The past couple of weeks have seen the final fortnight of Parliament sittings for the year.

I didn't write much about it, as it was hard to do anything that wasn't just a large whinge about the total contempt of the Government for anyone 's else’s point of view and for Parliament itself - other than an even larger whinge about the media's complete lack of interest in any issue of substance, unless there's some conflict in it somewhere. Whilst the controversy over Deanne Kelly's funding decisions is important, the media interest is basically there because there is blood in the water rather than because of the substance of the issue. It also provides a convenient smokescreen for ignoring all the other issues that do have substance.

I attended the rally in Brisbane on Saturday calling for justice for aboriginal Australians. It is good to see some media and political focus on the issue, but it is a disgrace that it takes a death in custody and for someone like Michael Long to walk to Canberra for this to happen. Of course when this vital issue does get on the front pages, it is immediately prostituted by the Government's appalling and calculated distortion of the idea of 'mutual obligation' - only agreeing to provide necessary support for aboriginal communities if they will do something that the Government can use for political point scoring.

I find it even more galling due to the deliberate decision by both major party leaders to avoid talking about aboriginal issues at all during the election - something they were able to do because the media made the same decision, despite the efforts of people such as myself and Aden Ridgeway to draw attention to it.