To me Australia Day is not a day to ' Celebrate the Nation '. It's a day to think a little more about the people who made Australia what it is. A decreasingly semi free country.
The Australian states started as English prisons. We still don't have any guaranteed ' rights ' and any that were part of English law can be legislated away by state or feral governments. We may have signed UN treaties, but they depend on feral law for there application here.
It has been more than fifty years since the feral government has acted in accordance with our constitution. eg taxation.
Consider these events and people:
Reverend Samuel Marsden ( the flogging Parson ), assistant to the chaplain of the colony, then the chief Anglican clergyman in New South Wales, he recognized no other religion or denomination. Unsuccessfully tortured Irish prisoners for information at Toongabbie.
Vinegar Hill 5-3-1804 Irish political prisoners tried to escape from English imprisonment. Philip Cunningham was hung without trial by the New South Wales Corps ( Botany Bay Rangers).
The Currency Lads, born free in the colonies. They had no ' Ticket of Leave ' because they were not convicts and no identification because they were free. However under the ' Bushranging Act ' anyone could be arrested on suspicion of being an absconder. Since there weren't many police most arrests were made by ' farm constables ', ' trusty ' convicts. So it was common for free men to be arrested and chained and shackled by convicts. They then had to travel to somewhere with records, often Sydney. So it was not uncommon for a fee man to march in handcuffs 250 miles or more to prove they were not convicts.
The Eureka Stockade 3-12-1854 A clash protesting the denial of civic rights and excessive taxation.
Rottnest Island 19-4-1876 An English ship fires in an attempt to stop an Irish political prisoner escaping on a US whaler.
Rothbury 16-12-1929 Several men were shot, one died, by police during a union protest.
So for the benefit of all the people who say ' It can't happen here. ', it already has.
And today the feral government is happy to let the US hold an Australian for more than four years without any internationally recognized charges being filed against him. Those held are supposed to be ' enemy combatants ', but one Australian was arrested in Pakistan before the US invaded Afghanistan, so he could not have been in combat against the US!
Australians are much better off than most of the people in the world. However we cannot be ' free ' till we have rights. Rights that are simple to understand. Rights that can not be misinterpreted by lawyers. Rights that can not be changed by governments.
Howard is in favour of a Bill of Rights, for Iraq, not for Australia.
Powers handed to Australian intelligence agencies to combat terrorism have been misused. Powers brought in because of the ' War Against Terrorism '. This simply looks like the feral government playing follow the leader with Bush. In fact in 2003 the Australian Government won the Most Egregiously Stupid Award for ' a litany of pointless, irritating and self-serving security measures '.