Victorian Senior Australian of the Year refused cab

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Victorian Senior Australian of the Year refused cab

8 yrs ago

Veteran Indigenous actor Jack Charles was named Victorian Senior Australian of the Year in Melbourne on Wednesday night. However, the 72-year-old's night was soured when a taxi driver refused to provide him service without pre-payment in cash.

Mr Charles' manager Patrice Capogreco hailed the taxi for the two of them and it wasn't until they both got into the cab that the problem started, with Patrice mentioning that she would pay with a cabcharge – and that she would be getting out of the taxi before Jack. The taxi driver said that it wasn't good enough and that he needed them to prepay because Jack might not pay.

"We were just so high after winning the award, I was totally blown away. This dampened the spirits somewhat and I slept a sleepless night last night. But countering that was the joy of actually receiving this high honour in Victoria."

This isn't the first time this has happened to Mr Charles, with a similar incident occuring in Sydney recently. In 2013, a group of Aboriginal actors were refused service by four seperate cabs until their non-indigenous company manager managed to successfully hail down and get the group into a taxi.

Read more at The Age

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22 comments

Chris B T

8 yrs ago

Must have been the only white Australian Cabbie working that night that can speak Ozzi as most of the time its broken English/Ozzi and New Arrival from another Racist country.

Aboriginals can make Racial Slurs/Remarks.

Sundays

8 yrs ago

The taxi drivers actions were racist, no doubt. Our indigenous people are disadvantaged in every way. However, having once worked in commonwealth funding of aboriginal services I can say that Australia has spent millions trying to address the issue. Sometimes it hasn't been well targeted, but the big problem which we never seem to cover is alcoholism. Not politically correct, but it's the cause of all the problems

Gra

8 yrs ago

That is the biggest problem in this country, as soon as something is done that doesn't sit well with someone, they drag out the racist card. Yes, our indigenous people are disadvantaged - by their choice. Housing is provided for them and what do they do? They trash it. If they aren't trashing it, they are failing to do just the simple things like even replacing a tap washer. The biggest problem is they have been given too much and are now too reliant on everyone else doing everything for them. It's time they learned to stand on their own two feet.

My good wife has been called a white 'C' on occasion, her crime was notifying the person concerned that payment was needed on the item in his/her hand.

Had a couple or three cars stolen over the years, break ins and possessions stolen.

That said I do not throw a blanket over all peoples of a particular race as I have indigenous friends and associates as I do from many other backgrounds.

Someone noted on this topic that alcoholism is the main problem amongst indigenous folk and they surely got that right.

Places where I have lived such as Darwin, Alice Springs and Kalgoorlie have all been branded racist but the problem is far deeper than plain racism.

Money will not provide solutions, time is where the answer is, time and patience and plenty of it. This from both sides.

Enough pontificating from me. I only know what I have seen and experienced which is far more than I mention here, no expert. Leave you all to it.

Take it easy.

Foxy

8 yrs ago

"Coconut" ????? :-) :-)

Twyla

8 yrs ago

Foxy,

I don't think it is "coconut" ... :-(

A cousin is married to a Senegalese. When passing a group of Africans, he heard the word "coconut" and was about to attack them. Fortunately, it wasn't "coconut".

"Coconut" is an insulting term used by blacks about other blacks, as being black on the outside, but white in the inside.

Albeit, I haven't come across a black coconut yet.

Golly gosh ... is that a racist comment to make? :-(

catsahoy

8 yrs ago

the taxi driver would not have known who the passenger was, and it is becoming a regular thing now for passengers being asked to pay in advance, espsecialy at night, cant blame them when you hear of the bashings and robberies that go on, i for one would not object to paying in advance, dont think it had anything to do with being aboriginal, or anything else,

Unfortunately the "bad apples" have spoilt it for the decent Aboriginal people.

A fact of life. Maybe the taxi driver had experienced trouble with an Aboriginal person in the past; who knows.

I would not be a taxi driver for all the tea in China.

Radish (F)

Your statement merely highlights that WE identify minority groups and apply specific standards to them but don't even identify that those that are not part of a minority group are untold worse than these minority groups..... this is because the minority groups can be easily identified, as different.

The solution to this problem is to imbue Australia with a greater number of Asian, Muslim, Italian, Greek people, etc who stand out as different and to REDUCE the number of English and American immigrants that are pouring into Australia for mostly ECONOMIC reasons.

This would reduce the THEM and US situation because we will be more evenly matched.... yes!

toot2000 (Sydney)

8 yrs ago

Why did the taxi driver think he wouldn't pay? Did he have past experience? I've been to Ceduna, have you?

I used to sing the song

I left my heart in Port Augusta

On the aboriginal reserve

to the tune of I left my heart in San Francisco ...

Lovely girl Jeddah .. I used to joke with her about having a Gin on the Rocks .,.

catsahoy

8 yrs ago

mussitate, we dont need anymore, of anyone, we cant look after the people here now,

Foxy

8 yrs ago

Twila - I was just trying to be "funny" - of course I knew what the C word meant! Had no idea "Coconut" was deemed as "racist"? Geez forgive me pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee - gets to the stage where no one is game enough to write any comments on here? A lot of comments seem to be taken totally out of context? Apologies!!! :-(

catsahoy

8 yrs ago

peter peter, what am i going to do with you,

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Victorian Senior Australian of the Year refused cab

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