My June 09 South Sydney Herald piece

Redfern has its say on Human Rights

May 7 Around thirty people from a range of backgrounds heard expert views at a Community Consultation on Human Rights at Redfern Town Hall.

Chaired by Sydney Peace Foundation Director Professor Stuart Rees, a panel outlined issues in a number of areas. Indigenous Australians were represented by Charmaine Weldon, women’s domestic violence expert at Redfern Legal Centre. Culturally and Linguistically Diverse matters were the area of Rosa Loria from Sydney Multicultural Services, while Annie Parkinson raised issues concerning people with disabilities. A former asylum seeker from Bangladesh, Maqsood Alshams, outlined his personal experience and addressed related matters. Maqsood spent 16 months in the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre before his release in April 2000. GLBT and sexuality concerns were the province of Yasmin Hunter from Redfern Legal Centre.

After refreshments came the action. Groups of six discussed their concerns and what they had heard in the first part of the meeting. Each group contributed to a submission to be sent to the National Human Rights Consultation Committee. Individuals were also encouraged to make personal submissions.

Matters in this area are not as simple as they might at first seem. First, as Andrew Lynch says in an article on Australian Policy Online, “the Commonwealth attorney-general, Robert McClelland, made it clear that constitutional entrenchment of rights, empowering the courts to strike down legislation it found in breach of a protected right, was not on the table.” What is up for discussion is a parliamentary Act similar to the ACT’s Human Rights Act and Victoria’s Charter of Rights and Responsibilities.

Several speakers drew attention to the great difference between enshrining rights in such an Act or Charter and actual social equality – what happens in day-to-day life, which is a matter of the psyche rather than the statute books.

An audience member, claiming Indigenous Australians have “no rights”, cited difficulties experienced paying for funerals, but it is doubtful that would be addressed under a Human Rights Act or Charter. It is an important issue, no doubt affecting many marginalised through poverty in this country.

Then there are paradoxes: the tension between anti-vilification laws and freedom of speech, for example, or removal of discrimination on grounds of same sex relationships at Centrelink actually working against the financial interests of some couples.

But do have your say.

Submissions close on 15 June. You can make a submission by going to the NHRC website at http://www.humanrightsconsultation.gov.au./www/nhrcc/nhrcc.nsf/Page/Home. You may also send your ideas to:

National Human Rights Consultation Secretariat
Attorney-General’s Department
Central Office
Robert Garran Offices
National Circuit
BARTON ACT 2600

See also http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/ (A Human Rights Act for Australia) and http://apo.org.au/justice/127 (Australian Policy Online).

 

Surry Hills afternoon: Japanese surfers and friend

I spotted this group at an Elizabeth Street bus stop this afternoon.

Thought back ten years to “Hiro” (really Kyohito) — 04 — a learning journal from 1998: Literacy — My year with a Japanese Backpacker.

That window again…

Framed!

The things you see…

…when you look out the window on a warm day.

Especially when you live near a theatre…

If you have enjoyed the “Looking for Jacob” series…

…you will find more pictures of the same parts of Surry Hills appearing on my photoblog under Loving Surry Hills. This one is actually a preview, as it isn’t up yet:

There is some interesting historical and heritage information about Surry Hills on Wikipedia.

Sunday lunch was at the Porter House

How long have we been coming here, I asked Sirdan. We couldn’t remember for sure, but suspect it may go back to last century… It certainly goes back to 2000 or 2001, as I recall The Rabbit coming here… This is a real Irish Pub with real Irish people, and a great $12 Sunday roast.

Good, eh! Being there is better!

On the way to and from I collected material for the photoblog which you can see at Loving Surry Hills.

– Original photos by Neil 14 December 2008

Looking back on “Looking for Jacob” – and Surry Hills 1900

… and why would I like a “Time Team” dig around it? It runs from Wentworth Avenue Surry Hills to Foy Lane, where I took this photo…

See :-Surry Hills: Looking for Jacob 12: Zeroing in

That was posted on my new photoblog earlier this week.

You will recall that we “found” Jacob, my convict ancestor, or we at least found the part of Sydney where he is known to have resided in the second half of the 1830s through early 1840s. By the 1860s the family had moved on – Braidwood, Picton… My grandfather was born in Picton in 1867. Him I remember. Just. He died in 1948. His brother William I remember more clearly, because he survived well into the 1950s. That William – son of William, the son of William, the son of Jacob – was still riding horses and ploughing his orchard almost to the year of his death. I remember his house, with its (to citified me) rather magic rural air, and tales of this one and that one, and timber getting, and horse breaking, and blacksmithing, and bullock teams… And Sao biscuits with tomato and cheese…

The tales never went back more than about one generation…

I think I can see why, for several reasons. Sometimes my father would mutter about the Old Testament curse on “the sins of the fathers”… Perhaps too, given what the area they had left behind in Surry Hills had become by 1900, you will see why it didn’t figure in the stories… Anyway, it was not part of my grandparents’ generation’s personal memories. They had become country people.