't just rant on social media, or scream at the television or radio, when hate content is beamed into our lives - but to sit down and report it to the ACMA - repeatedly until it is taken seriously. 

• write, phone, email, twitter, facebook - every politician and party you can think of; demanding Australian Media Ownership Restrictions to be re-introduced - Immediately. 

But most importantly it rests with us, at the ballot box !  

At any and every occasion, 

Vote:  #HopeNotHateForAustralia

Vote: Compassion, Tolerance - Humanity.

Links: 

This first one, should be screaming from Australia's media - but instead...... *crickets*

• Open Letter from UK Counter-Terrorism, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing  

 

 

• Australian Human Rights Commission 

• Hate speech, free speech and human rights in Australia 

• Human Rights Watch - Free Speech 

• "Identitarianism: The Inherently Dangerous Ideology that Influenced the Christchurch Killer" 

• New Zealand's Leader Looks To Unify Nation 

• Far Right Referrals to UK's Counter Terror Scheme Soar.

 

 

 

 

State of Rowing & Launceston City Council- Update

Update written: 24th October 2018.

Copy provided to Rowing Tasmania, prior to posting.

 

Today, I’d like to thank all those who have provided feed back on previous blogs. Whether positive or negative all is valuable.

Speaking out publicly, placing issues within the public domain, forces questions to be asked some of which may eventually be answered. When this occurs, or new information becomes available, I’m always happy to provide a blog update.

However, this blog is my own, the opinions and thoughts expressed, are my own.

It is my considered opinion that when faced with a political environment which is not being open and transparent, local media which has become nothing more than a ‘cut and paste’ from prepackaged media release(s) and with 60% of the nation’s media organisations owned or controlled by one media mogul; we have a social and civic duty to ask questions and provide information to the larger community.

If this means that I am perceived as a ‘revolutionary’, a ‘S*** Stir’, ‘difficult’ what ever else, then so be it.

Also, lets keep in mind that Launceston is in the midst of a municipal council election and a Federal election is due in 2019. These being, the opportune moments, to lift the carpet, ask difficult questions and speak out where they have not been forth coming.

Right. Lets get to business on these updates.

First to the matter of Rowing Tasmania. Relations between the Tasmanian peak body and Tasmanian Rowing Clubs, is largely symbiotic, but has by no means always been on calm waters.

During the process of researching the history of Northern Tasmania’s early rowing days, I stumbled upon some material which suggests; early last century there may have been an attempt to form a break away, state body. At one point, two bodies did exist – The Tasmanian Rowing Association and a Tasmanian Rowing Union. Things must have been pretty bad!

As to the current situation, my updated understanding is as follows.

To date Rowing Tas has received $5000 from the Launceston City Council and $25,000 from the current Liberal, Tasmanian State Govt. This money is for the preliminary part, of the Launceston Rowing Precinct project development including: liaising with those clubs and schools looking to locate into the new rowing precinct. Creation and feed back of plans, modeling etc. Reliable sources indicate this project will only go ahead with funding from outside sources – not from the coffers of Rowing Tasmania itself. Should external funding not be available, the project will simply not be achievable.

The Pontoon which Rowing Tasmania and the Launceston City Council are proposing to use for the entire precinct, is owned jointly by St Patrick’s College and the North Esk Rowing Club.

The Launceston City Council decided and the stakeholders informed at meeting on the 19^th May 2018. This does not reflect the original situation as discussed and agreed to between LCC, North Esk Rowing Club and a private benefactor when the repairs and extensions to the pontoon where originally, put on the table at North Esk - discussed and agreed to between these three parties.

In fact post the meeting on 19^th May, North Esk were somewhat shell shocked, to say the very least. However, this may actually turn out to be to St Patrick College and North Esk Rowing Club’s advantage in the longer term.

Whilst these two organisations will retain ownership and management of the pontoon, there are still serious concerns from both organisations as to the practicality of boating an entire rowing precinct from one pontoon already running at capacity (which is why the size was doubled post 2016 flood) plus and the existence of the new foot bridge creating bottle necks – particularly with quick moving tides or flood waters.

A second pontoon on the other side of the bridge would be a more sensible proposal and practical solution.

Now to Rowing Tasmania itself. I’ve been advised recently that, the hiring of employees by Rowing Tasmania has been out sourced to (*find and insert company name here?*) and therefore - independent.

Within Tasmania there is an entire generation, almost completely unrepresented within the coaching ranks. This is not the fault of any organization, nor is this a criticism of any coach. It is simply the way things are.

Tasmania does have some exceptional coaching talent, which would be greatly enhanced and supported with the introduction of ‘new blood’. In deed a prime example of this was the arrival of Sam La Compt from New Zealand during the 1990s.

Fresh ideas and perspective would be of great benefit statewide, particularly within development programs and coach mentoring.

The other issue is the perception by many that the sovereignty and independence of their clubs are under threat.

Whilst Revolutionize Sport is an outstanding platform which has greatly improved efficiency of administration for those clubs and schools using it; there are parameters and restrictions which are not only causing some internal issues for users, unnecessary work for state bodies. In some instances these could be interpreted as conflicting with the autonomy of organisations. This is a situation, which needs rectifying ASAP. Not only for practicality, but also to alleviate the fore mentioned concerns.

The best publicity any community or government body – or, indeed any large project for that matter, is through open communication, community engagement, regular updates and transparency.

Whilst we are on the matter of autonomy, independence and asset management / protection of community organisations; I must also add an update on Launceston City Council matters. However, that will have to be part 2 for another blog.