More on Pru Goward

Her essay on the "underclass" has been widely condemned so I thought I might reproduce exactly what she said:

"As a shopkeeper’s daughter, I understood poor people; they obeyed the law, worked hard, sent their kids to the same primary schools I attended and were equally ambitious for their children. But the underclass, small as it then was, behaved differently"

So she was clearly NOT talking about the poor in general, only the dysfunctional segment of the poor. But all commentators that I have seen write as if the had condemned poor people in general, which she carefully said she did NOT do. But the Left chracteristically see only what they want to see so we should not be surprised by the response to Goward

She has not formally replied to her critics but The Guardian records a brief comment from her:

"Goward told Guardian Australia she was “deeply disappointed” that her column had been “so badly misunderstood”. But, she said, opinion pieces are “meant to provoke and I hope it’s helped the readers of the AFR think differently about those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder”.

“I have applied a Marxist analysis which some might say is old fashioned but which explains to me why people judge others as unworthy,” she said.

Goward said Shoebridge was ignoring “all the wonderful things we did for vulnerable children” when she was a minister."

She is perfectly right. Marxists do define everything in terms of class and that is perfectly respectable among sociologists. There is a large literature on the "proletariat" or "underclass" so she is being perfectly routine in referring to that much-studied population segment. Her description was perfectly mainstream sociology. Coming from a Marxist it would pass without notice

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Family of Aboriginal woman shot dead by WA police officer speak out after acquittal

Mentally ill people can be very troublesome, very dangerous to themselves and others

The family of a Geraldton woman shot dead by a Western Australian police officer has said there is “no equality” and “no justice” for Aboriginal people after the constable was acquitted of her murder on Friday.

“In terms of Aboriginal people, we don’t get no fairness, there’s no equality and this is evidence with what’s happened here,” Bernadette Clarke, the sister of the victim, known as JC for cultural reasons, said on the steps outside Perth’s district court.

The 29-year-old Yamatji woman JC was fatally shot by a WA police first-class constable in a suburban Geraldton street in 2019. The constable, the first police officer to be charged with murder in WA for nearly a century, and who is still a serving officer, cannot be named for legal reasons.

JC was shot and killed after police responded to a welfare call from JC’s sister, who had told them she was concerned JC was walking down a street holding a knife and pair of scissors.

JC had experienced significant mental health and drug problems and recently been released from prison.

The defence lawyer, Linda Black SC, told the court JC had ignored repeated requests to drop the knife from the officers at the scene.

The jury was shown CCTV footage, taken from a home about 65 metres away, of JC being shot while surrounded by police vehicles.

The director of public prosecutions, Amanda Forrester SC, argued the footage showed JC did not move towards the officers.

Black said her client had acted correctly by drawing his gun, rather than a Taser, when confronting a person armed with a knife.

She said the officer had never fired his gun while on duty and had less than a second to decide whether to pull the trigger given his proximity to JC.

“He was not some trigger-happy constable ... he was a brave and careful officer who took pride in his job,” Black said.

“[JC] was never, ever going to drop the weapons. She needed to be taken down; she was never going to surrender.”

After a three-week trial in the Perth district court, a jury deliberated for just over three hours on Friday before returning not guilty verdicts to both murder and manslaughter charges.

The acquitted officer – cleared of all criminal wrongdoing – remains a serving member of the WA police force, but was stood down after the shooting. A decision has not yet been made on his future.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/23/it-hurts-and-its-wrong-family-of-aboriginal-woman-shot-dead-by-wa-police-officer-speak-out-after-acquittal

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Supermodel Elle Macpherson raises eyebrows after deleting 'Aborigine' ancestry remarks in Vogue makeup tutorial

She obviously thinks she has some very remote Aboriginal ancestry but that is a very touchy topic

Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson has raised eyebrows for making a surprising remark about her ancestry.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the 57-year-old stated in a new beauty video tutorial for Vogue: 'My eyes are almost black, that’s the Aborigine in me.' 'Being seven generations Australian they don’t reflect light the same way blue eyes do,' she reportedly said in the clip.

According to the publication, the video was edited to remove those remarks when Macpherson was asked to clarify whether she was claiming to be Indigenous, or regretted using the term 'Aborigine'.

Born in Australia, Elle is the daughter of entrepreneur and sound engineer Peter Gow, and nurse Frances Gow. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old. Elle later adopted her stepfather's last name, Macpherson.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10124141/Elle-Macpherson-raises-eyebrows-deleting-Aborigine-ancestry-remarks-Vogue-makeup-tutorial.html

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Voluntary Asisted Dying law in Queensland

Applegarth is Labor’s golden-haired boy right now after successfully steering the assisted suicide laws into the Parliament via his role as the Chair of the Queensland Law Reform Commission.

However, I will not forgive nor forget how the architects of the VAD Bill avoided using the word “suicide” because of the stigma associated with it. And Applegarth and others who framed the laws ludicrously pretend that suicide is not suicide at all.

“The Bill provides that a person who dies as a result of self-administration or administration of a voluntary assisted dying substance does not die by suicide and is taken to have died from the disease, illness or medical condition from which they suffered,” says an explanatory note given to MPs.

To my mind that is intellectual dishonesty.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-labors-goldenhaired-boy-unsuitable-to-be-chief-justice/news-story/d4e71aceb243c7c0768f4c6e0e856329

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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