Solder's family torn apart by White Australia Policy

Dear Prime Minister Abbott, Can we do better to Don Carter’s family in the 21st century? Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Yours respectfully, Eddie Hwang President Unity Party WA info@unitywa.org www.unitywa.org http://unitywaorg.blogspot.com.au (Published) http://twitter.com/unitypartywa (Published) Phone/Fax: 61893681884 Environmental friendly - save the trees - use email. UPWA is the only political party that calls a spade a spade. SAY NO TO RACISM Soldier's family torn apart by White Australia policy Date - December 22, 2013 Don Carter grew up in a family divided by World War II and the colour of his parents' skin. His Aboriginal mother and African American father, an allied serviceman stationed in Townsville, were married, then separated after neither could migrate to their partner's country after the war, due to racist migration policies. Carter, who was born in 1943, grew up in Innisfail far from his mother, who worked 90 kilometres away in Cairns. As a single mother, she worked in a ply mill and later an abattoir, travelling back every weekend to visit her only child. ''I had cousins who I grew up with but I never had anyone I could call dad,'' Carter says. Carter's father was posted out a year after he married in 1941. They never met again but did exchange a series of intimate letters and photographs. Now, a new project directed by Dr Victoria Grieves, indigenous research fellow at Sydney University, will chronicle the untold stories of children fathered by allied troops in Australia during World War II. Grieves will begin the project with Carter's story. She worked with him 20 years ago and first heard his story over a lunch break. ''These two people loved each other, and they loved their little boy, and neither country could provide the circumstance for that family to raise their son,'' Grieves says. The previously documented stories of ''war brides'' - when Australian women married to allied troops during war time migrated to the US after the war - are an overwhelmingly ''white story'', she says. The project, starting next year, will collect the stories of children who grew up in families like Don's, divided by the White Australia Policy. The immigration policy barred African American troops returning to Australia even if they had married Australian women. Grieves says a similar segregation policy in the US, referred to as the ''Jim Crow laws'', prevented married Aboriginal women migrating to the US because of their colour. ''This period between 1941 to 1944 is an opportunity to look at the way these two segregation regimes came together on the Australian mainland,'' Grieves says. ''The project is designed to help them [children of allied soldiers] understand their origin and identity and to help solve some of the mystery.'' Grieves says potentially thousands of children grew up in separated families or were institutionalised because of the racist policies. With about 800,000 American troops passing through Australia, there were 12,000 white war brides but it is unknown how many mixed-race marriages there were. Grieves found one example of the stories she aims to uncover when researching the family of prominent Aboriginal activist Bobbi Sykes. ''I found letters from her mother in the archive, writing to two prime ministers to ask if the White Australia Policy could be suspended to allow the father of her two small girls to come back and live and the answer on both occasions is 'no','' Grieves says. ''In the same records, you can find that the government is actually paying the passage of white American and white Australian couples when they want to come back to Australia to live.'' Carter had been searching for his father for decades when his daughter, Georgia Gleeson, found his relatives in the US via Ancestry.com and arranged a family reunion in June. ''I was ecstatic and, of course, at that stage I didn't know that dad had passed away so I thought I'd get to meet my dad,'' Carter says. Having missed the June reunion, Gleeson, a mother of four and part of the Robert de Castella indigenous marathon team, met her newly found family at the finish line of the New York Marathon last month. ''I felt happiness … but also a bit of sadness for my dad who has been looking, he's in his 70s now and it's taken so long,'' Gleeson says. ''Now I have my own children, you realise the importance of where you come from … now they know their ancestry.'' Grieves says she is aiming to achieve dual American citizenship for the descendants. Carter says American citizenship ''will give me something I can hold onto [and] say, 'Well, I am the child of an American father and my family is in America and I'm part of that family now.''' Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/soldiers-family-torn-apart-by-white-australia-policy-20131221-2zrxt.html#ixzz2o9xDY3QN

Attorney-General meets community leaders on Racial Discrimination Act revision

December 10, 2013 by J-Wire Staff

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Attorney-General Senator George Brandis has held two meetings with representatives from various ethnic communities regarding the reviews of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Together with his Chief of Staff James Lambie, and his Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Faulks, Senator Brandis hosted at Parliament House in Canberra:

• Mr George Vellis, Co-ordinator, Australian Hellenic Council
• Mr Peter Wertheim, Executive Director, Executive Council of Australian Jewry
• Mr George Vardas, Secretary & Legal Counsel, Australian Hellenic Council
• Ms Randa Kattan, CEO, Arab Council Australia
• Mr Tony Pang, Secretary, Chinese Australian Services Society
• Mr Patrick Voon, President, Chinese Australian Forum
• Ms Kirstie Parker, Co-chair, National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples
• Mr Les Malezer, Co-chair, National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples

These community representatives issued the following comments:
 “The Government appears to be approaching the review of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act with caution, and that is something we welcome.
 “A simplistic, absolutist view of freedom of expression will not solve the problem. The law needs to provide also for countervailing freedoms, including freedom from racial vilification.
 “Balancing these competing freedoms is not straight forward. The balance struck by the existing law in Sections 18C and 18D of the Act was carefully reached after years of national inquiries and debates in Parliament and the general community.
 “Any attempt to restrike that balance is not to be undertaken lightly.
 “We encourage the Government to continue its consultations with us and the wider community.”
 The delegation also met with other senior Coalition figures.

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Dear Prime Minister Abbott,

Why you want to water down racial discrimination laws?

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Eddie Hwang

President

Unity Party WA

info@unitywa.org

www.unitywa.org

http://unitywaorg.blogspot.com.au (Published)

http://twitter.com/unitypartywa      (Published)

Phone/Fax: 61893681884

Environmental friendly - save the trees - use email.

UPWA is the only political party that calls a spade a spade.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                     SAY NO TO RACISM

http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/prime-minister-tony-abbott-abandon-your-plans-to-repeal-section-18c-of-the-racial-discrimination-act-do-not-water-down-racial-discrimination-laws

.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 SAY NO TO RACISM

Mr. Ben Wickham,

Senior Executive Deputy Registrar

High Court of Australia

Dear Mr. Wickham

The decision by the High Court is to be congratulated for quashing Major Ting Li’s previous conviction by the Military. It is regrettable that both the Defence Force Discipline Appeal Tribunal and the Federal Court failed to act in the correct way.

Yours sincerely,

President

Unity Party WA

info@unitywa.org

www.unitywa.org

http://unitywaorg.blogspot.com.au (Published)

http://twitter.com/unitypartywa      (Published)

Phone/Fax: 61893681884

Environmental friendly - save the trees - use email.

UPWA is the only political party that calls a spade a spade.

Dear Attorney General Brandis,

We fully condemn your plan as it only encourages racists to spread their wings further.

Yours respectfully,

President

Unity Party WA

info@unitywa.org

www.unitywa.org

http://unitywaorg.blogspot.com.au

http://twitter.com/unitypartywa

Phone/Fax: 61893681884

Environmental friendly - save the trees - use email.

UPWA is the only political party that calls a spade a spade.

Bolt's law: Jewish leaders condemn plans by Attorney-General George Brandis to change race hate laws following Andrew Bolt case

Date - November 15, 2013 - Jonathan Swan

Jewish leaders are preparing to fight the government's plans to weaken race hate laws, saying they could encourage persecution and racially-motivated violence.

The head of the Jewish national peak body, Peter Wertheim, is concerned that Attorney-General George Brandis wants to amend sections of the law that protect Jews and other minority groups against hate speech.

''We don't really know what's intended,'' said Mr Wertheim, the executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

''Obviously we're concerned about the tenor of the announcements and we do wish to consult with the Attorney-General.''

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Senator Brandis has signalled that, as his first legislative act, he wants to amend sections of the Racial Discrimination Act that make it unlawful to offend another person on grounds of race or ethnicity.

The Attorney-General has declared himself a champion of ''freedom'' and disparaged the laws used against Andrew Bolt over an article he wrote in which he accused ''white'' Australians of identifying as Aborigines to advance their careers.

Asked about the Jewish community's concerns, Senator Brandis promised he would consult with ''stakeholders and interested parties, including leaders of the Jewish community such as Mr Wertheim, before introducing the legislation to Parliament.''

Mr Wertheim has warned that the ''wholesale repeal'' of sections of the act would not only prevent vilified groups from defending their reputations legally, but would also encourage more sinister forms of hate speech. ''It would … open the door to the importation into Australia of the hatreds and violence of overseas conflicts,'' Mr Wertheim said.

Former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said he had condemned Senator Brandis' plans ''from the moment he first opened his mouth''.

The laws were aimed at stopping ''extreme cases of hate speech,'' said Mr Dreyfus, whose great-grandparents died in the Holocaust and whose father and grandparents fled Nazi Germany for Australia.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bolts-law-jewish-leaders-condemn-plans-by-attorneygeneral-george-brandis-to-change-race-hate-laws-following-andrew-bolt-case-20131114-2xjpn.html#ixzz2kfdLome2

Mr. David Johnston,
Defense Minister.

Dear Minister,
Apparently the Prime Minister is not interested in this case because it involves an Asian. But he has the time to defend a Liberal Member for dipping his hands in the honey jar rather than order him not to do it again. What sort of a Prime Minister we have now?

As a Defense Minister, what are you going to do about it?

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang.

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SAY NO TO RACISM

Mr. Tony Abbott
Prime Minister.

Dear Prime Minister,

We fully agree that Major Ting Li was wrongly dismissed, workplace discrimination and an inference of racism.

We would like to hear your comment, please.

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
info@unitywa.org
www.unitywa.org
http://unitywaorg.blogspot.com.au (Published)
http://twitter.com/unitypartywa       (Published)

Phone/Fax: 61893681884
Environmental friendly - save the trees - use email.
UPWA is the only political party that calls a spade a spade.

                                                                                                                                      

SAY NO TO RACISM

Dear Professor Triggs,

It is sad that there is a 60% increase of racism related complaints and one wonders if this could be partly to the former Prime Minister John Howard’s lack of support in combating racism after he dismantled the Multicultural Minister’s position.

It is sincerely hope that the Abbott Government will do something about it during his first term as we should not tolerate it in the 21^st century.

We will continue to do our part as we did in the past.

Yours sincerely,

Eddie Hwang

President

Unity Party WA

info@unitywa.org

www.unitywa.org

http://unitywaorg.blogspot.com.au(published)

http://twitter.com/unitypartywa    (published)

Phone/Fax: 61893681884

Environmental friendly - save the trees - use email.

UPWA is the only political party that calls a spade a spade.

Women bearing the brunt of racism, forum told

BY DANUTA KOZAKI -October 17, 2013, 6:09 pm

The Australian Human Rights Commission says there has been a 60 per cent increase in the number of racism related complaints it has received in the past year.

Commission president Gillian Triggs told a forum on women and racism in Sydney today the complaints have been made by both genders but women bear the brunt.

Professor Triggs says unfortunately immigrant and refugee women suffer a "triple whammy" effect when racially vilified.

"It's a combination of factors. It's both gender (because) they're women. It's race because of their particular racial background, but it's also more nuanced in that we have to think of the cultural and linguistic backgrounds which add to those disadvantages," she said.

Professor Triggs says the rising number of complaints could be because of media attention given to a number of high profile incidents, particularly on public transport and social media.

"I think because people are more aware of it, they're now coming to us to complain about it, people are standing up for themselves," she said.

The forum was hosted by New South Wales Citizenship and Communities Minister Victor Dominello and organised by the Immigrant Women's Speakout Association.

Speakout president Pallavi Sinha says legislation needs to be toughened to give women more access to help, and that it is a problem that has a disproportionately negative effect on immigrant women.

"More research is needed so we know the extent of the problem and how a more targeted approach dealing with women is needed," Ms Sinha said.

The president of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, Stepan Kerkyasharian, says despite 20 years of racial vilification Laws there has not been one successful complaint.

"Racism in 2013 is taking different forms than in the past, with global technology causing new challenges," Mr Kerkyasharian said.

"It is critical that Federal, State and Territory Governments, along with human rights agencies, ensure cultural diversity is upheld in Australia."

He says individuals must also take a stand against racism too.

Mr Kerkyasharian says a NSW Government review of the state's racial vilification laws is due shortly.

"I would like to see a review of all Australian legislation regarding racial vilification across all jurisdictions, to give some teeth to legislation dealing with racism and discrimination," he said.

Jane Corpuz-Brock from the Immigrant Women's Speakout says there is a lot of bullying against immigrant women in the workplace.

"Their appearance is labelled, people try to mimic them, the way they speak. Muslim women wearing the hijab have trouble getting work. As soon as a potential employer sees them they say no thanks to offering them a job, even if they have a good resume," she said.

Ms Corpuz-Brock says 80 per cent of the women who come to the Speakout in Sydney's west are seeking help after being racially slurred.

She says it entrenches the disadvantage against immigrant women.

NSW Deputy Opposition Leader Linda Burney - the first Aboriginal Australian elected to the NSW Parliament - also addressed the forum.

Ms Burney told the event that sexual violence is regularly linked to racism for indigenous women, often within very small towns.

"It makes you feel sick, racism," Ms Burney said.

For anyone who says racism isn't an issue in this country and that people should just got on with it, we are a great multicultural society, there is no two ways about it, but let's not pretend.

"You only have to scratch the surface and a great underbelly of racism will spew out, in unparalleled ways."