𝕲𝕵𝖔𝖍𝖓

There is no such thing as an “ethnic Australian.” Australian is a nationality, not a race. I’m Anglo-Celtic on both sides. One side of my family were convicts brought here with the First Fleet; the other emigrated from Britain in the 1960s. If you did a DNA test, the convict side obviously wouldn’t have an “Australian” strand of DNA that the other side doesn’t. They’d look very similar, aside from the usual mixed bag of ancestry. That isn’t to say Australia wasn’t built on British and Anglo-Celtic traditions - of course it was. And that’s largely why my Scottish and English grandparents, and their children who moved here in the 1960s, could assimilate so easily. But Australia is, and always has been, more than that. The history of Australia began long before the First Fleet landed and has evolved rapidly since, thanks in part to the contributions of many different ethnicities. What Australia is, and what it means to be Australian, has evolved over time as well. The problem we’ve arrived at is that we can no longer agree on what that means. That’s because many people want to deny the fact that this country was built on British and Anglo-Celtic traditions, while others want to reduce Australia solely to that - or solely to what came before it. Both groups are living in the past, and I think most Australians are bored with both. The reasonable middle ground is recognising that we owe a massive debt to British and Anglo-Celtic traditions - and yes, that includes colonialism. We can acknowledge the wrongs that were committed while also recognising that an incredible country emerged from it. Aboriginal Australians were here for tens of thousands of years. Anglo-Celtic Australians for hundreds. Both understandably have a massive stake in this country. But there are also the countless migrant communities who helped shape modern Australia. Italians and Greeks in particular transformed Australian food, business, hospitality, and culture, while Chinese, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Jewish, and many other communities made enormous contributions to the country’s economy, institutions, and way of life. Modern Australia was not built by one group alone, even if its core foundations were British and Anglo-Celtic. The reality is that Australia’s core institutions, laws, language, and democratic traditions are overwhelmingly British and Anglo-Celtic in origin, and pretending otherwise is dishonest. That heritage should be recognised, honoured, and embraced. But modern Australia also sits on a continent with tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal history behind it, alongside generations of migrant contributions that have helped shape the country’s culture and identity over time. To be Australian is not about race or blood - it’s about embracing, contributing to, and respecting that shared national story in all its complexity.

@erwd @nick_matau Shame is much needed today....

@nick_matau You beat Greenwald on the merits. There's no reason to bring up that self-humiliation is a sexual fetish of his.

Ngl, I would have thought Glenn of all people would know what the word 'Subservient' means 😂👇

@rachelbaxendale Completely unhinged

Vic Labor has voted down an amendment condemning the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses, as it passed motions opposing the Iran war, denouncing Israel for “Apartheid” in Palestine, and calling for the release of Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti. theaustralian.com.au/nation/politic…

In hard times, don’t make your ability to understand God’s ways the condition for trusting him.

@DrewPavlou No tears.... She should not be demanding any entitlements being a non citizen

The Guardian Australia has a new article about Australia being mean to non-citizens by not giving them enough money. ''Angus Taylor’s claim support is a ‘privilege of citizenship’ leaves Deepa and others with an impossible choice'' When Deepa Chaudhary’s newborn slept, she used the time to find out what support she could get as a permanent resident in Australia. The answer was: not very much. Chaudhary moved here from India four years ago and worked until her baby was born in January last year. She describes the stress and mental health issues of being a new mother in Australia. “You’re supposed to get a maternity payment, but I didn’t meet the residency test so I didn’t get it,” she says. She does get the Family Tax Benefit now. Chaudhary says surviving the wait to get any support is hard enough, let alone the difficulties getting citizenship. “My husband has to work two jobs, three jobs, so you don’t have support from your partner either. As much as he wants to, he has to pay the bills,” she says. Taylor used the popular rightwing slogan “mass migration” three times in his speech, in which he pledged to slash immigration and strip non-citizens’ access to supports, including the national disability insurance scheme, jobseeker, youth allowance and the Family Tax Benefit. To become an Australian citizen, most people must have been a permanent resident for four years. After that, the application and processing time can take more than a year. Two of Australia’s biggest groups of immigrants are from China (732,000 people) and India (more than 970,000 people), neither of which allow dual citizenship (although Indians can get an overseas citizen registration). That means migrants wanting to become an Australian citizen also have to give up their homeland citizenship. That could make it harder to visit friends and family, and could rob the new citizen of property, investments and pensions in their homeland. In many countries non-citizens can’t own property or assets and won’t get pensions. Chaudhary says it would be an emotional and economic blow to give up her Indian citizenship. “I have my roots there. I have my parents there. My husband has his parents there. We have ancestral property, houses, land. We’d have to give that up.” Migrant scapegoating Eric Ma came from China to study at the Australian National University in 2010. A newspaper article on the deadly 2009 bushfires prompted him to study environmental science, which led to a long career – all while a permanent resident. Now that he’s no longer a Chinese citizen, he would have to apply for a visa to visit his parents (China has suspended this visa requirement for the moment, but the suspension is only temporary). “It’s a tough situation, the older people begin to perish … you can’t wait 26 days for a visa to be issued,” he says. Last year, Ma became an Australian citizen. He now works in the legal sector with people injured in the workplace, and can see the necessity of programs like the NDIS. “Mr Taylor’s grand policy … shows how tough he is on new migrants, but it does not help anyone,” he says. “I think politicians across the spectrum need to see migrants as people, as humans.” He says politicians often ignore the contribution of migrant communities, who come, work, pay tax, and often bring family wealth with them. The Chinese Community Council of Australia says the move came “amid a broader trend … of increasingly negative rhetoric surrounding migration, including narratives that unfairly blame migrants”. Anneke van Mosseveld arrived in Australia from the Netherlands in 1971. She is now 79. She spent decades completing her doctorate in business history, working as an academic and running her own business. “I came here originally as a backpacker, but I soon found work. I’ve been working all my life, paying tax,” she says. The Netherlands, with some exceptions, does not allow dual citizenship. “It means I will lose my Dutch government pension, which we get automatically in Holland.” That pension, unlike the Australian pension, is not means tested, and she would be eligible for about 20% of it, for her life spent there up until the age of 24. “It’s quite a lot of money,” she says. As a permanent resident, she doesn’t have an Australian passport, which means she can’t use some of the Australian Taxation Office’s online functions.

@JoshuaBarzon D, but then again I'm Australian

You can only eat food from one zone of the world for the rest of your life. Which zone are you picking?

@MelissaVla40400 @OzraeliAvi Ja, mein Führer

@clvnst @OzraeliAvi Just like those other old myths, gravity and thermodynamics. 🤣 Reality is reality, it doesn't matter how many pieces of paper you wave at it.

Looks like the only person confused about what an Australian is… is Sam. 🤦‍♂️

@highstakesbet @MelissaVla40400 @OzraeliAvi

@clvnst @MelissaVla40400 @OzraeliAvi Nice drawing of you....

@MelissaVla40400 @OzraeliAvi Ah blood and soil .... The old myth rises again...

@clvnst @OzraeliAvi Of course. Apparently you're the sort of person who thinks pieces of paper matter more than family. 🤷🏼‍♀️

@highstakesbet @MelissaVla40400 @OzraeliAvi

@clvnst @MelissaVla40400 @OzraeliAvi You are retarded 🤡

@MelissaVla40400 @OzraeliAvi And you're a libertarian? Lol Total clown show 🤡

@clvnst @OzraeliAvi Something that you're born into is more significant than something you swear a promise to. A promise can be broken, your birth never can.

@MelissaVla40400 @OzraeliAvi If that's how low you think of the citizenship oath is, you are entitled to that. I on the other hand do not intend to break the oath I took before God.

@clvnst @OzraeliAvi Then being an Australian is solely a matter of a piece of paper. Which means it doesn't real mean anything much at all.

@not_our_guy I've been debating ditching my work laptop for a Mac.. Simply because of it getting slow... Still not a fan of MacOS

MacOS is still such a goofy ahh operating system

@muhdnor_a @realgerhardtvdm With their 'speed boats'

@clvnst @realgerhardtvdm Their "ghost" still hunting US navy in Hormuz ... 😅😂😂

🚨🚨🚨HOLLY SHIT! IRAN JUST RELEASED THIS VIDEO! Iran is NOT playing games!!! WOW!!!!!

Make me more fruitful and more spiritual, for barrenness is my daily affliction and load. How precious is time, and how painful to see it fly with little done to good purpose! I need thy help: O may my soul sensibly depend upon thee for all sanctification, and every accomplishment of thy purposes for me, for the world, and for thy kingdom. ~ Puritan Prayers and Devotions, The Valley of Vision.

Javier is a fucking G ❤️🔥🔥 I really needed to hear that today. The Nakba never ended..

@MoiraDeemingMP Finally!

@TRobinsonNewEra Amen

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come;thy will be done;on earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.And lead us not into temptation;but deliver us from evil.For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.Amen. God bless all 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧