...but some are more equal than others...

Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil has been found not guilty of carrying an offensive weapon after producing a machete during a heated stand-off in Darwin.

The movie veteran, who starred in Storm Boy and Crocodile Dundee, was arrested in July last year after an incident at a friend's house on Wood Street in the city's centre.
The 2005 NT Australian of the Year was accused of grabbing a machete when an argument started between a group of people over his drinking.

Gulpilil pleaded not guilty to carrying an offensive weapon without a lawful excuse during a brief trial in Darwin Magistrates Court on Monday.

The 54-year-old said the knife was in his bag because he had recently returned to Darwin after three-and-a-half weeks of filming in Kakadu National Park, where he had used the machete to carve and make bush tents.

Magistrate Tanya Fong Lim today dismissed the charge against the star, saying Gulpilil used the machete for cultural reasons.

"The defendant is an artist and a carver. He used the machete to carve didgeridoos, totem poles and strip stringy bark for paintings," she told Darwin Magistrates Court.

"There is also evidence he used it to help him build shelters while out bush, like he had done shortly before arriving in Darwin.

"I accept the defendant's explanation for his possession of the machete."

Hang on a second....what?

Why is possessing the machete the problem here? I admit I'm no legal expert but I would have thought common sense would suggest that the issue here isn't why he had the fucking thing in his bag. It's why he pulled it out and brandished it during an argument. I don't care if someone is wandering around with a machete that they use for carving stashed in a bag. What would make me more than a tad nervous would be if they pulled the thing out and started waving it around while they were pissed and angry.

And what the fuck are cultural reasons? You can not start bending laws to accommodate people's cultural sensibilities. Suppose some brain fried Rasta gets caught with a couple of kgs of weed in his bag. Is he going to be allowed to cite "cultural reasons" as a defence?

No doubt there will be more than a few "rool strayans" out there who will view this as proof that the legal system goes light on aboriginal offenders. They're wrong. This decision has almost nothing to do with race. No, the deciding factor in this case is almost certainly fame. If this was some random aboriginal nobody, he would have been fucked. Gulpilil on the other hand is a high profile actor and artist who is viewed by many as a living, breathing, national treasure.

Yet again, some folk are more equal than others.