Scarn On: The Chamberlain Case, Cricket News, Cyclones, Dingoes
2:32PM Feb 15, +0000
Speakers:
Glen Speering
Keywords:
australia
dingo
people
azaria
chamberlain
case
lindy
temporary protection visas
northern territory
india
indigenous australians
australian
cyclone
death
australians
apology
permanent residency
police
visa
baby
G'day legends and Scarn On, and welcome to another episode of Scarn On, your source of Australian news in an easy to understand and clear manner. With all the context you need to follow what is going on in Australia. In this week's explainer, we talk about the Azaria Chamberlain case, you might be familiar with the expression, maybe a dingo took my baby or your baby. And this is what we're talking about in today's explainer. In the rest of the news, we're talking about closing the gap and the 15th anniversary of the apology to the stolen generation. We're also talking about Temporary Protection visas, and the changes likely to occur to people on those. We're also going to look at Australian aid to Turkey and Syria following the devastating earth quakes over there. In sport, we're going to be talking about Australia's tour to India and also the women's T 20 World Cup in South Africa.
In February 2008, the then Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, made an apology to Indigenous Australians for the way that they had been treated in the past, and the ongoing disadvantage that this had caused current and previous generations of Indigenous Australians to occur. As a part of this apology, he made a pledge to close the gap between the living standards of Indigenous Australians and non Indigenous Australians. So every year in February, on the anniversary of this apology, usually indigenous policies and spending targets and reforms are announced. The closing the gap strategy overall is meant to target things like education discrepancy, life expectancy, child mortality, and literacy and numeracy, especially amongst younger Australians. The idea is that within a generation that indigenous Australians can expect to live as long as non Indigenous Australians. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, this has been quite problematic. And a lot of these targets are being missed. And so every year, this is the case and this is reflected upon, and new policies are announced. Whether or not this actually makes any real difference is an ongoing debate.
In what is seen as a controversial move, the Australian government has elected to change the status of some temporary protection visa holders, some 19,000 refugees currently in Australia, are on these temporary protection visas. This means that they have limited access to education opportunities, and limited access to health opportunities as well. It also means that they have limited opportunities to work. It is quite a disruptive visa and doesn't give any guarantees for these people on these visas. During the last election, the Labor Party proposed that they would transition these people to a more secure visa and on the path to citizenship. Now if this has been quite controversial, because a lot of people will be on there or trying to get permanent residency, or will have spent many years in Australia, studying, working, and so on. But it is important to remember that the people on these temporary protection visas have often been fleeing persecution and haven't had the same access to other opportunities that people living here on different student and different work visas actually have either. So it was thought that this makes no sense. In terms of economics, or socially to have a group of people that can't work and can't access the same health care, and are essentially surviving on charity. But in order to gain citizenship, and full permanent residency, these people still have to fulfill the criteria required to attain permanent residency and eventually citizenship as well.
Australia has also pledged a total of $18 million to the recent recovery efforts in Turkey and Syria. In a range of moves, the government has donated a total of $18 million to different organizations to help with humanitarian tasks. In Syria, this is made quite difficult because of people's inability to access a lot of necess necessities. Unfortunately, because of the civil war in this area, a lot of Western aid cannot get through to people in rebel held areas. So Australia is working with different nongovernmental organizations or groups to be able to deliver aid to these areas most isolated. Australia has also sent teams of rescue workers to help potentially find survivors from the earthquake, which has killed 10s of 1000s of people.
To sport now, and Australia's tour of India has got off to a disastrous start with India beating Australia in the first test in Nagpur by a by more than an innings. In cricket, this is a very big win for India. Although it was perhaps not a surprise to see India win this match, perhaps was a surprise by how much the Indians beat Australia. There has been a lot of build up to this series, with the expectation being that these are the top two or two of the top three, test playing nations in the world. And for Australia, to do so poorly in the first test in India has raised some serious concerns about the depth of Australia, especially in regard to their batting. In India, the conditions are very, very different to the conditions in Australia, and so batting. The skill where the batter hits the ball, and runs and scores points is quite different to what it is in Australia. And the Australian batsman have had difficulty with playing the Indian spinners in particular the slow bowlers in Indian conditions. In cricket but in a different part of the world in South Africa, we currently have the women's T20 World Cup. In Australia, the Australian women's team is the raging hot favourites to win this tournament. And they have started the tournament in superb fashion completely dominating the opposition. It is likely that they will meet England or India in the semifinals and final. But until then, it would be a very big surprise if they lost a game because their team is full of superstars. Almost all of the best players in the world currently play in the Australian women's cricket team. So that is something to watch going into the next few weeks.
Last week we spoke about three potential cyclones off the coast of Australia. Unfortunately one of these cyclones, ex tropical cyclone Gabrielle, which was off the Queensland coast, moved down to New Zealand and has caused severe flooding in New Zealand. As of recording this episode of Scarn On, four people have unfortunately died. And so they are suffering some huge flooding not in some parts, rainfall totals that they have never seen in New Zealand. The cyclone that was off the northwest coast of Australia has moved out into the Indian Ocean, it is no longer a threat to lives or property. The third potential cyclone may activate and may become a category one cyclone within the next week. This is likely to cause flooding in some parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory. And if it does move, it has the potential then to cause flooding in the top end in Darwin, and also in the northwest of Australia, which has also recently experienced some severe flooding events as well.
The death of Azaria Chamberlain or the Lindy Chamberlain case is an infamous criminal court case in Australia's court history in Australia's legal history. It follows the death of a Azaria Chamberlain, who was a nine week old baby, who now has been recognized was officially killed by a dingo in August in 1980. The family were on a camping trip at Uluru or Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory. Her body was never found. Her mother Lindy Chamberlain was adamant that a dingo had taken her baby. And so this is where the famous line "Dingo took my baby" or a "dingo ate my baby" comes from. She was charged with the murder of her baby. And her husband at the time, Michael was charged as an accessory to murder. There were a lot of problems with this case. And the conviction. Lindy was eventually convicted of the murder of her child, and actually spent many years in prison for this. It wasn't until many years later, in 2012, after it had been shown that dingoes did, in fact, attack people. And this time it was on Fraser Island, that the evidence that dingoes could, in fact, take a young child was accepted. There were a number of problems with this case, around Alice Springs, around Uluru the indigenous people actually had stories of dingoes attacking people, and especially young children. So it was known through word of mouth, that this could actually happen. The fact that there was no body ever found. Many years later, they actually found the clothes of little baby Azaria Chamberlain, near where dingoes live in Dingo lairs. And so again, this goes to point out the fact that perhaps the investigation to begin with was not very thorough at all. There were many criticisms of the police. In fact, they believed that she was responsible from the very beginning and didn't consider another possibility that perhaps the dingo actually did take baby Azaria. They were more focused on Lindy Chamberlain and her husband and Michael's religious affiliations and why they appeared not to show remorse as many other people would. So this became a justification for charging Lindy Chamberlain with murder and her husband as an accessory to murder. Even though the original inquest into the death of baby Azaria had suggested that death by Dingo was the most likely cause of her death, the Northern Territory police still decided to charge Lindy Chamberlain, with her daughter's murder. The case rested on evidence or supposed evidence with the clothing of baby Azaria. They appeared or wanted to show or had found that there was likely an incision to the throat of the baby Azaria. The police speculated that this was actually a cutting of the throat. Whereas there was a dispute about whether or not a dingo could actually do this and make this kind of wound. So initially, the defense case that a dingo could make this wound was thrown out. And Lindy Chamberlain was actually sentenced to life imprisonment for this murder. It wasn't until 1986 when a tourist actually fell off, Ayer's rock or Uluru and died, that they actually found evidence that backed up the defense's case, they hadn't found enough of the clothing to either prove or disprove what the prosecution or what the defense had been saying. But when this tourist fell off, Uluru and died, he actually fell into an area of where dingos live dingo lairs. And so when police were moving through this area, they found the clothing of baby Azaria. Now, the clothing indicated that a dingo had likely made the attack and so on an appeal based on this, Lindy Chamberlain was released. Lindy Chamberlain was awarded compensation for her wrongful conviction and her time spent in jail. But this did not mean that there were still there were doubts about her innocence. In fact, the opposite. There were was a lot of doubt about her innocence. Several different inquests were conducted. And they all found an open finding, which means that the death of baby Azaria Chamberlain was unknown. So this continued to fuel speculation about the actual cause of baby Azaria's death. It wasn't until 2012 an inquest which reopened into this death. This was following attacks from dingoes on humans in other areas of Australia. And so finally, finally, they had actually taken on board, evidence that dingoes can and do attack humans and can cause injury and death. And so it wasn't until some 32 years later, that she was completely exonerated. So this case is really quite famous for how police followed a very narrow trail of investigation, how public opinion and media speculation put a bias on the case overall, how perhaps underlying feelings of misogyny, and sexism also also play in a role in convicting mothers and females in Australia as well. And perhaps even to do with the fact that they were a part of a maligned religious group at the time was also perhaps a potential problem, as well. So that's been Scarn On for another week from Australians Teach English. So if you would like us to follow up a thread to report on an issue to explain something for you, we would be more than happy to do it. So this has been another episode of Scarn On, your source of Australian news in an easy to understand and clear manner with all the context. See you later guys, and tell us what's going on where you are.
For more information about the Australians Teach English Institute, go to AustraliansTeachEnglish.com or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at Australians Teach English