Radio callers, Libs foam at the mouth over PMs apology

"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry."

February 14, 2008: As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd moved to "to remove a great stain from the nation's soul" yesterday, many Australians are disappointed over the motion to say Sorry to the Stolen Generations...
According to some media outlets, many Australians did not welcome Kevin Rudd's apology yesterday. Following the Prime Minister's landmark apolgy speech, talkback switchboards and internet servers went crazy, and thousands rang or logged on to register their disagreement at the new direction.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that misinformed Sydney talkback callers described the morning's events as "political correctness gone mad" and asked why it was an apology for "them and not us". In a display of rage and ignorance, one caller declared: "I'm disgusted... he [Rudd] makes out that we've done nothing but destroy this country." a caller to Alan Jones said.

"Is he ashamed that we defended this nation against Japan? Will he say 'sorry' to the people who died defending this nation in the wars? What about them?"

Sydney shock-jock Alan Jones (also known as the parrot) pushed the view of Keith Windschuttle, who denies the validity of the "Stolen Generations". "Yes, there was a piece of nonsense and obnoxious policy in Western Australia in 1936. But over 99 per cent of them were untouched by this political stupidity," Jones said. "...Many of the children who were taken were welfare cases ...they were malnourished and mistreated."

In one online poll 36 per cent were in favour of the apology and 64 per cent against, while another had the number at 44 in favour to 56 opposed. "It shows that the average Australian in the street is not in favour of what our leaders are doing," the leader of the racist Australia First Party, Dr Jim Saleam, said.

"We were not responsible for these policies - we weren't even there. I think most people see that simple logic."

In Canberra, outspoken right-wing politician Wilson (Ironbar) Tuckey, marched out of parliament before the apology, saying it would do little for Aborigines. "Tomorrow, there'll be no petrol sniffing, tomorrow, little girls can sleep in their beds without any concern - it's all fixed, the Rudd spin will fix it all," Tuckey quipped.

Tuckey recitied louder than anyone the Lord's Prayer as Prime Minister Rudd rose to speak. "I thought there was a better chance for the Aboriginal people if I said a prayer on their behalf and relied on the efforts of a higher being because I have no confidence whatsoever that Kevin Rudd is going to do anything for them," Mr Tuckey said today. Other Liberals rustled paper in dissent and read throughout Rudd's speech - ex-Treasurer Peter Costello tapped on a laptop computer.

West Australian politician Don Randall also refused the apology, and Victorian Sophie Mirabella, was also missing. Mirabella later released a statement saying it is better for Indigenous children to be raised away from their families. She also said there is no evidence the Stolen Generations ever happened in Victoria.

Former Northern Territory chief minister and Liberal Party president Shane Stone said: "I am not big on being welcomed to someone's country or parliaments being opened by a smoking ceremony or dancing blackfellas. I have on occasion been known to be outspoken on indigenous affairs and individuals, having once referred to Galarrwuy Yunupingu as 'just another whingeing, whining, carping black'..." In the Australian he wrote: "Our indigenous people are among the most disadvantaged Australians, beset with monumental health, education, housing and employment problems. Whose fault is it? Does that really matter?"

Yet Stone, in the spirit of the occasion also declared that: "I am sorry for what has happened in the past to our indigenous people and for what continues to this day. I hope that we will all accept responsibility for our own actions and failings and as one people work together to make this country a better place for all Australians. .."

In the outback town of Bourke NSW, many white Australians also opposed apology. "I don't think we should be apologising because it wasn't our generation that stole them," one woman said. "I don't think there's a country in the world that has not been settled under similar circumstances," another woman said.

Meanwhile, opposition frontbencher Tony Abbott declared ex-PM John Howard did more for indigenous people than any other prime minister. But Howard was the only living former prime minister absent from yesterday's parliamentary apology to Australia's indigenous peoples. He refused to say sorry to the stolen generations while in office between 1996 and 2007.

Representatives of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra say the apology will mean little if the Government fails to recognise Aboriginal sovereignty. Tent Embassy spokeswoman Isabelle Coe says while the apology is a start, the next step is signing a treaty recognising Aboriginal sovereignty.

Tom Calma, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, said the day was not about guilt but about belonging, not just for the stolen generations but for all Australians. "Let the healing of the nation begin."

SOURCES:
SMH
SMH
Fairfax
Gulf Times
Brisbane Times
ABC News
The Australian
The Daily Telegraph
The West
ABC NEWS

Howard's assault into indigenous communities - Land Grab

July 16, 2007: The Howard Government's assault into indigenous communities in the Northern Territory is to access valuable uranium deposits, and not to protect children from abuse, a rally was told in Melbourne last week. More than a hundred community organisations have since criticised the government's plan.

They have described it as a land grab...

Robbie Thorpe, who was also part of the Black GST and Camp Sovereignty protests during the Stolenwealth Games in Melbourne last year, says the Howard is not interested in the welfare of indigenous children.

"It's the only bit of land the commonwealth government hasn't got access to and there are minerals like uranium there," Mr Thorpe told the rally. "That's what it's about. How can you believe Howard? He don't give a f**k about our kids."

He said Indigenous Australians had suffered from 100 years of abuse. "You have taken our people to the brink. "There has been 100 years of human rights' crimes against our people," he said. "Things are not going to change until there is a treaty in this country."

500 people joined the rally. The protest was part of a national day of action being held in capital cities and Alice Springs. In Perth, 120 people rallied. The crowd heard from Ray Jackson from the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Mark Newhouse from the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee and Mark Lawrence from Friends of Australian Rock Art.

About 200 people of all ages and races took part in a demonstration through Canberra to protest against the intervention in Northern Territory communities, likening it to the "Children Overboard" scandal of 2001, or as a land grab or election stunt.

One of the founding members of the Aboriginal tent embassy, Isabell Coe, said the days of Aboriginal people being used as a "political football" had to come to an end. "...what he is doing is disgusting, it is one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen," she said about John Howard's invasion of Aboriginal Lands.

In Sydney, protesters were angry about the compulsory acquisition of remote indigenous communities and the abolition of the permit system, which they consider a land grab. Aboriginal leader Pat Turner said a six-month intervention would be acceptable but had to be done in partnership with local Aborigines.

Mick Dobson says the federal government does not need to seize land from indigenous communities to combat child abuse in the Northern Territory. He said today he feared the government's seizure of 73 communities in the NT was a land grab. "That's what I'm worried about," Prof Dodson said.

"I don't for the life of me understand what the connection between child abuse and land tenure is, why the land tenure has to be given up, albeit for a short period of time according to the prime minister. The two things are not connected," he said to corporate media. "Why steal the land to deal with child sexual abuse?"

Prof Dodson said he, like his brother Pat Dodson, was finding it hard to trust the government on indigenous issues.

SOURCES:
News Ltd
GLW
Canberra Times
Sydney Morning Herald

Howard's indigenous land-grab military-invasion opens door to nuclear waste dump

July 4, 2007: Prim Minister John Howard's electioneering intervention in the Northern Territory is a ploy to allow the dumping of nuclear waste in the outback, anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott says.

Radical measures announced by Mr Howard last week include welfare restrictions, compulsory health checks for children, bans on alcohol and pornography, abolition of the Aboriginal lands permit system and extra police and defence forces to restore order.

Feminist Germaine Greer said she believes the suspension of the permit system by which outsiders' movements to and from communities was the worst aspect of the intervention...

Dr Helen Caldicott, an anti-nuclear activist of more than 20 years, said she feared Prime Minister John Howard would turn Australia into the dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste. She said the takeover of Aboriginal land titles, part of the Government's crackdown of child sexual abuse in indigenous communities, was a ruse to clear the way for the dumping of waste in remote areas.

"The land grab from the Aborigines is actually about uranium and nuclear waste," Dr Caldicott said at the Australian Medical Students' Association conference in Adelaide this week. "It is obvious - you don't take land away from people just because their children are being sexually abused."

Dr Caldicott said Australia should reject nuclear power, ban uranium mining and concentrate on developing renewable energies such as wind, solar and hot rocks. She said the health consequences of uranium mining, nuclear power and nuclear power plants were serious and would induce epidemics of disease, malignancy and deformity that would be experienced for generations.

"Australia is in great danger of becoming a major nuclear nation now," she said. "I think it is very, very, very dangerous medically. I am worried that people making decisions do not understand medicine or genetics. They (the Government) are being pushed by the economy and wealthy corporations, like Western Mining and BHP Billiton, who seem to have no regard for the health and well-being of this generation and all future generations. We as doctors now have to teach the politicians the implications of the ramifications of what they are currently considering."

Meanwhile, feminist writer Germaine Greer says Howard’s emergency measures to deal with child abuse in the Northern Territory are a land grab which he knows will be a certain vote-winner. Ms Greer said the move was a mask to remove native title rights to allow freer access to mining companies.

"Howard has never been happy with the fact that small groups of illiterate hunter-gatherers can still hamper and delay exploitation of Australia’s mineral wealth for as long as they did in the case of the Ranger uranium mine and Jabiluka," Ms Greer says in The Bulletin.

Ms Greer, who supports a treaty with Aboriginal people, said authorities had known about the abuse of Aboriginal women and children for 30 years. "Indeed, the Little Children Are Sacred report adds little in the way of hard facts to what we knew already," she said. "Where the report plays into Howard's hands is in its slightly hysterical demand for immediate, decisive, unspecified action."

"If native title means Australian industries are uncompetitive, then native title must go. The real importance of Howard’s bizarre interpretation of the urgings to immediate action contained in the Little Children Are Sacred report is that it provides kneejerk justification for massive erosion of Aboriginal title — Howard knows, none better, that this will be a sure vote-winner," said Ms Greer.

The Guardian Newspaper also reports that it’s a Federal "land grab". The Prime Minister’s Department has already had talks with mining companies. The Guardian asks: Why should anyone believe that these talks were "increasing employment for Indigenous people" or protecting the environment or sacred sites.

Of all the plans and policies implemented by the Howard Government, this attack on the Indigenous people is the most disgusting, says the Guardian - the most cynical and the most evil and dishonest. Anyone who claims that it is out of care for children is at best extremely naïve and ignorant, but much more likely complicit in Howard’s schemes.

It is another in the long list of lies — invasion of Iraq, children overboard, no GST, and all of the others. It is being used as an excuse to destroy native title and land rights, and as a pre-election ploy from a government that could not even say the word “Sorry” for the Stolen Generations — the thousands of children removed from their parents and communities.

Howard has refused to guarantee that Aboriginal land leased for five years by the Commonwealth will be handed back to the communities. In the meantime, it may be sub-leased to a mining company or any other company. Mining operations could be up and running within five years and by then the damage will have been done. The Howard Government has always been an enthusiastic servant of these corporations.

Dr Sally Cockburn, a Melbourne GP and medical commentator says: "Let them prove this is not shallow electioneering. Let them put in place a proper collaborative, sustainable response against child abuse throughout Australia," she writes in the Herald Sun. "Child sexual abuse in our country is an election issue because any party without a sustainable plan for dealing with it does not deserve to win office."

Pat Turner, former head of the now-defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, warned yesterday that the takeover could lead to indigenous people losing their lands altogether. "Redressing child abuse and enabling our children to live safely and healthily in our communities has absolutely nothing to do with land tenure," she said. "I believe that's why the Prime Minister called it a national emergency, because the Land Rights Act has a national interest clause,' she said.

Ms Turner said the Government's claim it had to take over the land so it wouldn't waste time negotiating with councils to make repairs and collect rents was a farce. "Rubbish," she said, "it's rubbish. If the Government is serious about this it can negotiate an arrangement and no community is going to say 'no, we don't want you to come in here and build us houses'.

A Galaxy poll this week found 58 per cent of voters believe the reforms are a vote-grabbing move while just 25 per cent think Prime Minister John Howard launched the scheme because he really cares about the problem.

SOURCES:
Brisbane Times
The Age
Border Mail
The Guardian
Herald Sun
The Australian
The Australian

Mutitjulu question "military occupation" of their small community

Leaders of the Mutitjulu community today questioned the need for a military occupation of their small community.

We welcome any real support for indigenous health and welfare and even two police will assist, but the Howard Government declared an emergency at our community over two years ago - when they appointed an administrator to our health clinic - and since then we have been without a doctor, we have less health workers, our council has been sacked all our youth and health programmes have been cut.

We have no CEO and limited social and health services. The government has known about our overcrowding problem for at least 10 years and they’ve done nothing about it.

How do they propose keeping alcohol out of our community when we are 20 minutes away from 5 star hotel? Will they ban blacks from Yulara? We have been begging for an alcohol counsellor and a rehabilitation worker so that we can help alcoholics and substance abusers but those pleas have been ignored. What will happen to alcoholics when this ban is introduced? How will the government keep the grog runners out of our community without a permit system?

We have tried to put forward projects to make our community economically sustainable - like a simple coffee cart at the sunrise locations – but the government refuses to even consider them.

There is money set aside from the Jimmy Little foundation for a kidney dialysis machine at Mutitjulu, but National Parks won’t let us have it. That would create jobs and improve indigenous health but they just keep stonewalling us. If there is an emergency, why won’t Mal Brough fast track our kidney dialysis machine?

Some commentators have made much of the cluster of sexually transmitted diseases identified at our health clinic. People need to understand that Mutitjulu Health Clinic (now effectively closed) is a regional clinic and patients come from as far away as WA and SA; so to identify a cluster here is meaningless without seeing the confidential patient data.

The fact that we hold this community together with no money, no help, no doctor and no government support is a miracle. Any community, black or white would struggle if they were denied the most basic resources. Police and the Military are fine for logistics and coordination but healthcare, youth services, education and basic housing are more essential. Any programme must involve the people on the ground or it won’t work. For example who will interpret for the military?

Our women and children are scared about being forcibly examined; surely there is a need to build trust. Even the doctors say they are reluctant to examine a young child without a parent’s permission. Of course any child that is vulnerable or at risk should be immediately protected but a wholesale intrusion into our women and children’s privacy is a violation of our human and sacred rights.

Where is the money for all the essential services? We need long term financial and political commitment to provide the infrastructure and planning for our community. There is an urgent need for 10’s of millions of dollars to do what needs to be done. Will Mr Brough give us a commitment beyond the police and military?

The commonwealth needs to work with us to put health and social services, housing and education in place rather than treating Mutitjulu as a political football.

But we need to set the record straight:

There is no evidence of any fraud or mismanagement at Mutitjulu – we have had an administration for 12 months that found nothing

Mal Brough and his predecessor have been in control of our community for at least 12 months and we have gone backwards in services

We have successfully eradicated petrol sniffing from our community in conjunction with government authorities and oil companies

We have thrown suspected paedophiles out of our community using the permit system which our government now seeks take away from us.

We will work constructively with any government, State, Territory or Federal that wants to help aboriginal people.

Howard’s NT plans will “demoralise Aborigines”

Goodooga, northwest NSW, 25 June 2007 - - The spokesman for 16 Aboriginal tribes says the Howard government’s seizure of Aboriginal affairs in the Northern Territory will further demoralise communities of people who no longer understand pride and dignity because it was taken away from them a long time ago.

Michael Anderson, the only surviving founder of the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra and elected spokesman for the Gumilaroi nation in northwest NSW and southwest Queensland, writes in a media release that Howard is a past master at finding an emotive matter to disguise his real agenda.

“The Australian voting public cannot permit itself to believe that this is in the ‘best interest’ of the Aboriginal people, in particular the children. The Australian community cannot accept what is planned and what has been said as gospel. The people of Australia must ask questions and not accept the spins blindly. Wake up Australia.”

Anderson writes that Howard’s intentions re-visit the 1930s assimilation policy.

“This was the ploy in 1937 when the Australian government convened a national conference of the Aboriginal Protectors from each of the Australian states which decided that the ‘best interest’ of the Aboriginal people was to assimilate them into the Australian community, forcing us to have the same beliefs and customs as all other Australians.

“Think hard, this move by this little man is nothing but a snow job for another agenda. The real agenda is what was said in that 1937 conference. We, the Australian governments, cannot permit the Northern Territory to be overpopulated by half-castes.

“The governments in the 1930s said children had to be taken away from their parents because the influence of their own communities was immoral and they were in danger of abuse and neglect, but the real agenda then was to de-Aboriginalise them. It is about to happen again.”

Anderson’s statement in full follows below. He can be reached at landline 02 68296355, mobile 04272 92 492, fax 02 68296375, ngurampaa@bigpond.com.au.

MEDIA RELEASE : Goodooga, northwest NSW, 25 June 2007

Wake up Australia. This is a re-visit to the 1930s assimilation policy. The Australian voting public cannot permit itself to believe that this is in the “best interest” of the Aboriginal people, in particular the children.

This was the ploy in 1937 when the Australian government convened a national conference of the Aboriginal Protectors from each of the Australian States which decided that the “best interest” of the Aboriginal people was to assimilate them into the Australian community, forcing us to have the same beliefs and customs as all other Australians.

Think hard, this move by this little man is nothing but a snow job for another agenda. The real agenda is what was said in that 1937 conference. We, the Australian governments cannot permit the Northern Territory to be overpopulated by half-castes.

In the 1970s the Black Power players argued that what we experienced down here in the south with the expansion of the white male population in the grazing industry will also happen to the people of the Northern Territory.

What the sheep industry brought to the west of NSW and southwest Queensland, the mining industry and service industries are now bringing to the people of those isolated communities in the Northern Territory: white men looking for the young and innocent, and with the aid of alcohol and drugs the people are sitting ducks just as we experienced down here. The governments in the 1930s said children had to be taken away from their parents because the influence of their own communities was immoral and they were in danger of abuse and neglect, but the real agenda then was to de-Aboriginalise them. It is about to happen again.

Read the report that triggered this knee-jerk emotive and political response. No one condones abuse of any kind but the report does not come right out and say it but between the lines the white men of influence are also held responsible for an unknown amount of the child abuse. And let us not overlook the negative influences the mines may be having as well. Maybe the workers need to be policed not our people. By opening up the reserves to people without the need for permits gives more people access than already exists.

Our people are like fish in a bowl. No way out and nowhere to go. Give our people access to their traditional lands and build their communities with the same amenities as all other Australians with the correct infrastructures. The Report does not say that this is a law and order issue, it is a social issue that will not be addressed by massive numbers of police and army.

John Howard must retract and refrain from his chosen course. This is not right and we all know it. He is a past master at finding an emotive matter to disguise his real agenda. What he is about to do will further demoralise communities of people who no longer understand pride and dignity because this was taken away from us a long time ago. The Australian community cannot accept what is planned and what has been said as gospel. The people of Australia must ask questions and not accept the spins blindly.

What if what is being done to us was planned for you, what would your response be? Just for one minute try and put yourself in my people’s shoes, would you agree to this?

Child abuse is acceptable to no one, but what John Howard is doing is also wrong. He argues that Aboriginal customary has not worked – that is because white law will not let it work.

What John Howard has done here is to criminalise all Aboriginal men and the Australian public knows nothing else. This is not acceptable in a democratic country where law and order is the main theme. Are my people to forget their right to fairness and due process?

Now we have John Howard arguing that he has the constitutional powers to pass laws for any race for whom he deems it necessary, but it seems it is always against the people and not for the people.

John Howard would be better served by making it possible to repatriate our people to their traditional homelands instead of maintaining a program forcing us to live in country where we are already refugees. I do hope that he does not repeat the NSW failed resettlement program of the 1970s for the people of the communities in the Northern Territory.

I appeal to my people and the fair-minded Australian public, DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN. Let us address the real issues, government neglect to de-colonising Aboriginal people and to establish programs that address the horror of the past. Our people still think that we must do it the white way and that does not compute for many. Our history is being obliterated and wiped from our memories. We are always asked to forget about the past but white Australia has monuments to their past and clubs whose motto it is to not forget. From the past we learn but Aboriginal people do not have this right, and white Australia will never learn because the truth is being hidden.

We could not control and manage our own affairs because the government bureaucrats had too much power and control. We had to do things the way they wanted. The truth is not being told here and the public cannot permit the perpetuation of lies and denial.

If John Howard is fair dinkum then let’s have a Royal Commission into the administration of Aboriginal affairs and let my people have their say about what is the truth. Why not, Mr Howard, maybe you and the rest of Australia can learn what is really going on instead of blaming the victim of Australia’s brutal treatment of my people.

Elders speak out: "the dog of white supremacy returns to its vomit"

The dog of “white supremacy” returns to its vomit. In a media statement on the 26th June the National Sorry Day Committee says there is now a real danger of the creation by the Howard government of another Stolen Generation.

"We are deeply concerned about the policy being articulated by the Prime Minister, and being implemented the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, for Federal Government ‘emergency measures’ relating to Aboriginal child safety within Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory," say the Committee in a statement. The NSDC is the long established premier National Advocate for the Stolen Generations.

MEDIA RELEASE 26 June 2007

It is with great sorrow that the National Sorry Day Committee condemns the Howard Government’s cherry picking of recommendations of previous Royal Commissions and National and State Inquiries into Aboriginal Affairs concerning the state of Indigenous Health, Education, Child Safety and Family Support with a complete disregard for the Human Rights of Indigenous Australia in the pursuit of an inadequate response to a decade of Federal Government neglect in the Indigenous Affairs portfolio.

The National Sorry Day Committee expresses its strong regret, and with the greatest of reproach, that this blind disregard for the Human Rights of Indigenous Australia continues to be the shameful reality under the Howard Government’s continuation of a destructive policy in Indigenous Affairs.

We call on the Prime Minister, and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, to address the following facts:

- there are the 339 Recommendations from the Deaths in Custody Report, released in 1990.
- there are the 54 Recommendations from Bringing Them Home Report, released in 1997.
- now there are another 97 Recommendations from the Little Children are Sacred Report, released in June 2007. This makes a grand a total of 490 recommendations.

It is agreed amongst commentators that most of the earlier 393 recommendations until June 2007 either have been absolutely ignored, or implemented in an ineffectual manner through inadequate funding, limited resources and insufficient service providers and staff.

The 54 Recommendations of the Bringing Them Home Report, released in 1997 have been stonewalled for the ten years in which John Howard has led this nation.

There is still no apology.

Were the Howard Government to have initiated responsible action based on these recommendations, including a national apology, then the issues facing the Stolen Generations and the consequential trans-generational issues which now so damagingly impact on all Aboriginal communities would have been addressed, and some definite positive change to the Human Rights and the living conditions of all Aboriginal people, and especially Aboriginal children, would have been brought about by now.

Instead Prime Minister Howard has refused any adequate response to the recommendations from the Bringing Them Home Report report, with the ongoing damage to human lives we see today.

The current realisation by the Federal Government of this National Emergency is a manifestation of the decade of inadequate Child Protection by the Federal Government in Indigenous communities.

However, and quite reprehensively, Prime Minister Howard is using this tragic reality to deflect public attention away from the fact that it has been his government that has consistently denied the affected Aboriginal children any adequate access to their basic human rights in: health, housing, education, personal security, safety and well being.

But more than that, and in the absence of a genuine national apology from him for his involvement in fostering these vicious circumstances afflicting Aboriginal people across Australia, the Prime Minister is proving himself patently to be insincere.

He knows that he has much to answer for his own neglect and indifference to Aboriginal people.

Both during his time in the Fraser Government as the Nation’s Treasurer and now as the Nation’s Prime Minister, John Howard has had the power and the financial capacity under the constitution to remove, alleviate and redress the deprivation and chronically deteriorated living conditions Aboriginal children, their families and communities have had to endure, especially under Liberal administration.

The Little Children are Sacred Report thoroughly examines the issue of Aboriginal child sexual abuse.

The report recognises the issue as one of urgent national significance, recommending that both the Australian and Northern Territory Governments establish an immediate collaborative partnership with a Memorandum of Understanding to specifically address the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse.

Most significantly, the report asserts it is critical that both governments commit to genuine consultation with Aboriginal people in designing initiatives for Aboriginal communities.

Recommendations 4, 5, 40 a, b

4. That the government develop a Child Impact Analysis for all major policy and practice proposals across Government.

5. That the government develop a whole of- government approach in respect of child sexual abuse. Protocols should be developed as a matter of urgency to enhance information sharing between agencies and the development of a coordinated approach in which all agencies acknowledge a responsibility for child protection.. The approach might build on the work of the Strategic Management Group and Child Abuse Taskforce but needs to extend well beyond those initiatives.

40. That the Northern Territory Government work with the Australian Government in consultation with Aboriginal communities to:
a. develop a comprehensive long-term strategy to build a strong and equitable core service platform in Aboriginal communities, to address the underlying risk factors for child sexual abuse and to develop functional communities in which children are safe

b. through this strategy, address the delivery of core educational and Primary Health Care (PHC) services to Aboriginal people including home visitation and early years services (see Chapter on Health).

We call on the Prime Minister, and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, to provide the Australian people with justifiable answers at a minimum to the following pressing questions that arise from the recommendations of the Little Children are Sacred Report:

- What consultations and plans have been made in regard to this newest policy for reform that will ensure that it is implemented with and not against the Indigenous population?
- What assistance and support if any is there in the areas of detoxification, rehabilitation, counselling, and education?
- What resources and services are there to support Indigenous people once these changes are made?
- How will people be assisted safely to come off their alcohol or substance addiction?
- Where are the rehabilitation services to be established and to what degree will they be effective?
- Where are the trauma counselling and support services for families to be instituted?

But there is another question that cannot be suppressed regarding the motives behind John Howard’s sweeping policy and the significance of the timing to impose such a draconian plan on the run and without prior departmental analysis and comprehensive costings, which relates to the influence it will have on the polls and voting in the next federal election:

- Have the opinion polls scared John Howard to the point where he is scrambling to influence votes with the Race Card, at the expense of Australia’s Aboriginal Community?

With one of the first Aboriginal communities targeted for the immediate introduction of Australia’s armed forces in a support role with conscripted police enforcement from all around the country being Mutitjulu Community (a dry Community) at the base of Uluru, not only just Aboriginal people are seeing this as proof of the intention to use “Martial Law”.

Mutitjulu Community is one of the many Aboriginal Communities that have been directly affected by Deaths in Custody, previous Government Removal Policies and continual trans-generational abuse and neglect through government policy and control.

There are three significant interrelated events that have occurred in the Northern Territory since June 15, 2007 and which are of substantial concern to the National Sorry Day Committee:

1) The public release on 15 June 2007 of the Northern Territory Government's report from its Board of Inquiry into Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse.

2) The winning by Mutitjulu Community of its Federal Court challenge to the appointment of a Perth-based administrator by the Federal Government. This means that the community's former governing committee will soon resume its role. In 2006 the Registrar had given only one day's notice, after the federal government said the community's funding would cease unless an administrator was appointed. The federal appeal court judges said that: "There was no evidence of any particular threatened unlawful or imprudent transaction on the part of the (Mutitjulu) Corporation that needed to be urgently prevented".

3) The Howard Government’s announcement of a new policy of intended measures against the Indigenous communities through out the Northern Territory claiming it to be “in the best interest of the children”.

Highly respected Mutitjulu Elder and Stolen Generations Survivor, Bob Randall, producer of the newly released film Kanyini, revealed to the National Sorry Day Committee that following the accusations presented on ABC TV’s Lateline in July 2006 by a staffer in the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough’s, office that members of the Mutitjulu Community were sexually abusing and prostituting children, a full investigation by both local and territory police found nothing to substantiate the accusations. There have been no arrests nor have any charges been brought against any of the 95 community members.

Bob Randall further identified that since the policy of self-determination came into practice in the Mutitjulu Community back in 1972, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs removed the staff that were then working there and have starved the community of the competent staff and resources that the community needed to operate effectively. Instead, the government left untrained people to take over.

Over the last decade the Howard Government has further withdrawn and reduced funding and resources, with a total neglect of the basic needs of the Community, which was then forced into an unnecessarily bureaucratic form of over-administration and is now being bullied into signing 99 year lease agreements.

The plight of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory expresses the plight of all Indigenous Australians who have been crying out for initiatives and actions that the Howard Government has and continues to ignore.

The 1967 Referendum may have recognised Aboriginal people as Citizens of Australia to be counted in the Census, but in reality the present Government’s attitude and intent is to continue to enact the “white” culturally dominated Liberal view of administration in disguise for the same old racist implementation of the life threatening and soul destroying manipulation of Indigenous Australian’s basic human needs that had characterised the federal view of the constitution up to 1967.

This current policy to undertake the drastic measures imposed by the Prime Minister, comes from the same racist and draconian political manoeuvres of past governments stretching back beyond federation that encompass the forceful displacement of Indigenous people using the Policies of Forced Removal of Aboriginal Child as they were progressively implemented under the equally inhumane and discredited Policies of Martial Law, Protection, Assimilation, Integration and now Absorption.

All of these policies fomented and implemented national acts of Genocide and it appears the intent for the dog of “white supremacy” to return to its vomit is relentless.

The National Sorry Day Committee is horrified that the Prime Minister is apparently intent on unashamedly and deliberately using Aboriginal children in the same way that past governments, through the Removal Policies that created the Stolen Generations, used Aboriginal children to control the lives, lands and rights of Indigenous Australia.

The National Sorry Day Committee calls upon each right thinking and fair-minded Australians with a sense of just decency to assume the responsibility to prevent such an outrage from happening again.

Helen Moran – Indigenous Co-Chair - 0413 246 470
Tiffany McComsey Non-Indigenous Co-Chair - 0412 391 746

ABC REPORT: AFP team arrives in NT for Indigenous plan

Howards military plan causing panic in Indigenous communitues

"...they think the army is coming to grab their kids and the police are coming to help them. The women and the kids are scared and they are running to the sand hills..."

June 26, 2007 - A group of 60 Aboriginal and community groups will deliver a letter to Prime Minister John Howard urging him to rethink his military plan to stamp out indigenous child abuse in the Northern Territory. The delegation from all states and territories call for Mr Howard to consult with indigenous people on ways to tackle the root causes of the abuse rather than send in the troops.

Mr Howard says he will abolish the Aboriginal permit system and mobilise extra police and defence forces into remote Indigenous communities. The Federal Government says it may compulsorily acquire as many as 70 Northern Territory Indigenous communities.

Aboriginal mothers in the NT are taking their children and fleeing into the sandhills because of fears the government will take them away...
Federal Police officers began arriving in the Northern Territory this week with other states to follow. The Federal Justice Minister David Johnston says the Prime Minister can force states to send officers to join the invasion.

Olga Havnen, a prominent Aboriginal leader in the Northern Territory, warned the intervention model announced by the government, could do more harm than good. "It's crazy stuff. I don't think people have thought through the unintentional consequences," said Ms Havnen, the deputy chief executive of the Northern Land Council. "People there are scared stiff," she told a corporate media source.

"They want to flee, to get out of there. That's the level of panic and fear that this has caused out in the communities." She said the plan for every child to have a compulsory health check was met with "shock and horror". "It's pretty draconian and drastic, one would have thought," Ms Havnen said.

Mutitjulu Elder Vince Forrester says the changes are unnecessary and are causing widespread fear in Central Australia. Police and the defence force are expected to be deployed to Mutitjulu next week and Mr Forrester says many Aboriginal mothers are taking their children into the sandhills because of fears the government will take them away.

The community says the Howard Government declared an emergency at the local health clinic more than two years ago. It says since then Mutitjulu has been without a doctor, has had health and youth programs cut and the council has been sacked. The leaders say community members must be consulted to ensure the success of any program.

Greens leader Bob Brown says years of inaction by Mr Howard have forced the Government into dangerous racial discrimination territory. "It is a pre-election push which is action on a scale that is absolutely not needed," he said.

Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett says it is an outrageous authoritarian crackdown, and he is outraged Mr Howard did not first consult the Indigenous communities. "If they aren't involved in developing the solutions, then the solutions aren't going to work," he said.

Mutitjulu locals accuse the commonwealth of treating their community as a "political football", saying it should concentrate on health, education and social services instead of sending troops.

They charge that government neglect had brought the situation to a crisis point. "We have been begging for an alcohol counsellor and a rehabilitation worker so that we can help alcoholics and substance abusers but those pleas have been ignored," they said.

"When your bringing armed forces into the communities obviously people's minds are going to start playing tricks on them," Vince Forrester said. "You don't bring an army into the community, this is just intimidation of the aboriginal community in the Northern Territory."

Mutitjulu resident Mario Giuseppe says the community is in "terror". "I thought the government was here to protect the women and children and they are scaring the living daylights out of them," he told the ABC. "This is bringing back a lot of memories and opening a lot of scars for these old people here, they are running to the hills and hiding."

Women were scared that police were being sent out to the community to take away their children, Mr Giuseppe said. "They think the army is coming to grab their kids and the police are coming to help them. The women and the kids are scared and they are running to the sand hills."

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, who calls the measures "a throwback to paternalism," along with indigenous leader Lowitja O'Donoghue, also criticise the Commonwealth proposal. They say the Government measures show a lack of consultation and funding. "Without respect, without discussion and agreement it is difficult to see any measures working as effectively as we would all want..." they said. They pointed also to the disbanding of ATSIC, saying Australia was alone among the western democracies in not having elected representation for its indigenous people.

Mick Dodson, professor at ANU noted the Little Children are Sacred report had emphasised that "the majority of perpetrators in Aboriginal communities are non-indigenous men people who come into the communities to work".

The Federal Government has established a panel including WA magistrate Sue Gordon, the Australian Federal Police's Shane Castles, former Woolworths boss Roger Corbett and former AMA boss Bill Glasson. Mr Howard confirmed cabinet would soon extend the quarantining of welfare payments for Aboriginal people.

The West Australian Premier, Alan Carpenter, says the action is an election-year stunt, declaring there was no doubt this was Howard's "new Tampa". WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan says he has no plans of sending officers to the Northern Territory. Mr O'Callaghan says police working in regional areas of Western Australia already have their hands full.

Professor George Williams from the University of NSW says it is the most significant takeover of territory power since self-government, and it highlights the paternalistic relationship between the Commonwealth and the NT. "We've never seen such extensive intervention, nor such an intervention that would affect so many people within the Territory," he said.

Aboriginal leaders in the territory want to know whether the Federal Government will provide the money needed for housing, education and health in remote areas. "If the Government does not provide the funds it will be seen to be playing politics with Aboriginal people's lives," said Tracker Tilmouth, a former head of the Central Land Council.

The Territory needs 4000 houses, at a cost of $1.4 billion. Even if Canberra put up the money it would be impossible to find workers and materials to build them immediately.

The need for schools is estimated at $60 million a year over 10 years just to provide teachers and facilities for school-age children if they all turned up for classes each day. A further $50 million a year for the next 10 years is needed to fix health services.

SOURCES:
News.com.au
Indigenous mothers running scared: Elder
SMH
ABC News
Mutitjulu in eye of storm
Canberra Times
Statement from the Stolen Generations Alliance
ABC
Australia: military occupies aboriginal communities

Stolen Wages taskforce a win for WA Aboriginals

Stolen Wages taskforce a win for WA Aboriginals

May 31, 2007 - The WA Government has announced that it will establish a taskforce to investigate wages and Commonwealth benefits stolen from Aboriginal people. In some cases, up to 75 per cent of their income was held in Government managed trust funds but never repaid. Brian Wyatt from the Goldfields Land and Sea Council says the compensation owed to Indigenous workers in the Goldfields alone could be up to $150 million...

The announcement coincided with the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum that changed the Commonwealth Constitution to allow the Commonwealth Parliament to make special laws regarding indigenous people and enable indigenous people to be included in the national census.

The term 'stolen wages' refers to entitlements and other moneys that should have been paid to indigenous workers but were not. Regulations allowed the Government of the day to hold in trust up to 75 per cent of an indigenous person's wages. There is evidence that some of the workers did not receive their full entitlements.

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert welcomed the announcement having pushed hard for the state to act on the findings of a Senate inquiry: "The West Australian economy was built on the back of the unpaid and under-paid labour of our Aboriginal people," Senator Siewert said. "They were systematically excluded from the benefits of the wealth they created."

"The Senate inquiry found ample evidence of monies being withheld, monies diverted in WA to missions and station coffers, and widespread rorting of trust funds by trustees," said Senator Siewert.

But there is concerned by the announced timeframe as many of the people affected are now elderly and another year of delay will see more of them passing away before justice is achieved.

Brian Wyatt from the Goldfields Land and Sea Council says justice must be done for the people who suffered. "Indications are that the annual indigenous payroll for Goldfields pastoral properties in the 1960s was in the order of $9 million, said Mr Wyatt.

"There were curfews in towns, you know. You had to be out of town by six o'clock, you had to live on designated areas outside of towns and, on top of that, you worked for next to nothing, particularly in the pastoral industry. So it was very, very demeaning I would have thought," he said. "At one mission, in return for a ten shilling a week government accommodation subsidy, Aboriginal people were provided bush shelters and tents with no toilet facilities, and were expected to hunt their own food."

Indigenous Affairs Minister Michelle Roberts said the task force would investigate and make recommendations to try and correct some of the injustices of the past. Mrs Roberts said many of the people affected were likely to have died and a broad repayment scheme, potentially encompassing the families of deceased workers.

The NSW Government set up a trust fund scheme in 2005 to repay wages which were lost between 1900 and 1968 to living claimants and their descendants. In Queensland, Aboriginal people lodged a multi-milliondollar claim for lost wages and entitlements in 2002 and the Government set up a $55.5 million fund which capped claims at $4000 a person.

Mrs Roberts said stolen wages remained an issue for indigenous people. “This is not a report we would be setting up unless we were prepared to take some action and prepared to extend some money at the end of the process,” she said.

Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington said the inquiry was overdue and the Government needed to provide meaningful relief by acting on its findings.

----

Recommendation 4 of the Senate Unfinished business inquiry

The committee recommends that:
(a) the Western Australian Government:
(i) urgently consult with Indigenous people in relation to the stolen wages issue; and
(ii) establish a compensation scheme in relation to withholding, underpayment and non-payment of Indigenous wages and welfare entitlements using the New South Wales scheme as a model, and
(b) the Commonwealth Government conduct preliminary research of its archival material in relation to the stolen wages issues in Western Australia.

---

Sources:
Greens Media
GLSC Media
Inquiry into Stolen Wages - Senate
Sunday Times
The West
ABC
PERTH INDYMEDIA

Secret NT nuke waste deal cuts into dreaming

May 29, 2007: Northern Territorians should feel let down by the consultation process for a nuclear waste site at Muckaty Station - eight kilometres from where people live at the station homestead. The Northern Land Council has nominated the site, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, as a national nuclear waste repository.

"Our dreamings cross right into that land where they want to put that dump...

If the Federal Government approves the site, the site's traditional owners will hand over control of the land for about 200 years and receive a one-off $12 million payment. Only a handful of people were consulted and the voices of the overwhelming majority are not being listened too.

The only way in which a modern government like the Howard Government should be addressing this issue is to ensure that it has the full consent of communities involved in every way when it comes to the location of a facility, like a radioactive waste dump.

This process has still got a very long way to travel and we haven't seen the details of what has actually been agreed between the NLC, the relevant traditional owners and the Minister - we've only got the reports that we've seen on the wire and heard on the radio.

The secretly negotiated deal has bitterly divided traditional owners of the 2241- square-kilometre Muckaty Station, where the Government wants to build a dump storing 5000 cubic metres of nuclear waste.

Bindi Jakamarra Martin, a Warlmanpa man from the Ngapa clan, said building the dump on a 1.5-square-kilometre would "poison our beautiful land" and "change our dreamings". "Our dreamings cross right into that land where they want to put that dump," he said.

The deal was revealed on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the landmark 1967 referendum granting Aboriginal citizenship rights. The agreement allows the Federal Government to take the Ngapa clan's land for up to 200 years to store nuclear waste from all the states and territories.

Truckloads of radioactive material would be driven from Sydney's Lucas Heights and Woomera in South Australia to the site, which is 10 kilometres from the busy Stuart Highway and eight kilometres from where people live at the station homestead.

Experts will now study the sparsely vegetated site to see if it is scientifically suitable to store nuclear waste.

The Muckaty deal has angered the Northern Territory Government, whose legislation against developing a dump in the territory can be overridden by Canberra. "This potential facility could compromise the social, cultural and traditional ties of Aboriginal people to their country," said Elliott McAdam, a minister in the NT Labor Government. Environmentalists have called on federal Science Minister Julie Bishop to reject the site.

A traditional owner of another site under consideration for a nuclear waste dump has questioned whether all residents of Muckaty Station agree with the nomination. Kathleen Martin from Mount Everard, north-west of Alice Springs, says there was some division over the proposal in the community.

"I'm asking, was that in agreeance with everybody on Muckaty?" she said. "Because the message that came down a couple of weeks ago was that the older people - the older men - had told some of the people there, you sell the land, you sell your soul."

Martin said they decided to vote against the dump after attending several meetings with the Northern Land Council and elders were taken to Sydney to tour Lucas Heights.

William Jakamarra Graham, another traditional owner, said: "We don't care about the money — $12 million is nothing to us. But we care about our land and what will happen to the children of the future. We don't want to leave them a nuclear dump."

Natalie Wasley from the Arid Lands Environement Centre, who has been campaigning against all of the sites proposed, says many of the traditional owners do not support the proposal. "I've spoken with a Ngapa elder this morning, Bindi Martin from the Muckaty area, and he said he still has strong opposition to the dump proposal," she said. "I believe this is a view held by other elders as well.

"I think the Science Minister Julie Bishop will have a hard time showing that there is consent within the Ngapa group let alone the whole Muckaty community for this nomination for the waste dump."

Dave Sweeney, nuclear campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, said Muckaty Station was not selected on a scientific basis and turning it into a dump would be "environmentally irresponsible and socially divisive".

The Northern Land Council says it has all 70 traditional owners' support.

SOURCES:
The Age
ABC NEWS
ABC
The Age

Racist plan to force English for Indigenous people - Mal Brough is not God

May 25, 2007 - Compulsory English 'pure racism'

"There's no need for him to preach to us. Mal Brough is not God."

Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough's plan to make English compulsory for Aboriginal children has drawn stern reaction from the indigenous community. He says he considering quarantining welfare payments to ensure Aboriginal parents send their children to school.

Australian Aboriginal folks have labelled the Howard Government's push to force Indigenous children to learn English as "racist". Native Title holder Rosalie Kunoth-Monks says Mr Brough needs a reminder that he is not God. Aboriginal activist Sam Watson says the Government is pinning the blame on the victims instead of helping them. "I'm absolutely infuriated by this," he said. "The Howard Government seems to be inventing new ways and means of perpetually blaming Aboriginal people and showing cultural disrespect to Aboriginal people."

Aboriginal people are concerned about losing traditional Aboriginal languages, a problem that is not being addressed. They say Mr Brough's proposal could lead to "cultural death"...
Prominent Aboriginal activist Sam Watson said the plan was "pure racism" and dismissed it as a political stunt. "They (politicians) are desperate for anything that will give them any kind of minor political advantage," he said.

"Holding children and their families to ransom for the government's systemic failure to provide the essentials is appalling and an abuse of human rights."

Former ALP national president and Labor candidate Warren Mundine said it was important that Aboriginal children learn to read and write their traditional languages, and learn about their cultural heritage, in addition to learning English, maths and science. "Learning about their culture gives them self esteem and that makes people want to get educated," he said.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says indigenous languages were in danger of dying out. "Of more than 250 indigenous languages in 1788, as few as 60 remain alive and in use as a first tongue," Senator Brown said. "The Howard government's neglect of this national heritage parallels the push to extinction of Gaelic languages in Britain and Ireland in past centuries."

Reconciliation Australia board member Fred Chaney says the Government needs to offer more than rhetoric. "You're going to need to increase resources, you're going to need to do the job better, you're going to need to make sure you've got high quality staff on location," he said. "It's not a case of Aboriginal people having to change. I think the systems that deliver services to Aboriginal people have to become much more skilled and better resourced."

Central Australian Indigenous politician Alison Anderson says it should be up to parents to decide whether their children learn English. The Labor Member for MacDonnell says while she supports all children learning English, it should not be tied to welfare payments. "It's important for Indigenous kids to understand their foundation of who they are and first and foremost they're Aboriginals," she said. "Yes, we do have to learn English to participate in this society and it's up to individual parents. I don't think it should be enforced by governments, but we have to have rules and regulations and children going to school every day so they can participate in society."

Tauto Sansbury from the Aboriginal Justice Advocacy Committee says the Federal Government's move will take attitudes to Aborigines back 60 years. He says the plan is insulting and reinforces old-fashioned stereotypes. "They still want to treat Aboriginal people back in the 30s and 40s, where they're the master and we're the servant and our attitude is 'yes boss, we'll do what you want'," he said.

Central Australian Native Title holder Rosalie Kunoth-Monks says Mr Brough needs a reminder that he is not God. She says Mr Brough should stop putting Aboriginal people down. "To have the freedom in an affluent democratic country to speak your language as well as access that which is outside that will enable you to get jobs and so forth, we're well and truly aware of that," she said.

Australian Education Union says Mr Brough's attitude to Indigenous education verges on racism. Spokesman Adam Lampe says the "big stick" approach is culturally insensitive. Mr Lampe says a model that focuses on punishing individuals for not succeeding in certain areas of knowledge is reminiscent of a 19th-century approach.

New South Wales' first Indigenous MP, Linda Burney, says Mr Brough seems to lack a fundamental understanding of Aboriginality. "I think that he needs to understand that culture and country is incredibly important to Aboriginal people and they will be protected at all costs," she said. "Aboriginal kids do need to be bilingual but it's a bit rich coming from a person who actually is part of a Government that took away funding for bilingual programs in the Northern Territory."

Ms Burney says one of the biggest tragedies is losing traditional Aboriginal languages, a problem that is not being addressed. She says Mr Brough's proposal could lead to "cultural death". "Now, it is important to be bilingual - there's no two ways about it - but it can't be at the expense of your mother tongue."

Labor Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jenny Macklin says the Government should first improve the resources available to teach Indigenous children "to actually act to improve the English language of Aboriginal children, not just talk in empty political rhetoric".

Prime Minister John Howard has strongly supported the push, telling Southern Cross Radio that Indigenous children should learn English, just as the children of migrants have to.

SOURCES:
ABC
The Age
ABC Radio
Message Stick
ABC

Tenth Sorry Day and the 40th Anniversary of 1967 Referendum

10th Anniversary of Sorry Day and the 40th Anniversary of 1967 Referendum. 27 May 1967 is the date of the most successful referendum in Australian history. Forty years ago the overwhelming majority of Australians voted for changes in the Australian Constitution that the voters believed would give Indigenous Australians a ‘fairer go’ in their own country.

On 27 May 1967 over 90 per cent of the Australian electorate did vote YES on the Aboriginal question.

The 1967 Referendum: On 27 May 1967 a Federal referendum was held. The first question, referred to as the ‘nexus question' was an attempt to alter the balance of numbers in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The second question was to determine whether two references in the Australian Constitution, which discriminated against Aboriginal people, should be removed. This fact sheet addresses the second question.

The sections of the Constitution under scrutiny were:

51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:-

(xxvi) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal people in any State, for whom it is necessary to make special laws.

127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted.

The removal of the words ‘… other than the aboriginal people in any State…' in section 51(xxvi) and the whole of section 127 were considered by many to be representative of the prevailing movement for political change within Indigenous affairs. As a result of the political climate, this referendum saw the highest YES vote ever recorded in a Federal referendum, with 90.77 per cent voting for change.

The right to vote: The 1967 referendum did not give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples the right to vote. This right had been legislated for Commonwealth elections in 1962, with the last State to provide Indigenous enfranchisement being Queensland in 1965.

MORE:
Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals) - WIKIPEDIA
Collaborating for Indigenous Rights: the 1967 Referendum
The 1967 Referendum - National Archives of Australia

Students of Sustainabilty Conference 2007 - Murdoch Uni - Get some!

Students of Sustainabilty Conference 2007 - Respect Nyoongar Country

SoS_07 - July 9-15, 2007 - Students of Sustainability (SoS) is the largest student-run environment based conference in Australia. The next SoS convergence will happen July 2007 in Perth, Western Australia at Murdoch University...
Check out the website:
http://studentsofsustainability.org

So, what is SoS? Each year SoS offers an amazing opportunity for students, activists, academics, environment and Indigenous groups, and members of the wider community from around Australia to come together to share and gain knowledge, skills and information on environmental and social justice issues.

Please feel free to get involved with the organisation of SoS 2007.

We are all students of sustainability!

FIND OUT MORE:
http://studentsofsustainability.org

Land carve up won't deliver Aboriginal home ownership

MARCH 15, 2007: Land carve up won't deliver Aboriginal home ownership

"Mal Brough's plan to overturn Aboriginal community ownership of their land is not about private home ownership on remote communities. It is just a foot in the door strategy to overturn community land tenure," said Senator Rachel Siewert today.

"This is not the way to tackle the Aboriginal housing crisis."
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough is intensifying pressure on the West Australian and Queensland governments to reform land management to force indigenous people to buy their own homes - despite widespread poverty in their communities. The Federal Government argues that promoting private ownership can break the poverty cycle, and predicts families may one day be able to buy homes.

Mr Brough said he was tired of waiting for the Territory Government to create a system under which indigenous communities could sell their land. Mr Brough said said he wanted states to change their laws to fast-track home ownership across the country.

But Senator Racheal Siewart disagrees: "For a government that promotes itself on its economic credentials, this plan is an embarrassment. The Minister has failed home economics 101. Private home ownership is not the economic panacea, nor is it realistic," said Senator Siewert. "Any Australian family wanting to buy its own home does the maths to see what mortgage they can afford."

"Aboriginal families on these remote communities have the lowest disposable incomes in the country, and houses in remote communities are the most expensive to build," she said. "Which bank would loan a family $400 000 to build a house, knowing that they couldn't meet the payments and the resale value of the asset is so poor?"

"The government is not putting on the table the $2-3 billion needed to address the Aboriginal housing crisis," said Senator Siewert. "How is it that overturning community tenure suddenly fixes this problem? Research clearly shows that land tenure is not the major obstacle to Aboriginal home ownership," said Senator Siewert.

"In the absence of a major investment to back it up, it is clear that the push for private ownership of community lands is purely ideological and will not deliver an end to the housing crisis," she concluded.

Under the existing arrangements, home ownership is only legally possible on collectively owned indigenous land in the Northern Territory. But it cannot be delivered without a body to manage buying and selling 99-year leases which confer title over housing blocks to individuals.

The Federal Government can effectively seize control of the Top End process because it is a territory, but it cannot enforce changes in other states, which would have to introduce their own legislation.

Tangentyere Council day patrol worker Creed Joseph yesterday was sceptical about whether indigenous Australians should be encouraged to buy their own houses. "It's hard enough for Aboriginal people to get jobs," he said. "And those that do work can't afford a loan, so how can people be expected to pay for it?"

Senator Rachel Siewert
NT land seize plan - The Sunday Times

Great Southern Plantations destroying Tiwi forests

The destruction of thousands of hectares of pristine native forests on Melville Island must stop immediately! - From the newswire - March 5, 2007:

Great Southern Plantation (GSP) are clearing 26,000 hectares of native eucalypt forest on Melville Island, north of Darwin. Vast tracts of native Tiwi forest are being cleared-felled to establish introduced 'monocultural' plantations for woodchips. The project is supported by the Tiwi Land Council, but is opposed by hundreds of Melville locals. In 2006 GSP had approval to clear 10,000 hectares – making it northern Australia’s single largest native forest destruction project. [ Environment Centre NT ]

The forests being destroyed by GSP are rich in native wildlife and there is much concern that the destruction of the Tiwi forest places threatened species at increased risk of extinction. GSP have stated that they intend to expand the clearing of Tiwi native forests up to 100,000 hectares. This expansion would be environmentally devastating and economically and culturally disastrous for the Tiwi people. [ PERTH PROTEST ACTION: TWS - FEB 07 ]

The Tiwi forestry project is currently under investigation by the Commonwealth due to serious environmental breaches and despite Indigenous people being told that logs cleared and exported were "worth millions of dollars", they did not receive ANY INCOME from the sale of these logs. Around 500 Tiwi Islanders recently signed a petition calling for an inquiry into land use decisions on the Tiwi Islands. After 4 years only one local Indigenous person is currently employed full time on the forestry project - with another 2 part-time employees, out of a total workforce of around 60.

A better future for the Tiwi Islands: "Rather than continue with the greedy destruction of the beautiful, culturally valuable and wildlife-rich native forests of the Tiwi Islands, governments and business should work with the Island community to develop sustainable, high-value economic activities based on the conservation and appreciation of the unique cultural and ecological heritage of the Tiwi islands..."

READ MORE/Comment

PREVIOUS FEATURES:
Great Southern Plantations destroying Tiwi Islands |

Great Southern Plantations Ltd: ripping the heart out of Tiwi

WA government let Woodside's bulldozers destroy Burrup rock art

February 28, 2007: Bulldozers turned loose on the Burrup rock art - The Western Australian Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Michelle Roberts, has given her approval for energy giant WOODSIDE to clear a large expanse of land on the Burrup Peninsula, in the WA's north-west, as part of its massive Pluto gas development. Mrs Roberts says the project is too significant to be abandoned. But critics of the plan to detroy some of the 30,000 year-old rock art say Minister Roberts is "bloody-minded" and "Orwellian" in her refusal to discuss the simple alternative of relocating the site, not the rock art...
"The Western Australian Government is treating Aboriginal heritage with contempt," says WA Greens Senator Rachael Siewert. "Traditional Owners opposed development in this area... the Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee opposed development in this area," said Senator Siewert. "But through sheer bloody-mindedness and refusal to consider alternate locations, Woodside has been given approvals to destroy the area."

Mrs Roberts approval ignores calls for the project to be moved to protect its ancient rock art, with Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull refusing to safeguard the site by giving it a national heritage listing. Roberts' approval will almost certainly cause even more damage to the already descrated Burrup Peninsula rock art province. It seems WOODSIDE and the WA Government are acting against the wishes of hindreds of thousands of people across the planet, as well as the site`s Aboriginal custodians and the scientific community.

"It is ironic that Woodside will have to 'provide a comprehensive cultural management plan' for the areas that have been spared from the bulldozers," said Senator Siewert. "This kind of Orwellian language would not be necessary if the Government was properly upholding its responsibilities to look after cultural heritage."

Indigenous Affairs Minister Michelle Roberts gave Woodside the green light to develop Site B on its $10 billion Pluto gas project on the Burrup Peninsula, arguing the dollar value of the controversial development was too great to ignore - despite the potential solution of shifting the site.

But Mrs Roberts claims there were no economically viable alternative sites to Pluto site B. The project is still awaiting further environmental approvals and a final investment decision by Woodside is not expected until the middle of the year, but its LNG exports are set to start in 2010.

According to The West Australian Newspaper, Woodside welcomed Mrs Roberts’ decision but said it was one of several approvals it required for the project to proceed. Liberal MP Colin Barnett — who has been campaigning to move the project to a cleared, adjacent site leased by the North-West Shelf Venture Partners — said he was disappointed with the decision. Mr Barnett said Woodside could face legal ramifications because Pluto had not been subject to a State agreement.

The Burrup Peninsula is the world's largest outdoor rock engraving site, containing rock art of world importance possibly dating back to 30,000 years ago, including possibly the first ever representation of the human face in history.

Pictures of rock art removal on the Burrup peninsula show hundreds of boulders lying in piles amid red dust and rubble, after being bulldozed in recent weeks to make way for Woodside Petroleum's Pluto gas processing plant. The secretly taken photographs show the extent of removal of rocks containing ancient Aboriginal carvings dating back as far as 10-20,000 years. Scraped and smashed rocks, with carvings visible on some surfaces, lie in piles several metres high.

The National Trust of Australia, says the government has effectively sanctioned the continued destruction of one of the world's great rock art galleries. "It's an absolute disgrace and there will be outrage internationally," state National Trust executive director Tom Perrigo said, describing the government as having
"utter contempt for this national treasure."

Senator Siewart says: "This is a unique place that meets the criteria for heritage listing. He is making Australia an international laughing stock. Following delays by both WA and Federal for heratige listing, Site A of the Woodside development has been bulldozed, resulting in the removal of hundreds of pieces of rock art and loss of their cultural value."

No moves had been made by the Commonwealth or State governments to discuss the possible co-location of the Woodside development.

"I ask once again - why hasn't the Commonwealth used its influence to try and facilitate such discussions? Mr Turnbull is failing Australia's heritage, and one can only presume the reason for delay is to let development proceed without heritage listing," Senator Siewert said.

Friends of Burrup Rock Art convenor Robin Chapple said the federal and West Australian governments should halt further clearing and direct Woodside to relocate its Pluto plant to a cleared site owned by the North West Shelf joint venturers. "Otherwise we'll end up as international pariahs viewed in the same light as the Taliban when they blew up the Bamiyan statues," he said.

Burrup rock art vigils held in recent weeks in several countries, including at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, have intensified international coverage of the Burrup's fate. More vigils are planned at the mouth of France's rock art-decorated Lascaux Caves, in Rio de Janeiro and in Canberra.

SOURCES:
ABC News
The West
standupfortheburrup.com
Media Release
The Australian
burrup.org.au/

Alcohol kills one Indigenous person every 38 hours - report

Monday, February 12, 2007: Alcohol causes the death of an Indigenous Australian every 38 hours on average, according to new research from the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI). Aboriginal women as young as 25 years old are dying of haemorrhagic stroke due to heavy drinking. The National Drug Research Institute, which studied every alcohol-related Aboriginal death between 2000 and 2004, says many Aboriginal Australians die from strokes or from suicide...
Disturbing new research by the National Drug Research Institute on Indigenous health shows that alcohol causes the death of an Indigenous Australian every 38 hours. The Institute's Dr Tanya Chikritzhs says trends and numbers vary widely across the country, but that the overall message is an alarming one.

The situation appears to be worse in the Northern Territory than anywhere else, while the trends over time in Western Australia show a significant increase since 2001. Suicide is the most common cause of death for Indigenous males.

In WA’s north, death rates rose from six to 10 per 10,000 between 2001 and 2004. It had the highest rate of deaths due to alcohol for Aboriginals in the country except for the Northern Territory and part of north-west Queensland. Australia-wide, cirrhosis of the liver was the number one killer — 46 per cent of all deaths — followed by suicide at 26 per cent.

"There are a whole range of reasons why there might be high levels of alcohol use. But one of the things to consider is the availability of treatment services and resources. I think for Western Australia, there's one treatment service in Broome which is intended to provide services for the entire northern region, and that's pretty incredible really," said Dr Tanya Chikritzhs.

NDRI has found that the deaths of 1145 Indigenous Australians between 2000 and 2004 were caused by alcohol. The cause of death for more than half was alcoholic liver cirrhosis or suicide, and the average age of death from an alcohol-attributable cause was about 35. The figures are contained in the National Alcohol Indicators Project (NAIP) Bulletin 11, Trends in alcohol-attributable deaths among Indigenous Australians, 1998-2004, released today.

Researchers say trends and numbers of alcohol-attributable deaths vary widely both between and within State borders, which means targeted region-specific approaches are needed to improve Indigenous health.

NDRI Senior Research Fellow Dr Tanya Chikritzhs said this was the first NAIP bulletin to document numbers of alcohol-attributable harms among Indigenous Australians. "This kind of information is important in planning our response to Indigenous health issues and in showing where resources should be directed for the maximum benefit," Dr Chikritzhs said.

NDRI Indigenous Australian Research Team Leader Dennis Gray said the figures, which should be regarded as conservative estimates, showed Australia still had a long way to go to address the inequality between the health of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. "If we are serious about addressing this disparity and reducing death rates among Indigenous Australians, we need to focus on the underlying social causes of that ill health," Professor Gray said.

"For instance, suicide is the most frequent alcohol caused death among Indigenous men, which reflects the despair that many Indigenous people feel."

NDRI, which receives core funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, is based at Curtin University of Technology’s Health Research Campus in Shenton Park, Perth.

National Drug Research Institute WEBSITE:
http://www.ndri.curtin.edu.au/

----

State Breakdown:
Death rates by regional breakdown and year are available on page four of the bulletin. Overall, the national alcohol-attributable death rate for the period 2000-2004 was 4.85/10,000.

WA: About one-fifth (19.4%) of all deaths occurred in WA with 222 alcohol-attributable deaths among Indigenous Australians between 2000-2004. The death rate in the WA North region has exceeded the national average in each year presented in the Bulletin. The WA Central and WA South East divisions have significantly exceeded the national average in all but one year.

NT: Almost one-quarter (23.5%) of all deaths occurred in the Northern Territory, with 269 alcohol-attributable deaths among Indigenous Australians between 2000-2004. The death rate in the Northern Territory, in both the NT Central and NT North regions, exceeded the national average in each year presented in the Bulletin.

QLD: One in four (25%) of all deaths occurred in Queensland, with 285 alcohol-attributable deaths among Indigenous Australians between 2000-2004. The death rate in the QLD Far North-West region has exceeded the national average in each year presented in the Bulletin.

SA: South Australia recorded 78 alcohol-attributable deaths among Indigenous Australians between 2000-2004. The death rate in South Australia has exceeded the yearly national average (see page 4 of Bulletin) in each year presented in the Bulletin.

NSW: One-fifth (20%) of all deaths occurred in NSW, with 229 alcohol-attributable deaths among Indigenous Australians between 2000-2004. The comparatively high number of deaths recorded in NSW is a reflection of the proportion of the Indigenous population that lives in the State. The death rate in New South Wales has not exceeded the yearly national average in any year presented in the Bulletin.

Indigenous population: As at 30 June 2001, the Indigenous population of Australia was estimated to be 458,500, representing 2.4% of the total population. That figure was estimated to be 474,310 at the end of 2004.

In 2001, most Indigenous Australians lived in New South Wales (134,900 people or 29% of the total Indigenous population), Queensland (125,900 people or 27%) or Western Australia (65,900 people or 14%).

Cause of death: The NAIP Bulletin contains a breakdown by gender of the five most common causes of alcohol-attributable death among Indigenous Australians. Suicide was the most common cause of death for Indigenous males and alcoholic liver cirrhosis the most common cause of death for Indigenous females. Overall, alcoholic liver cirrhosis was the number one killer and suicide was the second most common cause of alcohol-attributable death.

Haemorrhagic stroke, which was much more common among females than males, assault injury and road traffic injury each caused about 1 in 10 deaths. The average age of death from alcohol-attributable causes is about 35 years.

Comparing Indigenous and non-Indigenous death rates: Between 2000 and 2004, the overall ratio of all alcohol-attributable deaths among Indigenous Australians (4.85/10,000) versus all alcohol-attributable deaths among non-Indigenous Australians (2.40/10,000) was about two to one. A detailed comparison of non-Indigenous versus Indigenous death rates from alcohol-attributable causes will be the subject of a forthcoming bulletin.

Total deaths, 1998-2004: The total number of alcohol-attributable deaths among Indigenous Australians over the entire study period, 1998-2004, was 1607.

SOURCES:
Alcohol killing young Aborigines: report ABC
Indigenous alcohol deaths shock - Sunday Times
Alcohol killed 1145 Indigenous Australians in five years - Media Release NAIP
Alcohol wiping out indigenous Australians - News Ltd
Alcohol killing young Aboriginals - The West

Great Southern Plantations destroying Tiwi Islands

From the newswire February 8, 2007: Perth-based tax minimisation company Great Southern Plantations Ltd (GSP) are responsible for a massive native forest clearfelling project on the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin. GSP plan to expand its massive venture to clearfell to around 80,000 hectares of native bush. GSP's venture is the single largest native vegetation/native forest clearing project in northern Australia. Last year's clearing of 10,000ha is comparable to the total annual native forest clearfelling in Tasmania. Many endangered and endemic species live in these forests and in adjacent rainflorest patches which are being degraded as a result of the clearing.

GSP's forestry project is now under investigation by the Commonwealth Department of Environment following evidence of widespread breaches of the environmental protection conditions that the project is legally obliged to comply with, e.g. buffers around rainforest patches; protection of endangered species etc. This expansion would be "ecologically, economically and culturally disastrous..." 500 local people have petitioned against the company.

Following an action at the Great Southern Plantation's AGM, and a response on Perth Indymedia to a recent feature article about the ongoing Tiwi project, the Environment Centre of the Northern Territory have corrected several misleading statements made by Mr Ikin of Great Southern Plantations in relation to the ongoing destruction of Tiwi Island forest for woodchip plantations...

READ ON/Comment...

CORRECTIONS to Great Southern Plantation Ltd's PR manager || Anger over forestry plan || Great Southern Plantations shares fall after protest || Protesters rally at GREAT SOUTHERN PLANTATIONS AGM || Great Southern Plantations Ltd: ripping the heart out of Tiwi Islands