It still breaks my heart to know that every time I feel like giving Bill a call his phone will never again be answered. That's simple grief and I can cope with it. What I can't accept -- will never, ever accept -- is that the obscene law used to persecute him and stress that great, fragile heart remains on the books

The ranks of those identifying as Indigenous are growing, and there is nothing wrong with that. But when deciding how best to lift the most disadvantaged, it is circumstances and situations which should be the guiding factor. 'You’re either Aboriginal or you’re not' is not helpful

Arrested for unpaid fines, the Aboriginal woman's death prompted a coroner's rebuke and, inevitably, accusations of racist indifference directed at Western Australia police and medical staffers. If only such outrage had focused on her life before she was taken into custody

Other than empty cliches and angry slogans, what a pact between white and black Australia might achieve is never explained by its loudest and most insistent advocates. Before proceeding down this path, what about addressing alcoholism, abuse and dysfunction?

The SBS series was valuable, but might have achieved much more had it eschewed the easy and obligatory voicing of several participants' 'white guilt'. First, that sentiment is unwarranted. Second, self-laceration doesn't do a thing to get the rubbish cleaned up

Bill Leak, a white man, pointedly illustrated the plight of Aboriginal kids in dysfunctional families and was pilloried as a racist by the hashtag crowd. Black women Jacinta Price, Marcia Langton and Josephine Cashman delivered the same message and endured not a peep of criticism. Behold, genuine racism!

The absurd complaint against Bill Leak and his infamous cartoon has ended with Gillian Triggs' & Co throwing in the towel and "closing the books". That children suffer while feather-nested thought police suppress discussion of their wasted lives is the real obscenity

First, know that accusing someone of racism is enough, as a mob of keyboard warriors will soon take up and amplify the cry. Second, don't spare the emotive language. And finally, close tight your eyes to demonstrable fact and inconvenient evidence

Bill Leak's cartoon set the twittering class to displays of by-the-numbers outrage. Rather than hashtag sermons they might have addressed the actual causes and problems afflicting so many Aborigines. Yes, they might have done that but, sadly, they never will