Howard Sattler Fisked

My comments in blue italic in response to Rattlers missive (which follows) in Toady 2/7/08. It attracted one response from Scott compared to PerthofYesteryear of over 1200 postings.

Brothers Matthew Indich (15), Benjamin Nannup (11) and Jeremy Nannup (10) have paid the ultimate price for their adventure with their 17-year-old cousin Quentin Humes.

Their lives and his are over, after he lost control of a stolen car that slammed into a tree at 130kmh and was cut in half by a power pole near Pinjarra.

Their families and friends are understandably devastated by their premature deaths and are searching for explanations.

Thank goodness no innocent bystanders were maimed or lost their lives during their high speed escapade.
A 10 and 11 year old aren’t in effect innocent bystanders !?
This latest in a long history of similar tragedies in WA has reignited public divisions and created a smokescreen for those of us seeking solutions.
Gibberish
In the immediate aftermath there is the understandable call for compassion for the mother of the three brothers, who it’s said has already paid a monumental price for her lack of supervision.

Fair enough. She is entitled to her period of grieving.

You don’t seem to think she does.

But her trauma cannot dictate there be no debate on the issue of parental responsibility that is at the heart of this horrible event.

With parenthood comes values, discipline, vigilance and love. That includes teaching respect for self, others and their property – right and wrong – protective regimes and providing ultimate safe havens.

Kids who have been offered and embraced all these life skills do not normally sneak out of their homes late at night, do not steal, and do not assault and terrorise the community.
Now in this instance do you know that they sneaked out of their homes ? Their mother said that they did occassionally, but we don’t know the circumstances here for sure. Had they previously been suspected of stealing or assault. You don’t know that.
Parents who have achieved this level of rapport would move mountains if they found youngsters missing from their beds at such hours.

What is also missing from today’s society – and this is where the broader community has a role to play – is the regular influence of extended families.

Absent from almost every grouping is a collection of grandparents, uncles and aunties who used to be on hand as the backstops when unintended consequences forced mother or father from the daily scene.

Dysfunctionality is the order of the day as adults prioritise their own activities ahead of the younger generation, or waft away into a booze- and drug-addicted world of make-believe.
Now do you know the parents were drunk in this instance ?
The Pinjarra tragedy a wake up call for the whole community that wherever parental responsibility is allowed to take a back seat, similar events are waiting to happen.

Discussion on what happened and how to prevent a repetition should not be allowed to be sidetracked by arguments about race and socially-engineered blame games.
“socially-engineered blame games.” What in the F does that mean
Parenting, an undertaking that requires us to guide our children at least into adulthood, is a universal responsibility.

Sattler Bingo

The Aboriginal Question

The following is taken from http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/CRCC/gambling/notes.html

It uses as it source the Sattler File as quoted on Background Briefing, ABC Radio National, 17/3/92.

Owing to the repeated failure of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal to take action on Sattler, members of the Aboriginal community met the executive of the WA Trades and Labour Council on 17 March 1992. The TLC decided to invite both Sattler and the Sunday Times (in which Sattler has a weekly column) to discuss Aboriginal and TLC concerns. Sattler’s response to the TLC’s invitation was to claim on his program and in his column (5 April 1992) that the TLC had mounted a campaign against him. On Sattler’s progam (31 March 1992), Aboriginal rights campaigner Clarrie Isaacs pointed out that it was significant that Sattler had not taken up the issue of the Louis Johnson murder, even though he had championed the cause of ‘victims of crime’ over the past year. Louis Johnson’s case, however, received subdued attention from The West Australian (nine small stories, only one of which made page three, and no feature articles), and nothing from Sattler. Only the Sunday Times, to its credit, treated the issue as a matter of extreme public importance, and featured it on the front page, with associated in-depth feature articles.

Sattler repeatedly stated on air that all efforts had been made by his producer to contact Bill Johnson, to no avail (see appendix 3). According to Clarrie Isaacs and youth worker Ron Bowman (who accompanied him into the studio), Sattler’s producer admitted after the segment had finished that the ‘Herculean efforts’ to contact Bill Johnson had in fact amounted, in total, to calling directory inquiries twice for his telephone number.

Bill Johnson is adamant that Sattler was simply lying to listeners. Sattler had been told at Parliament House (where both he and Bill Johnson attended the introduction of the juvenile crime bills on 5/2/92) by crime victim Peter Blurton that Johnson was present, after which Sattler gestured his acknowledgment to Johnson.

Sattler’s claims to have made extreme efforts to contact sources was also seen in his on-air interview with WA Attorney General Joe Berinson on 5/3/92, when he accused Berinson of avoiding his calls. Berinson strongly refuted this and was eventually able to extract an apology from Sattler.

Co- Administration

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Howard the Battler’s Friend

Welcome to Howard Sattler is an idiot

Well this is going to be lively.