True Left

The Dutch surrendered to the Japanese on 8 March 1942. (Minute 01.34)

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However, a number of key personnel in the Dutch East Indies government as well as some aircraft and crew managed to escape to Australia to establish an interim administration. (Minute 01.39)

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The Australian government had offered to help with reorganising and re-equipping surviving forces and gave assistance. (01.51)

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Dutch refugees and material assets including aircraft and merchant shipping were initially concentrated in Sydney, (Minute 02.02)

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On 7 March 1942, just prior to the fall of Java to the Japanese, the Lieutenant-Governor general of the Dutch East Indies Herbert van Mook and 14 officials flew to Australia to establish an administration to continue the struggle. (Minute 07.29)

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The Dutch East Indies Government-in-Exile undertook important work. It negotiated the acquisition of civil relief supplies with the Australian Government and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. (Minute 07.57)

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It sought Commonwealth permission for the basing in Australia of a 30,000-strong liberation army being raised in the Netherlands (Minute 08.04)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/darkness-down-under-australia-still-034829267.html

Quote

There’s a reason that so many Aboriginal people identified with George Floyd. Australia’s First Nations people—twelve times more likely to be incarcerated than white Australians—continue to see themselves as victims of state-sanctioned violence, often involving police.

Today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 3.2 percent of Australia’s total population, yet they account for almost 30 percent of the country’s prison population. Their chances of dying in custody are almost six times greater than other Australians.
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more than 500 Aboriginal people have died in custody since the Commission’s report was handed down.

Given the violent history of Australia’s colonization—Aboriginal lands were taken without treaty, consent, or compensation—and the protracted struggle for equality and justice, it’s not surprising that First Nations people view police with deep fear and suspicion. For more than 150 years, it was police and their trackers (both black and white) who were responsible for many of the massacres of Aboriginal people. It was governments and their police who often turned a blind eye to the vigilantes who “cleared” the country of its rightful owners. It was police who took children from their families and facilitated their “re-education” in state and religious institutions. And it was police who represented the brutal imposition of whitefella law over the laws and cultures of First Nations people. Despite numerous investigations and inquiries over the years, no police officer has ever been convicted for the murder of an Aboriginal person.

In 2019, at Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community in central Australia, Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker died after being shot three times by Police Constable Zachary Rolfe. In a disturbing echo of the events at Uluru in 1934, Rolfe claimed he had acted in self-defense when Walker resisted arrest and attacked him with a pair of scissors. In March this year, an all-white jury found Rolfe not guilty of Walker’s murder, a decision that sparked a wave of grief and anger at Yuendumu and in Aboriginal communities across the country.

Local elders pleaded with police to consult them and respect their law before entering their homes. They also asked them not to bring their guns into the community. If racial profiling and unnecessary deaths were to be avoided, policing, they argued, must be carried out in collaboration with community elders and without the need for firearms.

For many Aboriginal people at Yuendumu, the 1928 Coniston massacre, a wave of indiscriminate killings led by Constable George Murray (one of Bill McKinnon’s colleagues), was still in living memory. Similar stories of profound rupture and horror can be found throughout Australia.

In 2016, esteemed Yolngu elder and respected Indigenous leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu recalled how his father, Mungurrawuy, was present “when the massacres occurred in [East Arnhem Land] in the 1920s and 1930s.” He was also “shot by a man licensed to do so.” “These events and what lies behind them are burned into our minds,” he explained. “They are never forgotten. Such things are remembered. Like the scar that marked the exit of the bullet from my father’s body.” These scars—memories of forced removal, murder, frontier warfare, resistance, and survival—are etched into the bloodlines of Australia’s historical imagination.
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Like Native Americans, Indigenous Australians suffered the dispossession of their lands. They were massacred and “dispersed” at the barrel of a gun. They were denied the wealth wrought from the white establishment’s appropriation of their lands. They were long denied citizenship in their own country, and they struggled against pernicious racial hierarchies and oppressive legislation, adapting creatively nonetheless, and ensuring their cultures’ survival. Although treaties allegedly accorded Native Americans the status of nations and sovereign governments, they were often little more than legitimizing devices for the colonizer’s appropriation of territory, or part of a strategy to ward off rival European powers. Indigenous Australians, however, do not have an established history of treaty-making to fall back on. More than 230 years after the first wave of the British invasion began in 1788, they are still waiting for their sovereignty as First Nations people to be recognized.
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Australia has struggled to dispel the myth of peaceful British settlement—the idea that the land was simply “taken up” by settlers without fierce resistance from First Nations people. For many Australians, “war” is something that happened overseas. In 2003, Prime Minister John Howard told a gathering at the Supreme Court of Victoria that Australia had “formed a nation without strife or warfare,” as if the frontier wars were a mere “blemish” in an otherwise heroic narrative of widening democracy and material prosperity.

See also:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/enemies/australia/

Australia election: Why is Australia's parliament so white?

Australia is one of the most multicultural nations in the world, but it's a different story in the country's politics, where 96% of federal lawmakers are white.

With this year's election, political parties did have a window to slightly improve this. But they chose not to in most cases, critics say.

Tu Le grew up the child of Vietnamese refugees in Fowler, a south-west Sydney electorate far from the city's beaches, and one of the poorest urban areas in the country.

The 30-year-old works as a community lawyer for refugees and migrants newly arrived to the area.

Last year, she was pre-selected by the Labor Party to run in the nation's most multicultural seat. But then party bosses side-lined her for a white woman.

It would take Kristina Kenneally four hours on public transport - ferry, train, bus, and another bus - to get to Fowler from her home in Sydney's Northern Beaches, where she lived on an island.

Furious locals questioned what ties she had to the area, but as one of Labor's most prominent politicians, she was granted the traditionally Labor-voting seat.

Ms Le only learned she'd been replaced on the night newspapers went to print with the story.

"I was conveniently left off the invitation to the party meeting the next day," she told the BBC.

Despite backlash - including a Facebook group where locals campaigned to stop Ms Kenneally's appointment - Labor pushed through the deal.

"If this scenario had played out in Britain or the United States, it would not be acceptable," says Dr Tim Soutphomassane, director of the Sydney Policy Lab and Australia's former Race Discrimination Commissioner.

"But in Australia, there is a sense that you can still maintain the status quo with very limited social and political consequences."

At least one in five Australians have a non-European background and speak a language at home other than English, according to the last census in 2016.

Some 49% of the population was born or has a parent who was born overseas. In the past 20 years, migrants from Australia's Asian neighbours have eclipsed those from the UK.

But the parliament looks almost as white as it did in the days of the "White Australia" policy - when from 1901 to the 1970s, the nation banned non-white immigrants.
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Two decades ago, Australia and the UK had comparably low representation. But UK political parties - responding to campaigns from diverse members - pledged to act on the problem.
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Labor has taken small structural steps recently - passing commitments in a state caucus last year, and selecting two Chinese-Australian candidates for winnable seats in Sydney.

But it was "one step forward and two steps back", says party member and activist Osmond Chiu, when just weeks after the backlash to Ms Le's case, Labor "parachuted in" another white candidate to a multicultural heartland.

Andrew Charlton, a former adviser to ex-PM Kevin Rudd, lived in a harbour mansion in Sydney's east where he ran a consultancy.

His selection scuppered the anticipated races of at least three diverse candidates from the area which has large Indian and Chinese diasporas.
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The frustration on this issue has centred on Labor - because the centre-left party calls itself the "party of multiculturalism".

But the Liberal-National government doesn't even have diversity as a platform issue.

One of its MPs up for re-election recently appeared to confuse her Labor rival for Tu Le, sparking accusations that she'd mixed up the two Asian-Australian women - something she later denied. But as one opponent said: "How is this still happening in 2022?"

Date   
1788–1934[1]
Location   
Australia, including Tasmania and other surrounding islands
Result   
British/Australian victory

No treaty signed
British/Australian control over Australia established, Indigenous Australians dispossessed
Indigenous population decline due to killings, starvation, forced migration
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The British Government decided to establish a prison colony in Australia in 1786.[10] Under the European legal doctrine of terra nullius, Indigenous Australians were not recognised as having property rights and territory could be acquired through 'original occupation' rather than conquest or consent.[7]
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The frontier wars were particularly bloody and bitter in Queensland, owing to its comparatively large Indigenous population. This point is emphasised in a 2011 study by Ørsted-Jensen, which by use of two different sources calculated that colonial Queensland must have accounted for upwards of one third and close to forty percent of the indigenous population of the pre-contact Australian continent.[71]

Queensland represents the single bloodiest colonial frontier in Australia.[72][73] Thus the records of Queensland document the most frequent reports of shootings and massacres of indigenous people, the three deadliest massacres on white settlers, the most disreputable frontier police force, and the highest number of white victims to frontier violence on record in any Australian colony.[74] In 2009 professor Raymond Evans calculated the indigenous fatalities caused by the Queensland Native Police Force alone as no less than 24,000.[75] In July 2014, Evans, in cooperation with the Danish historian Robert Ørsted-Jensen, presented the first-ever attempt to use statistical modelling and a database covering no less than 644 collisions gathered from primary sources, and ended up with total fatalities suffered during Queensland's frontier wars being no less than 66,680—with Aboriginal fatalities alone comprising no less than 65,180[76]—whereas the hitherto commonly accepted minimum overall continental deaths had previously been 20,000.[77][78] The 66,680 covers Native Police and settler-inflicted fatalities on Aboriginal people, but also a calculated estimate for Aboriginal inflicted casualties on the invading forces of whites and their associates. The continental death toll of Europeans and associates has previously been roughly estimated as between 2,000 and 2,500, yet there is now evidence that Queensland alone accounted for an estimated 1,500 of these fatal frontier casualties.[3][77][78][79]
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The largest reasonably well documented massacres in south east Queensland were the Kilcoy and Whiteside poisonings, each of which was said to have taken up to 70 Aboriginal lives by use of gift of flour laced with strychnine. Central Queensland was particularly hard hit during the 1860s and 1870s, several contemporary settlers mention the "Skull Hole" or Mistake Creek massacre on Bladensburg station near Winton which in 1901 was said to have taken up to 200 Aboriginal lives.[84] In 1869 the Port Denison Times reported that "Not long ago 120 aboriginals disappeared on two occasions forever from the native records".[85] Frontier violence peaked on the northern mining frontier during the 1870s, most notably in Cook district and on the Palmer and Hodgkinson River goldfields, with heavy loss of Aboriginal lives and several well known massacres. Battle Camp and Cape Bedford belong among the best known massacres of Aboriginal people in Cook district, but they were certainly not the only ones. The Cape Bedford massacre on 20 February 1879 alone was reported to have taken as many as 28 lives, this was retaliation for the injuring (but not killing) of two white "ceder-getters" from Cooktown.[86] In January 1879 Carl Feilberg, the editor of the short lived Brisbane Daily News (later editor-in-chief of the Brisbane Courier), conveyed a report from a "gentleman, on whose words reliance can be placed" that he had after just "one of these raids ... counted as many as seventy-five natives dead or dying upon the ground."[87]

There were many massacres of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people by settlers following the colonisation of Australia by the British Empire, in 1788. These events were a fundamental element of the Australian frontier wars,[1] and frontier massacres were a significant component of Aboriginal casualties across the continent.[2]

A project headed by historian Lyndall Ryan from the University of Newcastle and funded by the Australian Research Council, has been researching and mapping these massacres.[3] Significant collaborators toward this project include Jonathan Richards from the University of Queensland,[4][3][1] Jennifer Debenham, Chris Owen, Robyn Smith and Bill Pascoe. Criteria such as defining a massacre as the killing of six or more people are used and an interactive map as an online resource is included.[5][6][2] As of 3 January 2020, at least 311 frontier massacres over a period of about 140 years had been documented, revealing "a state-sanctioned and organised attempt to eradicate Aboriginal people".[2][failed verification]

The following list of massacres was compiled by settlers from white perpetrator sources such as letters and diaries, and thus does not take into account Gunai Kurnai knowledge of the history of occupation.[4]

1840 - Nuntin- unknown number murdered by Angus McMillan's men
1840 - Boney Point - "Angus McMillan and his men took a heavy toll of Aboriginal lives"[5]
1841 - Butchers Creek - 30-35 shot by Angus McMillan's men[5]
1841 - Maffra - unknown number shot by Angus McMillan's men
1842 - Skull Creek - unknown number murdered
1842 - Bruthen Creek - "hundreds murdered"
1843 - Warrigal Creek - up to 150 people shot by Angus McMillan and his men[6]
1844 - Maffra - unknown number murdered
1846 - South Gippsland - 14 murdered
1846 - Snowy River - 8 murdered by Captain Dana and the Aboriginal Police
1846-47 - Central Gippsland - 50 or more shot by armed party hunting for a white woman supposedly held by Aborigines; no such woman was ever found.
1850 - East Gippsland - 15-20 murdered
1850 - Murrindal - 16 poisoned
1850 - Brodribb River - 15-20 murdered

During the British colonisation of Australia, land ownership was forcefully transferred from the various Indigenous populations to the colonists. Several military and paramilitary organisations such as the British Army, Native Police, Border Police and New South Wales Mounted Police were utilised by the British to eliminate any Aboriginal resistance to this acquisition of land. However, it was often the responsibility of the pioneering colonists themselves to take the initiative in enforcing land ownership transferral. Usually this was done violently through the use of firearms to intimidate or kill the native people. Some colonists though, chose an alternative approach, using poison concealed in consumables as a method of extirpating the original custodians of the land. The tainted consumables were either knowingly given out to groups of native people, or purposely left in accessible places where they were taken away and eaten collectively by the local clans. As a result, incidents of mass deaths of Aboriginal Australians due to these deliberate mass poisonings occurred throughout the continent.[1][2]

The mass poisonings were generally done in a secretive manner but there are many documented cases with some involving police and government investigations. They appear to have begun as a colonial method in Australia during the 1820s when toxic substances utilised in the sheep farming industry became readily available. Chemicals such as arsenic, strychnine, corrosive sublimate, aconitum and prussic acid were all used. There are no cases of convictions being reported against any of the perpetrators of these mass poisonings.
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Some examples of mass poisonings
   
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (January 2021)
1824, Bathurst - members of the Wiradjuri people poisoned with arsenic infused damper.[1]
1827, Hunter Valley - colonists along the Hunter River poisoning Aboriginal people with corrosive sublimate.[3]
~1833, Gangat - large number of Aboriginal people killed on the Australian Agricultural Company's million acre land grant near Gloucester by being given poisoned flour in up to three separate incidents.[4][5]
1840s, Wagga Wagga - pioneer colonists to the region, William Best and Alexander Davidson both recounted large scale deliberate poisonings of local Wiradjuri people in the early 1840s. The poison was delivered via milk or through the poisoning of waterholes.[6][7] Mary Gilmore, who lived near Wagga Wagga as child, also documented several cases of mass poisonings that occurred around the Murrumbidgee River.[8][9]
1840, Glen Innes - reports of deaths of Aboriginal people by prussic acid poisoning investigated by government authorities but denied by pastoralists.[10]
1841, Wannon River - at least seven Aboriginal people poisoned to death on one of the Henty brothers' leaseholds.[11]
1842, Tarrone - at least nine Aboriginal people poisoned to death near Port Fairy by being given poisoned flour on the squatting run of James Kilgour.[11]
1842, Mount Kilcoy - a large number of Aboriginal people were poisoned to death at an outpost of Evan Mackenzie's Kilcoy property.[12][13]
1844, Ipswich - around a dozen Aborigines were poisoned at the government-run farm known as Plough Station near Ipswich. A convict, John Seller, offered them biscuits containing arsenic after a dispute over him taking a female member of the clan. Three died and Seller was charged with their murder. He avoided conviction but as he was already a serving a sentence for a previous crime, he was transferred south to the Cockatoo Island prison where he was released two years later.[14]
1846, Tyntynder - between 8 and 20 Aboriginal people killed by eating poisoned flour given to them by Scottish colonist Andrew Beveridge near Swan Hill.[15]
1847, Whiteside - at least three Aboriginal people killed by arsenic-laced flour being placed out for them to take. This occurred on the Whiteside squatting run of Captain George Griffin.[16]
1847, Kangaroo Creek - close to 30 Aboriginal people killed by poison given to them in flour by Thomas Coutts near Grafton. Coutts was arrested and sent to Sydney but the case was dropped.[17]
1849, Port Lincoln - five Aboriginal people including an infant were killed after being given flour mixed with arsenic by hutkeeper Patrick Dwyer near Port Lincoln. Despite being arrested with strong evidence against him, Dwyer was released from custody by Charles Driver, the Government Resident at Port Lincoln.[18]
1856, Hornet Bank - a number of Aboriginal people killed by being given strychnine-laced Christmas pudding in the lead-up to the Hornet Bank massacre.[19]
1860s, Warginburra Peninsula - Edward Hampton "Cranky" Baker added arsenic to his food stores knowing they would be stolen by the local Aboriginal people living on his "Peninsula" land-holding adjoining Shoalwater Bay. The shooting and poisoning of these people greatly diminished their number.[20] Baker also had land near the town of Rockhampton in which supplies of arsenic-laced flour were placed. In 1870 several South Sea Islanders ate this flour and one died. Baker faced a magisterial inquiry but the matter was dropped.[21][22]
1874, Bowen River Inn - five Aboriginal people were poisoned outside the Bowen River Inn on the upper Bowen River. Two were killed and buried in shallow graves in the riverbed while the other three recovered.[23]
1885, Florida cattle station - a large number of Yolngu people became ill and died after being given poisoned horse-meat on John Arthur Macartney's newly established Florida cattle station in north-eastern Arnhem Land.[24]
~1890, Dungog - two young Aboriginal people begging near to town "were easily disposed of" by being given poison in their food.[25]
1895, Fernmount - six Aboriginal people poisoned to death near Bellingen by being given aconite to drink by John Kelly. Kelly was suspected of manslaughter and committed for trial but was found not guilty and discharged.[26][27]
1896, Lakeland Downs - Arsenic deliberately placed in baking powder killed a significant number of Aboriginal people near Lakeland as "just retribution" for the spearing of a Scottish colonist.[28]
1908, Mt Ida - eight Aboriginal people killed by poison near Leonora. Explorer William Carr-Boyd described those killed as dirty, lazy, thieving "human wolves" who "got something more to eat than they bargained for".[29]
1931 Sandover River There is also a suggestion that William George Murray participated in another massacre or mass poisoning of Aboriginal Australians while he was posted at Arltunga.[30]
1936, Timber Creek - five Aboriginal people killed by arsenic being put in their food near Timber Creek.[31]
1981, Alice Springs - two Aboriginal people were killed and fourteen others were made ill by drinking from a bottle of sherry which had strychnine deliberately added to it. The poisoned bottle was intentionally left by persons unknown in a place of easy access to this group of Aboriginal people.[32]
2015, Collarenebri - three Aboriginal people, Norman Boney, Sandra Boney and Roger Adams, were poisoned to death after buying methanol-laced moonshine from Mary Miller in the town of Collarenebri. Miller was not charged in relation to the deaths and only received a $5,000 fine for selling liquor without a licence from magistrate Clare Girotti.[33][34]

Australia Day is observed on January 26 to commemorate the arrival of the first fleet of ships from Britain in 1788. While the day is a celebration for many, others especially Australia's Indigenous peoples, view it as the beginning of their dispossession and mistreatment. We look back to why the day has always been one of the most polarizing dates on the country’s calendar.