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Insights from Quadrant
Margaret Cameron-Ash’s Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook’s Endeavour Voyage makes new and original revelations about the British discovery of eastern Australia. Captain James Cook commanded the Endeavour voyage of 1768–1771 in the midst of furious rivalry between Britain and France for imperial supremacy in the South Pacific. Obeying secret orders, Cook hid his best discoveries, including Bass Strait and Sydney Harbour, by rewriting his journals and maps to keep these strategic finds from the prying eyes of French spies.
Lying for the Admiralty, a new release from Quadrant books, can be ordered here
Insights from Quadrant
A gong rings true
The Australia Day honours list is out and the usual questions arise: how do they settle on those to be acclaimed, and what part of that process is driven as much by politics, perhaps more so, than an appreciation of a lifetime’s achievement and good works?
Consider, for example, Professor Tom Calma, co-author with Marcia Langton of the Voice blueprint, who scored Senior Australia of the Year — a timely nod in light of the coming referendum by a judging panel, one can’t help but suspect, very keen indeed to see race installed in the Constitution.
Then there is the Young Australian of the Year and its list of finalists, not one of which happens to be a representative of that currently despised demographic, the white male. Andrew Bolt has more on this curious omission.
Spot what’s missing from this year’s list of state winners of Young Australian of the Year.
The NSW one is a white female environmentalist. That much isn’t surprising.
Then come the rest. The ACT winner is a Ghanaian Australian man, the Queenslander a Torres Strait Islander woman, the Tasmanian a Muslim woman, the South Australian a male refugee from Kenya, the Victorian a man who identifies as Aboriginal, and the Northern Territorian a Tiwi Islander
That leaves just Western Australia to produce a white male winner but … no. It’s athlete Peter Bol, born in Sudan.
How can white males – more than 40 per cent of our population – not crack even one spot on the list of Young Australians of the Year?
The overall winner, ‘body image campaigner’ Taryn Brumfitt, seems a safe, no-fuss selection. Unlike, say, Adam Goodes, the 2014 AOTY winner, she is unlikely to begin her term with a speech decrying her compatriots’ racism.
So, another list written in the ink of woke? Not quite.
Among those honoured there is Bess Nungarrayi Price, Member of the Order of Australia, who shared some pointed observations about fellow honouree Tom Calma with the SMH:
“We have a lot of voices; many federal parliamentarians. I’m trying to grasp what are they talking about with this Voice? What more is it going to do for us?” she said.
“It’s always been the same people who’ve banged on about it. [Voice report co-authors] Marcia Langton, Tom Calma, these people who’ve got no clue about what’s happening outside Melbourne Uni or Tom Calma’s office in Canberra. They’ve lost touch.”
Unusual for Wikipedia, Bess Price’s entry is fair, honest and free of any political slant. If her candour in dismissing the Voice as a playground and power base for the Aboriginal elites promoting it isn’t enough to establish her worthiness, that summary of a life most certainly is.
— roger franklin
Insights from Quadrant
Margaret Cameron-Ash’s Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook’s Endeavour Voyage makes new and original revelations about the British discovery of eastern Australia. Captain James Cook commanded the Endeavour voyage of 1768–1771 in the midst of furious rivalry between Britain and France for imperial supremacy in the South Pacific. Obeying secret orders, Cook hid his best discoveries, including Bass Strait and Sydney Harbour, by rewriting his journals and maps to keep these strategic finds from the prying eyes of French spies.
Lying for the Admiralty, a new release from Quadrant books, can be ordered here
Insights from Quadrant
A gong rings true
The Australia Day honours list is out and the usual questions arise: how do they settle on those to be acclaimed, and what part of that process is driven as much by politics, perhaps more so, than an appreciation of a lifetime’s achievement and good works?
Consider, for example, Professor Tom Calma, co-author with Marcia Langton of the Voice blueprint, who scored Senior Australia of the Year — a timely nod in light of the coming referendum by a judging panel, one can’t help but suspect, very keen indeed to see race installed in the Constitution.
Then there is the Young Australian of the Year and its list of finalists, not one of which happens to be a representative of that currently despised demographic, the white male. Andrew Bolt has more on this curious omission.
Spot what’s missing from this year’s list of state winners of Young Australian of the Year.
The NSW one is a white female environmentalist. That much isn’t surprising.
Then come the rest. The ACT winner is a Ghanaian Australian man, the Queenslander a Torres Strait Islander woman, the Tasmanian a Muslim woman, the South Australian a male refugee from Kenya, the Victorian a man who identifies as Aboriginal, and the Northern Territorian a Tiwi Islander
That leaves just Western Australia to produce a white male winner but … no. It’s athlete Peter Bol, born in Sudan.
How can white males – more than 40 per cent of our population – not crack even one spot on the list of Young Australians of the Year?
The overall winner, ‘body image campaigner’ Taryn Brumfitt, seems a safe, no-fuss selection. Unlike, say, Adam Goodes, the 2014 AOTY winner, she is unlikely to begin her term with a speech decrying her compatriots’ racism.
So, another list written in the ink of woke? Not quite.
Among those honoured there is Bess Nungarrayi Price, Member of the Order of Australia, who shared some pointed observations about fellow honouree Tom Calma with the SMH:
“We have a lot of voices; many federal parliamentarians. I’m trying to grasp what are they talking about with this Voice? What more is it going to do for us?” she said.
“It’s always been the same people who’ve banged on about it. [Voice report co-authors] Marcia Langton, Tom Calma, these people who’ve got no clue about what’s happening outside Melbourne Uni or Tom Calma’s office in Canberra. They’ve lost touch.”
Unusual for Wikipedia, Bess Price’s entry is fair, honest and free of any political slant. If her candour in dismissing the Voice as a playground and power base for the Aboriginal elites promoting it isn’t enough to establish her worthiness, that summary of a life most certainly is.
— roger franklin
