Was he any better as Federal Education Minister or maybe the direction of the country was is already lost?
Accept Australian values or get out August 25, 2005
EDUCATION Minister Brendan Nelson has bluntly told Islamists who do not want to accept and teach Australian values that they should "clear off". Dr Nelson said he would soon meet the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils to discuss programs to ensure those in Islamic schools and all other children fully understood Australian history and values.
We want them to understand our history and our culture, the extent to which we believe in mateship and giving another person a hand up and a fair go. And basically, if people don't want to be Australians and they don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well basically they can clear off."
Dr Nelson said if the country lost sight of what Simpson and his donkey represented, "then we will lose the direction of the country". John Simpson Kirkpatrick, carrying wounded soldiers on his donkey, is the iconic image of Gallipoli. "He represents everything at the heart of what it means to be Australian."
The tale of the stretcher-bearer John Simpson and his faithful donkey figured prominently as the sort of thing kids should be taught. "He was unarmed and he represents everything at the heart of what it means to be Australian," the minister gushed. ................................................................................................................................. Perhaps Nelson should have probed a bit deeper into Simpson's past before choosing to laud him. The Australian War Memorial's archives say that Simpson, an English-born Scot, deserted from the British merchant navy while in Australia in 1910, which would make him an illegal immigrant.
He was also a socialist and trade-union activist, who did not like authority and refused to work for a boss. Although he didn't like to carry weapons (the War Memorial says he "would not have made a good peacetime soldier"), he enlisted in the army so he could get back home to his family in Britain, an endeavour interrupted by his being killed at Anzac Cove.
