letter from Australia
State-funded evil?
![David Robertson](/media/images/David_Robertson.2e16d0ba.fill-32x32.format-webp.webp)
David Robertson
Australia is a nation of states. And they are different states, with a different ethos. Although all seem to be heading in the same regressive/progressive direction, the state of Victoria seems to be leading the race to the bottom. Indicative of this is ‘Rising’, Melbourne’s third annual taxpayer-funded arts festival, held in June 2024.
Amongst the good arts projects, and the bad, there was also the downright ugly. For example, you could listen to ‘queer Filipino ghost stories’. Then there is Anito – a ‘megafauna dance deep time from Sydney’s underground quest and diasporic club scenes’. Or you could go to Crip Rave Theory, ‘a disability-led party and a political statement which draws on disabled/crip knowledge to create more intersectionally-accesible party spaces’. Crip stands for cripple. Until five minutes ago this would have been regarded as grossly politically incorrect, but apparently some academic in some humanities department, probably in the US, has decided to reclaim the language and so ‘cripple’ moves from being an insult to a political badge – doubtless soon to have its own flag!
letter from Australia
Islamic terrorism cited as number one risk
![David Robertson](/media/images/David_Robertson.2e16d0ba.fill-32x32.format-webp.webp)
David Robertson
The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Mike Burgess (pictured), warned at the end of February this year that Islamic terror was the top threat facing the nation.
He said: ‘We have seen heightened community tensions that have translated into some incidents of violence connected to protest activity … Sunni violent extremism poses the greatest religiously motivated violent extremist threat in Australia.’
What is ‘reasonable’ in a society losing its head?
Be reasonable! That’s a cry I’ve not heard for some time. Maybe ‘reason’ is out of style in our modern ‘what you feel is what you are society’.
But one aspect of the controversial Scottish Government Hate Crime Act is that it is predicated on what a ‘reasonable person’ would think what has been reported is hateful, likely to stir up hatred and cause ‘fear and alarm’. But there is the rub – what is a ‘reasonable person’?