Suicide of a 10-year girl old In Australia

On Sunday the 6^th of March, a day where we here in the UK celebrated the lives of our mothers, the worlds of many were turned upside down when a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl took her own life in far north Western Australia, the youngest of 19 natives to kill themselves in remote areas of the state since December.

Now let’s pause for a moment because I am sure that you’re all as shocked as I am. I don’t know about you, but my only memories from the age of 10 were those of happiness and excitement over what my future holds. It is absolutely heartbreaking to even try to imagine that a child of such a young age was experiencing so many traumas daily that she lost the will to live and the only way she could see out of her troubles was to take her own life.

What makes this story increasingly gut wrenching is that this tragedy took place because this young life was a victim of domestic violence. The girl was in informal care with her aunt and uncle along with her brother and just last year, her teenage sister had also taken her own life due to the domestic violence they faced.

How much heartbreak can one take?

Mental Health and Child Protection Minister Helen Morton said it was “absolutely tragic” to think that a young child could even consider taking their own life. She said that the young girl had experienced “accumulated trauma and harm” over 10 years and in hindsight more could have been done for her which only makes me question ‘So why was nothing done?’

Domestic violence is serious and destructive. It ruins lives, breaks up families and has such a lasting impact. It is criminal. It has been
around for a very long time, too long in fact and quite simply, something must be done…

Soon!

Deborah Owusu 12.5

By Deborah Owusu 12.5

What do YOU think?

Australian PM & sexism

Julia Gillard, the Australian Prime Minister, delivers a lesson in how to put down troublesome opposition leaders and deal with accusations of sexism and misogyny in a 15 minute speech which has attracted over 1 million Youtube hits.  She was reacting to a motion trying to force out the Speaker for the first time after he was discovered to have sent lewd messages to a staffer.  The Observer assessed the issue in yesterday's newspaper.

Gillard stays on

After a tightly fought election which led to a stalemate, and long drawn out negotiations, Julia Gillard from the Australian Labor Party formed a minority government today, retaining her post as Prime Minister. She has won the backing of 2 independent MPs, but her position will clearly remain precarious throughout the 3 year term, particularly as she only became PM after ousting her predecessor Kevin Rudd in a party coup. Here is more coverage from the Sydney Morning Herald, here is information about how the electoral system works, and here is an excellent blog from Nick Bryant's, the BBC's Sydney correspondent.

Ferocious Aussies

Nick Bryant, the BBC's Australia correspondent, has written an excellent piece summing up the political events of the last few months which led to the resignation of Prime Minster Kevin Rudd and his replacement by Julia Gillard. Australian politics is unlikely to be on the A-Level syllabus anytime soon, but he makes an interesting comparison between the ferocious behaviour of Australian politicians and events in the UK and the US. "By design and through necessity," he writes, " Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are fashioning a new politics that is more ecumenical, less clannish and genuinely bipartisan. Australian politics is in danger of looking like a throwback."

PS: The brief appearance of this sign by a Tea Party group, comparing President Obama to Lenin and Hitler suggests not everyone has yet signed up to these ideas of "new politics"...

Australia's New PM

In a rapid turn of events, Kevin Rudd, Labor Prime Minister of Australia since 2007, resigned last night when it became clear that he would not win a leadership ballot. He has been replaced by Julia Gillard, Australia's first ever female Prime Minister. She had previously been the Deputy Prime Minister and was unopposed when the ballot went ahead. Until recently Rudd had been very popular but ran into trouble over a planned super tax on mining and his decision to drop an emissions trading scheme, which led to him being branded as "gutless" by rival politicians. Here is the Sydney Morning Herald's perspective, including the judgement that Australia has "wasted a perfectly good PM".

Australian History

Regular readers of the blog may have noticed the world map at the bottom of the page. We have had visitors from across Europe, Asia and America but so far none from Australia. If you have friends or relatives from Australia please encourage them to take a look! As an incentive, here is an interesting site that takes a comprehensive look at Australian history, from the arrival of the first aborigines through to the election of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. Australia and the UK share many common values as a legacy of an imperial past, but Australia's landscape, climate, immigration and location have contributed to its unique cultural identity. Important references within its heritage would include of course the arrival of Captain Cook and the first fleet (and its subsequent impact on the native Australian population), the settlement and federation of the country, the impact of war (particularly the involvement of the ANZACs in Gallipoli in World War 1, but also Ausralia's involvement in the Korean and Vietnam Wars) and perhaps more recently the success of the Sydney Olympics.

If you think there are other important moments in Australian history or politics that should be noted, please let us know.

PS: TheNational Library of Australia has a useful set of links here to other interesting websistes.