Working Papers

The working papers collection comprises historical papers as well as current ideas and works in progress on some of the major issues and topics of our times.

Albo in San Diego (released 14 March 2023)
AUKUS almost certainly means that Australia will sign and ratify the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It is long overdue.
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Don Watson's The Passion of Private White (released 6 February 2023)
Reflections on the must-read book of 2023
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Blackberry Day (released 31 January 2023)
There is nothing like the black of a perfect blackberry. So black it’s a void of black, purple, blue. Stare into it and you might get lost. It seems too much for the eyes. Is there anything else we eat that is so black, so beneficial, so immediately satisfying and delicious? Christ’s crown of thorns was made from blackberry runners, the black juice his blood. Blackberries symbolize spiritual neglect. In neglected areas of land in Australia they will run forever and will quickly take over acres, if you let them.
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Who was Missy Kitch? (released 22 January 2023)
Are we optimistic or pessimistic about the future? Pessimism rules! But there are reminders, all around of us, of place, and how lucky we have it.
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Yes! (released 10 January 2023)
First thoughts on the 2023 Referendum to create a National Voice for Indigenous Australians, enshrined in the Constitution, that will work with and inform the Federal Parliament.
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For Crying Out Loud (released 6 January 2023)
When the earth was corrupt and filled with violence it rained for forty days and forty nights. The flood engulfed the earth, mountains were covered and valleys filled. Noah was 600 years old, his instructions were to build an ark that was 300 metres long and 126 metres wide with three stories. He filled it up with his family and two of “everything of all flesh”. The water rose six metres. After 150 days the waters subsided. Noah’s ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat and the earth made a new start. It rained for more than forty days and nights in Kangaroo Valley in 2022, and in many parts of Australia and the world. At Fitzroy Crossing in early 2023 the water rose 16 metres across a wide flood plain, a record even for the Monsoon period. At Echuca the mighty Dungala rose 80 metres above sea level. Not a record, but high enough to flood the town and the region. What does it all mean?
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D.W. Gurruwiwi, Yidaki Power, 1933-2022 (released 19 December 2022)
Follow the vibration.. across the land to Goulburn Island and back and now to the world...
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Bunguldjama (released 27 September 2022)
If a modest increase in centrelink payments was made to Yolngu participants in bunguldjama (ceremonial work) it might avert a looming catastrophe in the North. It would create new possibilities for work and culture and help to alleviate a terrible cycle of poverty, cultural inconsistency and income inequality.
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"Will you love me tomorrow?": Garma 2022 Interview with Nyunggai Warren Mundine on Constitutional Recognition and The Voice to Parliament (released 4 August 2022)
It is important before the 2023 national referendum to seek out those who are not supporters of an affirmative vote to explore why and to consider the merits of their position or otherwise.
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Constitutional Recognition & Treaty (released 12 July 2022)
Back to the Future: One of the important aspects of this 2014 submission by Bill Moyle, Gerry Moore and I was the idea of a treaty making power with all Aboriginal First Nations based on traditional territory not on colonially imposed boundaries like States. If treaties could be developed with, for example, the Yorta Yorta people in Victoria and like across Australia, this would truly enhance Australia's prosperity, productivity and sense of local unity and pride. We are a top heavy Commonwealth. It was one of the problems of colonialism and one of the problems that came with the 1967 referendum. If we could have the capacity for local treaties, Aboriginal people would overwhelmingly support a referendum.
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