Australian Politics
Another white Aborigine
A Pilates instructor who's proud of her indigenous ancestry has blown up on TikTok at followers who questioned her Aboriginal heritage.
Lily Hodgson, 23, who posts under the account Thrlils, recently got a tattoo of the Aboriginal flag on her arm, prompting some social media users to dispute her racial identity.
One commenter said: 'You are white! Stop pretending like you understand the struggle that a real Aboriginal has been through, quite insulting.'
But the proud Wiradjuri woman hit back at trolls, calling them 'rude, uneducated, ignorant and racist' - and said being Aboriginal has nothing to do with skin colour.
The TikTok star from the New South Wales Central Coast told Daily Mail Australia she felt the need to speak out after copping a 'magnitude of bigotry' on the platform.
'It's tiring that others feel the need to pressure me to explain myself or any other indigenous individual,' Ms Hodgson said.
In a video posted on social media, she told her critics: 'You don't know that my father was part of the stolen generations and you don't know that my aunts and uncles were beaten and raped.'
'Being Aboriginal has nothing to do with my skin colour. I have 60,000 years of blood within me.'
Her aunt Elizabeth Hodgson is an acclaimed author who wrote Skin Painting - a memoir which examines the struggles of Indigenous Australians.
The book reflects on the stolen generations, a period between 1905 to 1967 when a number of Aboriginal children were removed from their families by church missions on the orders of the Australian government.
'The stolen generation was basically to bleed the Aboriginal blood out of society so there could be a supreme white Australia,' Ms Hodgson said in one of her TikTok clips.
'Hence the reason why I don't have beautiful dark hair, dark eyes or seriously dark skin… because they tried to bleed us out.'
A flood of TikTok users had repeatedly pestered the content creator with requests to show photographs of family members with dark skin.
Although Ms Hodgson said she feels in no way obligated to prove her identity to 'a bunch of people on the internet', she eventually showed followers a photo of her indigenous father.
'It's tiring how people, who have absolutely nothing to do with Aboriginal culture think that they can dictate and gate-keep race to people like myself,' she said.
The outspoken activist created controversy in a previous video where she appeared to say that Europeans have 'no culture'.
She later clarified the comments in another clip saying her mother's side of the family, who are non-indigenous, do not have any 'cultural connection' to Europe.
'People are thinking I'm saying Europeans have no culture. I am not saying that,' she said. 'I understand that in genealogy they have English, Irish, Scottish or whatever and that's fine, but my family do not celebrate anything like that.
'Her (ancestor's) family were sent to Australia on a boat to work in service.'
Ms Hodgson said it's important for Australians to look beyond appearance when it comes to Aboriginality and be more respectful about cultural identity.
'If somebody tells you that they are Aboriginal and they don't fit whenever your idea of what an Aboriginal person is supposed to be… it is not an invitation to pic that person's life apart,' she said.
Annastacia Palaszczuk under pressure to approve New Acland coal mine
Pressure is mounting from both sides of politics on the Palaszczuk Government to step in and approve the long-delayed New Acland coal mine expansion with hundreds of jobs on the line.
There are calls urging the State Government create new laws protect and push forward with the mine’s expansion, as the Bligh Government did in 2007 with the Xstrata Wollombi mine.
It follows the High Court sending the controversial case back to the Land Court for reconsideration, despite the saga having lasted almost 14 years.
There are fears continued delays could scare off international companies looking to invest in resources projects in Queensland.
But the Oakey Coal Action Alliance, behind the court challenges, say they will continue to fight to “protect water and land … for future generations”.
There are 125 jobs on the line, with the existing operations nearing their end later this year, while the project’s proponents say $7 billion and 450 direct jobs will be created if it goes ahead.
New Hope, the company behind the mine, is seeking an urgent meeting with the Palaszczuk Government, with its CEO Reinhold Schmidt saying the departments had all the information they needed to make a decision.
“What we need from the Government is a road map for how we get the project up and running because more delays equates to more job losses,” he said.
Federal Labor MP Shayne Newman and Senator Anthony Chisholm renewed their consistent calls the state to act to sign off on the project. Senator Chisholm said a solution was urgently needed in the economic circumstances. “I have been consistent for years now urging for a solution to be found so that jobs aren’t lost,” he said.
Mr Neumann said urged the Palaszczuk Government to do everything it could to facilitate the expansion. “There’s billions of dollars and hundreds of jobs on the line here,” he said
Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt said it was a classic example of activists using courts to delay projects, but there were options available to the State Government to resolve the issue.
“There is an opportunity for Annastacia Palaszczuk to follow the lead of her predecessor Anna Bligh who introduced legislation in 2007 to protect Xstrata’s Wollombi coal mine and the 190 jobs it provided,” he said.
LNP Senator Paul Scarr, who has a business background in developing mining projects overseas, said the ongoing case sent a terrible message to investors. “If this is the result of the Queensland mining approval process, then the system is broken,” he said.
Acting Premier Steven Miles said the government would be looking at the High Court decision closely and consult with the department. “We’ll abide by the court decision,” he said.
New Acland mine worker Andy Scouller said he feared there would be more redundancies coming. “There is life after mining but I guess the frustrating part is that we’re a viable business and employ a lot of people here who contribute to society, and that’s just all going to be wiped out basically with the stroke of a pen,” he said.
The High Court on Monday unanimously ruled that the future of the site’s stage three expansion go back to the Land Court for reconsideration, despite what one judge referred to as “the unfortunate history of this appeal”.
The initial hearing in the Land Court was held five years ago, with a new directions hearing set for February 11.
The first hearing lasted 100 sitting days spread over more than a year in what Justice James Edelman referred to in today’s judgment as “the longest hearing in the history of that court”.
The judgement was made on the basis that previous appeals had been impacted by the apprehension of bias from an earlier judgment.
A cheap, blood-thinning drug could kill off COVID-19
Australian researchers have turned a cheap 100 year blood thinning drug into a nasal spray that could block COVID-19, stop it spreading and treat the illness.
The team of Melbourne scientists, which includes Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton, is seeking funding to test the product, containing the blood thinning medication heparin, on people in hotel quarantine — to see if it works.
It comes as human trials begin to gauge whether AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 injection also works as a nasal spray.
Australia’s leading science research body, the CSIRO, had tested the vaccine as a nasal spray in ferrets — ahead of the human trials — and was waiting for the publication of promising results showing its impact on stopping infection spread.
“We’re confident. We have preclinical studies which are impressive at the moment,” CSIRO’s Rob Grenfell told News Corp.
“We also understand that our colleagues in the UK are conducting various ways of administering, in particular the AstraZeneca vaccine to demonstrate … whether or not it can actually cause what we call nasal neutralisation,” he said.
Another COVID-19 busting nasal spray being developed by Australian company ENA was also in preclinical trials.
And, Melbourne-based pharmaceutical company Starpharma hoped to roll out a nasal spray in Europe next month that is 99.99 per cent effective against COVID-19 when applied before or after exposure.
Nasal spray formulations would work as an accompaniment to COVID-19 vaccinations.
In the case of heparin, Australians would still receive COVID-19 vaccines but the nasal spray would be used three times a day during virus outbreaks, long haul travel and by frontline health and quarantine workers to provide immediate protection by blocking the virus entering the body through the nose.
And, unlike vaccines, heparin would work to block even mutated forms of the COVID-19 virus.
The medication is off patent, so would cost just $10 per bottle to produce and likely retail for $20 a bottle.
“The concept is that the intra-nasal heparin will, in fact, prevent the virus from locking onto the ACE2 receptor (in the nasal passage), and prevent it from being internalised and replicating and be associated shedding and spreading,” Monash University pharmacy expert Professor Michelle McIntosh said.
“We’ve been able to show in a petri dish that this concept works. And we have commenced some animal studies,” she said.
The team working on the heparin spray includes researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, University of Melbourne, St Vincent’s Hospital, Northern Health, Monash University and the CSIRO.
They needs $4 million for clinical studies, which would see the nasal spray tested on 100 people in hotel quarantine in Melbourne and at the Howard Springs centre near Darwin.
The trials would focus on whether the spray blocks the virus and stops infected people shedding the virus.
Majority of Australians in favour of multiculturalism but also integration, survey finds
This is another Scanlon report so you can be sure that the data from the survey was twisted to within an inch of its life to deliver a pro-immigration finding. They are past-masters of leading questions
Australians overwhelmingly think that having a multicultural society is a good thing, but only if people who immigrate here adopt "Australian" values and integrate, a report has found.
As the nation was in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scanlon Foundation conducted two national surveys to assess the state of Australian society and resilience when faced with a crisis.
One survey was held in July and another in November, involving more than 2,500 and 3,000 individuals, respectively.
The report found 84 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that "multiculturalism has been good for Australia", while 71 per cent believed that "accepting immigrants from many different countries makes Australia stronger".
But it also found "substantial negative sentiment" towards people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with a majority of respondents opposed to the Government providing assistance to ethnic minorities to maintain their own customs and traditions.
"Endorsement of multiculturalism does not extend to majority support for cultural maintenance," the report found. "Irrespective of the exact question wording … majority opinion continues to favour the ideal of integration."
This year's results showed that 60 per cent of people agreed with the statement that "too many immigrants are not adopting Australian values", which is slightly higher than 2019.
It found 47 per cent of respondents held negative views towards Chinese Australians.
Asian Australians also expressed the highest level of concern about discrimination, with 39 per cent of participants born in an Asian country reporting that it had increased during the pandemic.
Nearly half of all participants also expressed negative feelings towards Iraqis and Sudanese, and above 40 per cent held negative attitudes towards Lebanese Australians.
When it comes to religion, intolerance towards Muslims remains far higher than any other faith group with 37 per cent indicating a "negative view" towards those who follow Islam.
Minister for Immigration and Multiculturalism Alex Hawke acknowledged that racist attitudes persisted in Australia. "There are too many racist views … that we see towards particular communities, particularly Asian communities and still Muslim communities," he said on Sky News. "The Government rejects racism and racist views.
"Overwhelmingly there has been an increase in support for immigration and support for multiculturalism and I welcome that.
"The Government's got a lot of measures in place to enhance social cohesion and this year we will be announcing more measures to enhance social cohesion."
Opposition multicultural affairs spokesman Andrew Giles has used the findings to demand the Morrison Government implement a national anti-racism strategy.
The Scanlon Foundation has conducted research on social cohesion, immigration and population issues for 13 years.
This year's surveys were both conducted with participants randomly recruited via their landline or mobile phone through Australian National University's Social Research Centre.
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http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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