Abbott’s Broken Promise to Australia’s First People

By Laura Burns

TONY Abbott this week announced a $534.5 million cut to Indigenous Programs, breaking his promise to Australia’s First People.

            As part of the 2014-15 budget, the cuts include $160m taken from Indigenous health programs; almost ten million dollars from Indigenous language support, and Indigenous programs nationwide cut from 150 to just five from July 1.

            The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples will also cease to exist from July 1, saving the Federal Government $15m.

            Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs Shayne Neumann says the cut in the budget will widen the Gap, sending Australia backwards.

            “[You] can’t cut your way to Closing the Gap in Indigenous disadvantage, ” Mr Neumann said.

            Tony Abbott himself was quoted in October of last year, stating the Aboriginal people would be in the heart of the new Government, should he be elected Prime Minister.

            The ‘new’ Government was elected, yet his promise to the people has been broken in less than twelve months.

            Mr Neumann believes the cuts could see the closure of up to 38 Children and Family Centres across Australia leaving young Indigenous Australians without early education from 30 June 2014.

            Indigenous Male Health Officer Dameyon Bonson says the Federal Government doesn’t know enough about the Indigenous community to be making such big decisions regarding budget cuts.

            “Indigenous people have suffered when there was money and will continue to suffer when it is taken away unless Indigenous people are in control of the program initiation, creation, development and implementation,” Mr Bonson said.

Set yourself goals and actually DO something about them

My best friend and I were just talking about our futures and what we want to do. In this sort of instance, we’re two completely different people. I have known since I was eleven years old that I wanted to study journalism and here I am, almost nine years on, in my final year of a journalism degree. I started off in uni studying a double bachelor of business and journalism because I was urged by other people to get the extra qualifications, and I convinced myself that for one extra year in university, the extras were worth it. But once I started, I hated the business courses and loved the journalism ones. To me, there was no point in hating going to class every day and not getting good results just for the “extra qualifications,” so I dropped out of the business degree and continued on with journalism. Now, I will graduate from uni with my dream degree in less than eight months and hopefully get a job in a field I love and enjoy working within.

I also studied a semester of my second year (last year) abroad in Scotland. The opportunity allowed me to build friendships with people my age from different places around the world (shout out to my Americans – you know who you are) and gain experience living and studying in different cultures and traveling through Europe. Now, I am studying five subjects per semester this year and working 20+ hours in my shitty little waitressing job, all so I can move to London the day after I graduate in December this year. It’s tough, and let me tell you, I’m exhausted, stressed, drained, tense, cranky, lonely, bored and absolutely buggered absolutely every minute of the day but I keep telling myself that in the long run, it will all be worth it.

I’m not writing this to make you jealous or tell you how my life is better than yours but to encourage you to work for what you want. Work out what it is you want in your life, and work towards it. Do whatever you need to do to make it happen. I want to move overseas so I’m going to do it. I absolutely love going to gigs and trying to meet celebrities, so I work enough so that I can save enough to move overseas and to be able to go to gigs every few weeks. I miss out on shitty things like going to the pub for a few drinks or going out for dinner or going for weekends away, because I would rather sit at home and be bored for a year to be able to save up and do one massive thing. Don’t get me wrong, I crack and go shopping and spent $200 in an hour or go out for dinner and treat myself to the most expensive thing on the menu, but if you can manage for a month or two, believe it or not every once in a while you can actually afford to splash out.

I hate seeing people wasting their youth or doing what they think is the opposite and going out clubbing every single weekend and hooking up with people because it’s “what you’re meant to do when you’re young” or they think “who cares, I’m having fun,” but in reality, you need to have some sort of context and dreams about what you want for your future. I spent the first six months being 18 going clubbing every weekend, and the second six months of being 18 living on the other side of the world and travelling Europe. Since getting home, I realised how much money I wasted in those first six months. Now I do the minimum and save the maximum. I know it’s not for everyone but I urge you to find what you love and strive towards it. Discover your dreams and work towards them. Trust me, if you put in the hard work, the hours upon hours yawning and struggling through your days, it will pay off. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, just find something worth the battle.

Ummmm yeah that was random but rant over xoxo

Brits 2014 Recap!

If you, like me, live in Australia and have spent today cooped up in the air-con escaping the plus 30 temperatures and sky-high humidity or you’ve just woken up in the UK and somehow missed last nights entertainment at the BRIT Awards – we’ve got you covered!

In short – Lorde’s done it again, Bey Bey’s performance was perfect and a certain member of One Direction almost missed the acceptance speech while he ducked off for a wee.

The Arctic Monkeys opened the festivities with a bang (and a fire?) with their hit song R U Mine? before leaving band initials A & M highlighted in fire in the middle of London’s O2 Arena. James Corden then climbed on stage to, yet again, do a spectacular job of hosting the biggest awards show in the United Kingdom. He too got on the Fire Bandwagon, opening the awards with his suit sleeve on fire much to the dismay of Occupational Health and Safety Officers across the globe.

Into the awards ceremony and we saw the Arctic Monkey’s steal the show taking home both Mastercard British Album of the Year and British Group amongst other artists such as Bastille, Rudimental and One Direction.

Next up was the home-grown artists time to shine with David Bowie taking home British Male Solo Artist and a ‘shaking’ Ellie Goulding claiming British Female Solo Artist as she thanked her team around her.

The second performance of the night was Katy Perry, who earlier skipped the red carpets, but donned the O2 stage in a very neon-coloured, Egyptian-themed costume during her performance of her latest hit song Dark Horse. After copping some slack following her performance on Britain’s X Factor, Katy was certainly out to please audiences and she did not disappoint.

Internationals Kylie Minogue and Pharrell Williams fittingly announced Bruno Mars as winner of the International Male Solo Artist category while Lorde took home International Female Solo Artist and Daft Punk outdid Kings of Leon and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis to score International Group.

British Breakthrough Act went to Bastille while Rudimental Feat. Ella Eyre scored British Single for their hit ‘Waiting All Night’.

One Direction added to their already sizeable stash Brit Awards by taking home the Global Success Award for the second year in a row!! BUT… Liam, Louis, Zayn and Niall were left hanging by their own band member Harry Styles who was inconveniently ‘having a wee’ as their name was read out. He made a valiant effort to run from the toilets to the podium and still managed to thank his fans and team… after asking the boys what they had won. WATCH HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-sAdsSn25M

Beyonce treated the London audience to her first ever live performance of ‘XO’ – and boy, did she look absolutely amazing, and sounded even better, as she did so. Lorde and Disclosure were among other artists to take to the stage. Ellie Goulding also performed a mash-up of two of her hit singles ‘I Need Your Love’ and ‘Burn’. Bastille and Rudimental teamed up for an incredible performance and were appropriately dubbed ‘Bastimental’ by James Corden.

One Direction beat Ellie Goulding and Calvin Harris to take out the first Brits Twitter vote for Best British Video for their hit single ‘Best Song Ever’.  This time all 5 boys managed to make it up to the podium to accept their award but with noticeably more alcohol in their systems as Liam proclaimed, “I’ve had a few drinks,” before randomly declaring his love for Jimmy Carr.

The awards ceremony ended shortly after that before artists and other entertainment industry people’s people made their way to different after parties scattered around London. Sony’s party held at The Arts Centre proved particularly popular with drop-ins from Harry Styles and Pharrell Williams while Ellie Goulding, Katy Perry and Lorde chose to party it up together in London’s Soho House.