Speaking in shades of geldof nonsense

SOMETIME Irish rocker and global media tart Sir Bob Geldof has again shown his inner-seagull during a quick trip to Australia. Fly-in, squawk, defecate, fly-out, squawk.

Sir Bob used his midweek visit to remonstrate with business leaders at a breakfast in Brisbane, the same city which once, in a fit of insanity, named him as an ambassador even though he could not name the eponymous river which meanders through its heart. Taking a lesson from the aged expatriate harridan Germaine Greer, Sir Bob lectured his audience on the nation's policies toward Aborigines, past and present. It proved to be another topic about which he knew nothing. Sir Bob said Australia was "economically stupid" for importing labour while exiling Aboriginal talent. "You've removed from your society, from having a go, 500,000 of your own. That is economically stupid," he said. Is this the same Sir Bob whose daughters Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches and Pixie seem to have mortgaged permanent space in the women's magazines which specialise in chronicling Euro-trash? Last month the Miss Ultimo lingerie brand tore up its contract with 21-year-old Peaches after claims emerged she had taken heroin during a one-night stand in Las Vegas - and pictures of her naked and spaced-out hit the internet. At least Sir Bob, known as the Mr Angry of world poverty, suggested she might need a touch of rehab. As for his claims that Australia has exiled Aboriginal talent, he should have sheeted home the blame for endemic Aboriginal unemployment to the thoughtless policies of the liberal-Left, the same members of the community who have mindlessly supported his fundraisers for Africa, only to see their money ripped off and, according to a recent report, funnelled to members of rebel militia groups to buy weapons. He might, indeed, have asked West Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest, who was present, why Aboriginal disadvantage had grown in terms of health, education and employment since the days of the Whitlam government? Forrest, who has apparently been struck off Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's list of friends after finding that the new tax on mining means he has to shelve $18 billion of planned mining investments, is the driving force behind the GenerationOne organisation, which aims to end Aboriginal disadvantage. Unlike most Australians, Forrest is no stranger to Aborigines and can speak with first-hand knowledge. As Sir Bob was trying to garner publicity, Forrest was acknowledging Scotty Black, an Aboriginal stockman who worked on Minderoo, the Forrest family's sheep and cattle station, inland from the port of Onslow. "Old Scotty really gave me the ability to believe in myself," Mr Forrest said. "I was a kid who stuttered so badly it would have taken me five minutes to get through all the words I've given you now." He said Scotty Black made him feel 10ft tall the day he rescued a bull from the river. "He told me, 'Young fella, you've just done a bloody man's job. You can go places, son'. I've never forgotten those words, I forgot I had a stutter that day," Forrest said. As it happens I, too, have vivid memories of Scotty Black, Sammy (whose surname I've forgotten) and the other stockmen on the property because one of my brothers and I spent some time there with Andrew Forrest's parents during a shearing muster. Black was a tall, dignified man, not from the area but from further north, possibly a Ngamal, and was very skilled with stock. Sitting around a campfire after a day in the saddle, eating ember-broiled tripe from a fresh-killed bullock, he shared information that boys should know. He and Sammy, who had a wispy beard, were said to be Maban, or keepers of the lore and possessed of magical powers. Of the two, Scotty Black was the more powerful and had a particular influence on my elder brother. Forrest said 75 per cent of Aboriginal people didn't make it to the age of 65, and his best mate as a child, Scottie's son Ian, was one of them. "That's what happens when you become an extreme diabetic - you lose hope, you lose faith, you take ganja and all sorts of other drugs, you're going to die, it's just a matter of when. It's happening to our fellow Australians, you can't hold your head up high when your indigenous brothers won't make it to 65," he said. The GenerationOne organisation is about getting kids out of bed, into school and into jobs, he said, challenging the Government and indigenous people to help end the state of helplessness and welfare dependency. He said he owed it to his friend to help end Aboriginal poverty. His efforts to reduce Aboriginal disadvantage are a great tribute to the memory of the respected stockman and Maban Scotty Black. Forrest's acknowledgement of his old mentor stirs a lot of memories in me - not the least some words and phrases in the local language Scotty Black used, among them the derisory term "katta-katta wurnti" which described people who toyed with themselves. Sir Bob might contemplate it as he flies off.