Last night I stayed with two lawyers and an Aboriginal Legal Officer in Wycliffe Well, on a bush court circuit, and listened to them talk. There are too many violent crimes, but there’s also too many crimes of necessity and circumstance - people imprisoned for alcohol-related reasons, promising to stay dry are released into town, surrounded by bottle shops, with only the expensive and infrequent Bush Bus to get them back to their remote, dry communities. “Everyone” has priors for driving unlicensed, unregistered, because nobody has a licence (as the judge conceded when faced with an L-plater caught driving unsupervised), or they can’t pay their fines and their licence is therefore suspended without their knowledge, or they can’t afford the ~$300-$400 drink driving course that will restore their licence. Kids run around in the freezing mornings without jumpers or shoes - do you think their mothers can afford baby carriers or booster seats to avoid ‘child unrestrained’ charges? There are no alternatives to get around in these remote areas - what are they supposed to do?

Speaking to the ALO about local culture, norms and triggers for the huge issues in the area - domestic violence, alcohol, fights between families - was eye opening and exactly what I hoped to gain from this experience. She asked us not to repeat what she told us about culture and domestic violence, and I won’t, except to say that our Western system is exacerbating social problems and undermining traditional law.

Where I was baffled about how to respect Aboriginal culture while Western culture and English common law remains, I now have ideas. It’s changed my thoughts about Western feminism and given new insight into the need for intersectionality.

I did a volunteer placement with Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid in Alice Springs. It wasn’t an Aurora Project internship, although I’d like to do that in another year or two (I have to quit my job if I ever want to go away in summer, unfortunately, and I’m not in a position to do that). It’s not connected to uni and it’s not a program that legal aid offers per se, I just found out about it through a staff member at one of my Melbourne internships and asked to come out of my own interest. 

The lawyers and staff in Alice were very supportive and made a big effort to give me and the other vollie interesting and challenging work. Since I didn’t know what kind of law I was interested in I spent two weeks with the criminal team going to court and pre-interviewing clients, then two weeks doing research and drafting documents for the civil team, looking at housing, victims of crime and some medical and insurance law. I was even lucky enough to be taken out to Ti Tree, Hermannsburg and Ali Curung with the criminal team to see how bush courts work.

The experience was incredibly worthwhile - and horrifying. I learnt a little bit about NT law and found the whole system to be weighted against Aboriginal people. There were awful human rights violations by the state, and breaches of the rights of the child. It’s worth knowing that you can’t go there expecting to change anything (although I did a bit of housing work that I hope will be useful in the future) but you can learn an enormous amount. 

ugh. I’m voting Greens in the seat of Grayndler tomorrow. I felt sorta bad doing it cause Albo is the Labor rep here and I like Albo. This election, however, has made me look closer at Albo and, tbh, I like him less.

He tried to rewrite history by saying gays weren’t interested in marriage equality when Labor was in power between 2007-2013 (!?!) and was, frankly, patronising and aggressive to a young queer journo and some random voter who confronted him on the issue as he did so. 

And he’s, frankly, patronising and aggressive to the journo here who confronted him on his weak stance on Westconnex. 

Albo said he liked fighting Tories. I think he just likes to fight against… whoever questions his tribe, Labor’s, power.

If Albo and Plib win those seats, that sends a message to Labor to keep doing what they’re doing - shift right.

Greens taking Labor Left seats is a more effective way to get Labor to shift left than keeping Albo and Plib in to (hopefully) try and shift things left from the inside.

They can’t keep taking the Left for granted.

Albo and Plib have been senior Labor heads on the inside for a long time. And yet the party still keeps shifting right. It’s not working. They need a kick.

| Who run Westeros? |

We would not shut up about gender. There would be a million politicians and newspaper columns analysing “what is it about women that is making them kill?” “What is it about how women are raised?” “What is our culture telling women about violence?” “What books and movies are women reading and watching that compel them to do this?” “Is it biological? We should probably legislate their bodies right? They have an excess of a genetic chemical known as oxythorconopolonomon that makes them more prone to aggression and with just a small incision we can..” Everyone from Trump to Oprah would be talking about this non-stop.