Political comment By Marc Alexander

Founded in 1997 by well known and leading columnist, social critic and commentator, as well as children's author, Amy Brooke - the Summer Sounds Symposium deserves special mention again because of its quality as a catalyst in sparking a range of provocative ideas about issues too often left unchallenged. Attendees from all spheres of the academic, corporate, artistic, political and media world, gather together yearly to listen, discuss and learn from each other. This week's column reflects some of those discussions.

For more information see: www.summersounds.co.nz

Green is the new red

Its extraordinary how skewed the Left can be in this country. For years the Northern Territory of Australia has been plagued by the most appalling abuses visited upon the aborigines. Rampant sexual child abuse with the accompanying spread of disease; women are being beaten and molested; there's widespread poverty; rampant alcohol abuse; and pornography. So finally, after watching the self-destruction of a community for years, Aussie Prime Minister John Howard cobbles a strategy to deal with it. More police, liquor bans, threatening to cut welfare which feeds the problems, and going after pornography. Sounds all pretty sensible to me.

And what's the reaction here? A bit of mud-slinging from Maori MP Hone Harawira who called Howard a "racist bastard," then went on to say "I would have the leader of my country saying I am an alcoholic, I am into pornography, I am into sexual abuse. All I would want to do is go out and smash someone." Well that's constructive! Sounds like we need Howard here too. Oh, and probably Sue Bradford to calm him down and remind him that section 59 is no longer a defense.

Well, maybe not because her colleague MP Metiria Turei gives Howard the wooden spoon as well. In a press release on the 29 June, she calls for international solidarity against this abuse of human rights and status of "the indigenous people of Australia." She goes on to spout the new mantra of Left's absurd fight against reverse racism by claiming Howard's actions, "marks a new low in the history of racism in that country."

Clearly she is a woman with an open mind, not given to hyperbole, nor a stubborn attachment to the inconvenience of contradictory facts. Yes, racism is terrible and we can all hold hands, sing kum-baya, wish it were not so, then learn to hate each other on an individual basis. After all, there are plenty of reasons to dislike someone other than the color of their skin like, say, the fact they sexually abuse children. Or that none of those who claim to care for these aboriginal innocents have yet done diddley squat to help them.

While the Metiria Turei's and Hone Harawira's of this world fulminate over prescription to help solve the tragedy destroying the aboriginal community, its worth asking what their answer might be? I suppose sending in a squadron of social workers, government aid bureaucrats and hand-holding apologists would be their remedy. Well it hasn't worked before, and its not likely to now. The real anger vented against Howard has more to do with the idea that they hate the fact that the indigenous people are unable or incapable to help themselves. The loathing is against the help offered by the non-indigenous because they are non-indigenous. It goes against the neo-tribal ideal.

But then, what can you expect from the kind of thinking that Ms Turei's party stands for when her buddy, Sue Bradford now wants sixteen year-olds to get the vote? Sure why not? It makes perfect sense to assume that the same children who can't figure out what to order from their school tuck-shop, and therefore need to be protected from meat pies and milkshakes, will nevertheless be able to work out whose best to run the country.

But other than the obvious, there's a catch. Her private members Bill will include the necessity of a compulsory civics component to the curriculum. The question to ask, I suppose, is who will author it? Its all very well to put an emphasis on the conventions of constitutional law and the structure and electoral processes of central and local government, as well as the New Zealand legal system. But I wonder, what slant will be given on the issues surrounding the Treaty of Waitangi? Those who stand to profit most politically? Or will this just be another opportunity to bash all those migrants who came after the Maoris did?

And what about the rights and responsibilities associated with citizenship? Will the syllabus push the "what the world owes me" perspective beloved by the present Labour government? The whole idea could so easily be captured by the 'progressive' Geoffrey Palmer brigade (and I don't mean that in a kind way). Its not that I'm against the introduction of civics in schools, it could certainly help promote a better understanding of the importance and the duties of democracy and citizenship. But I also worry that the pointy-headed academics who Bradford has in mind will be the very people who will creatively foster the same views she holds. You know the types....the ones who have been so successful at marketing sex education in schools that we now have one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies, abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases. I worry about that

Bradford defends her silly Bill by claiming that, "This Bill is about taking young people seriously as citizens, and ensuring their voices are heard." Trouble is, we do take these young people seriously by treating them as the children they still are - entitled to all the things Sue Bradford is slowly dismantling such as the right to be parented, being disciplined, and given the chance to grow up at their pace - not hers.

Seems to me the pace of attack on our values has quickened thanks to people like Sue Bradford. Pretty soon we'll all give up. Then we can sit around emaciated and looking very much like the vegetables we'll become, rolling joints to alleviate the boredom, and end up in worse shape than the aboriginal communities. By then of course, it might be Prime Minister Sue Bradford. God help us!

ENDS

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