Cook latest: Sam Witheridge, that well known numbers man for the Liberal Party left, was seen having a cosy head to head with none other than Labor Party member Tony Albanese MP. I know the polls are bad Sam but not that bad. Were they swapping recipes? Sharing a love of socialism or perhaps it was a case of the Labor Party helping out ‘Uncle Sam’ with some false party membership lists. Sam has been a very busy boy of late. Just what is going on in Cook?

Cook II: The troubles in Cook come as no surprise to me. Party officials have either looked the other way when it came to branch stacking in the FEC, or had their hands tied. There must be many people helping with the form filling, just as there was with the numerous new members of the Liberal party who lived at the same PO Box address.

The West in black and white: Last Saturday’s West Australian carried a front page story about “The pub that poisons it’s own” referring to a hotel in Fitzroy Crossing which is owned by an Aboriginal-run corporation. The story was jointly bylined by Jessica Strutt and the editor Paul Armstrong. The entire tenor was that it was disgusting for an Aboriginal to own a pub and sell grog to Aboriginals but ok for whites to own pubs and sell the grog. The truth is – and anyone involved in the industry in WA will tell you – that the Aboriginal owners have strict self-imposed restrictions on alcohol sales in Fitzroy Crossing and have worked collaboratively with the State Government to try and solve the problems. Few, if any European-owned pubs, can claim the same regime.

Indigenous history at Melbourne: In response to Kate Darian-Smith’s reply to the article on why Indigenous history is not being taught at the University of Melbourne this semester: 1. this position did not become vacant in mid-May 2007. As the leading article writes, the position had been vacant since the end of 2006. The department had the opportunity then of using an upcoming appointment to address the lack of staff qualification in the area of Indigenous history. However this opportunity was passed by. 2. Despite a ‘freeze’ on Arts Faculty appointments since the beginning of the year – which was cited as the reason the department were unable to appoint a new Indigenous history lecturer – two new lecturers have recently taken up positions teaching history in the department. 3. The ‘formal selection process’ described by Kate Darian-Smith and initiated in June 2007 was too little, too late, and was instigated only after a group of concerned students put pressure on the department to find someone suitable for the job. This was despite constant lobbying by both students and academics in the department on the urgency of finding someone to teach the subject from the beginning of 2007. In closing, it should never have been left to concerned students and a minority of academics to pressure the department into advertising the position in the correct way. As evidenced by the ‘Melbourne Model’ television advertisements and this week’s ‘Indigenous’ issue of the ‘Melbourne University Voice’ newsletter, the University is marketing itself as ‘expert’ in Indigenous issues, yet, when it came to the crunch, it could not come up with $12,500 to employ two experienced Indigenous academics to teach what is probably the most important history course at the university. This is of course outrageous, but more importantly than that, it is such a loss for the hundreds of students who had wished to take the course this semester. We can only speculate as to how much poorer they, and our society, will be without an engaged and complex understanding of the troubled history of relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia, a history which, it appears, is still very much a reality.

And finally: Which Bank appears to have called the election already? Checkout this link.  It’s a promotion to encourage nominations for “Australian of the Year” has the comment that the “… program culminates in the announcement of the National Award recipients by Prime Minister, John Howard, on the eve of Australia Day in Canberra”. That would be January. Next year.