Neville Bonner Australian of the year speech
Australian of the year Speech
Good afternoon Prime Minister Abbott and members of parliament. I come before you today to express why I believe Neville Bonner should be awarded Australian of the year. In doing this I will give a brief summary of his life as well as outlining his many achievements. This will be accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation.
Neville Bonner was born on 28th March 1922 on Ukerebagh Island which is a small Island situated on the Australian east coast near Tweed Heads. Growing up Bonner never had a great deal of formal schooling mainly because he is of indigenous descent. In 1946 he worked as a rural labourer in Queensland as a young man before moving with his wife to the Palm Island Aboriginal Reserve where he rose to become the assistant settlement overseer which involved making decisions about the lives of fellow Aboriginal people. In 1960 Bonner moved to Ipswich where he worked in Aboriginal welfare, housing and education projects. He then went on to join the One People of Australia League which is a moderate indigenous rights organisation. In the late 1960s Bonner entered politics which lead to him joining the Liberal Party in 1971. In the Liberal party he was first selected to fill a vacancy in the casual Senate. He was popularly elected the following year.
I believe that Neville Bonner should be named Australian of the year firstly because he achieved so much in a time when aboriginal people suffered discrimination and lack of opportunity. Education wasn’t really available to the same extent it was to white people which obviously meant that Neville Bonner was a very cleaver man who came from a point of poverty and very little education to becoming an important member of parliament later on in his life. That is an enormous achievement.
Becoming the first Indigenous Member of Parliament and the first Aboriginal person to actually sit in federal parliament, Neville Bonner broke the racism barrier in Australian politics. I
Good afternoon Prime Minister Abbott and members of parliament. I come before you today to express why I believe Neville Bonner should be awarded Australian of the year. In doing this I will give a brief summary of his life as well as outlining his many achievements. This will be accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation.
Neville Bonner was born on 28th March 1922 on Ukerebagh Island which is a small Island situated on the Australian east coast near Tweed Heads. Growing up Bonner never had a great deal of formal schooling mainly because he is of indigenous descent. In 1946 he worked as a rural labourer in Queensland as a young man before moving with his wife to the Palm Island Aboriginal Reserve where he rose to become the assistant settlement overseer which involved making decisions about the lives of fellow Aboriginal people. In 1960 Bonner moved to Ipswich where he worked in Aboriginal welfare, housing and education projects. He then went on to join the One People of Australia League which is a moderate indigenous rights organisation. In the late 1960s Bonner entered politics which lead to him joining the Liberal Party in 1971. In the Liberal party he was first selected to fill a vacancy in the casual Senate. He was popularly elected the following year.
I believe that Neville Bonner should be named Australian of the year firstly because he achieved so much in a time when aboriginal people suffered discrimination and lack of opportunity. Education wasn’t really available to the same extent it was to white people which obviously meant that Neville Bonner was a very cleaver man who came from a point of poverty and very little education to becoming an important member of parliament later on in his life. That is an enormous achievement.
Becoming the first Indigenous Member of Parliament and the first Aboriginal person to actually sit in federal parliament, Neville Bonner broke the racism barrier in Australian politics. I