COUPLE REFUSED SERVICE ON THE BASIS OF SKIN COLOUR BY IL POM ITALIAN RESTAURANT IN FEDERATION SQUARE
IL POM REFUSES TO DENY THAT IT ENGAGED IN RACIST PRACTICES AND THAT IT IS ALSO A RACIST RESTAURANT.
IL POM REFUSES TO DENY THAT IT IS ACTIVELY CENSORING POSTS ON ITS FACEBOOK PAGE.
RACISM has reared its ugly head again in the very heart of Melbourne last weekend @ Federation Square.
Facebook activist group There's Nothing I Would Rather Be Than to Be an Aborigine posted the following on June 28.
"So I just wanted to share
with you a form of discrimination I faced last night. My partner and I
went out to an Italian restaurant last night and took a seat. While
reading the menu a white man who was a waiter approached us and said
'sorry we can't serve you can you please leave the restaurant, if you
like I can direct you to another restaurant in this area'. We were both
looked at each other in shock and asked
'why exactly can't you serve us?'.. He then replied by saying 'please, I
don't want to cause a scene in front of customers, can you please just
get up and leave'. So we got up and proceeded to leave. It was such a
degrading moment!! It's 2014 and we are still discriminated for being
black and are being told to leave restaurants in a land that belongs to
aboriginals. Absolutely shocking!!"
Despite being provided with an opportunity to set the record straight, Il Pom has failed to even deny any wrong doing so for all we know, the waiter was articulating a racist company policy as part oh his list of company duties.
SOCIAL MEDIA NOT HAPPY
Public reaction has been swift & vocal with almost 250 people commenting on the original post.
Face book user Heather Cross said : "That's completely illegal... Not too mention morally wrong and totally reprehensible."
Many users called for legal action, whilst the prevailing view seems to be one of "Name and shame".
James McEwen tapped into the larger, geopolitical picture, when he typed, "Its
never going to change most racist country on earth everyone treats
aboriginals like shit people living with there heads to far up there
arse if they think this shit doesnt happen if u would of made a scene he
would of rang the police & guess who they would believe not the
aboriginals thats for sure makes me fucking sick" (sic)
MORE NEWS AS IT COMES TO HAND
Australia should allow the world's nuclear waste to be dumped in
the country's most remote areas, former prime minister Bob Hawke
believes.
Mr Hawke has used an address to the National Press Club in Canberra
to outline his vision for the Australian economy, as well as reflect on
his political career.
The former Labor leader said Australia had a limited capacity to grow
the economy and create jobs, while at the same time providing a decent
social security safety net.
"The one thing this country ought to do is have the disposal of nuclear waste in remote areas," Mr Hawke said.
He said reports his government received in the early 1990s showed the
viability of such an industry and its importance in helping clean up
the global environment.
"In doing good for the rest of the world we would be doing good for ourselves," Mr Hawke said.
"We would get an enormous stable flow of income which could be used for the benefit of the world and our own benefit."
Reflecting on domestic politics, Mr Hawke said the states should be
abolished because they are a "blight upon the optimum development of
this country".
"The duplication and all that goes with that division of power is not in the interests of the country," he said.
He also called for greater bipartisanship in parliament, which was at present being held in contempt by the Australian people.
"I think something ought to be done to lift the performance in the parliament," he said.
Former prime minister John Howard, who joined Mr Hawke on the same
platform at the Press Club, said he did not think Australia would ever
get rid of the states.
"If you were starting again, you wouldn't have them," he said.
"But you won't get rid of them. I think our obligation remains to try and make the federation work better."
The former Liberal prime minister said one of the problems with
modern politics was that neither major party was any longer a "mass
movement".
"There is not a sense that their membership represents a very broad cross-section of the Australian community," Mr Howard said.
"I think as a consequence of that, both political parties in
different ways and to different degrees in different forms suffer from
the disease of factionalism."
A second problem with political parties was the selection of
candidates whose only life experience has been in politics, he said.
"You end up with far too many people whose life's experience has only been about political combat."