| northern territory intervention news |
| Govts Failing Indigenous Declaration, U.N. Expert Says 19 October 2009 - UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - A top U.N. expert on human rights law called Monday for governments to match their words with deeds and make good on promises to respect indigenous communities' right to live as they wish. "The indigenous peoples are suffering everywhere," James Anaya, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights of indigenous peoples, told a news conference after submitting a comprehensive report to the General Assembly's Third Committee. |
UN investigates Australia rights |
| Direct talk and honest dealing 1 August 2009 - Galarrwuy Yunupingu - IT'S a system designed to profit non-Aborigines. THIS week the Northern Territory and commonwealth governments confessed the key program in the Closing the Gap strategy was out of control and that, yet again, money was being diverted from the needy into the pockets of government treasuries and non-Aboriginal companies. |
| Ian Thorpe: Australia’s dirty little secret 23 July 2009 - In a speech given at the “Beyond Sport Summit” in London on Thursday July 9, 2009, Australian Olympic legend Ian Thorpe dove head first into Australia’s failure to address the problems in its indigenous communities. |
| Debunker of myths 11 July 2009 - PETER Sutton has been immersed in grief. Recently he returned to his adopted Aurukun community on Cape York to attend a "housing opening" ceremony for a "sweet woman" allegedly slain by her boyfriend. |
Roadblock on remote housing as progress stalls on indigenous response |
Tough questions about Australia's tough love |
NT intervention 'embarrassing': Amnesty |
| PM puts price on children: Langton 5 March 2009 - INDIGENOUS academic Marcia Langton has accused the Rudd Government of putting "a price tag on Aboriginal children's heads" by failing to commit to funding a specialist Australian Crime Commission taskforce into child abuse and listening to Aboriginal lobbyists who deny the existence of child abuse in communities. |
| Grocery sales increase since welfare quarantining 14 February 2009 - "Outback Stores says the Federal Government's quarantining of welfare payments in remote Indigenous communities is not the main reason behind increased food sales. ... Outback Stores has been given $29 million by the Federal Government to redevelop failing community stores. |
| UN still smarting from Howard's bullying on black affairs 11 February 2009 - On 23 and 24 March this year Australia will front the 95th session of the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) at New York. Under the reporting mechanisms of the UNHRC, Australia is required to submit a Periodic Report on its compliance with the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) every five years. |
Kirby's last dissent: my fellow judges racially biased |
| 'Tough Love' in the Outback 17 January 2009 - Wall Street Journal - YUENDUMU, Australia -- Two dead cows putrefy at the entrance to this Aboriginal town deep in the Australian outback. Mangy dogs scrape among naked children, as trash swirls around rusted vehicle hulks and cinderblock homes. Prominent on the local store's notice board: the bus schedule to the nearest prison. |
| Look at poverty and prejudice, not race 3 December 2008 - Guardian UK - December 10 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but sadly on that day many Australian Aboriginals, led by Barbara Shaw and the Intervention Rollback Action Group will be out in the streets protesting about the Australian government's racist intervention laws – the Northern Territory Emergency Response. |
Soldier's sympathy intervenes |
| NT intervention "crude, racist" policy: Dodson 13 November 2008 - The winner of this year's Sydney Peace Prize, Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson, has labelled the commonwealth intervention in the Northern Territory a "crude, racist and poorly considered policy". |
| Prescribed Area People's Alliance condemns Macklin, says Intervention widening the gap 24 October 2008 - Media Release - "Far from protecting women and children, the Intervention is creating more vulnerability and disadvantage in NT Aboriginal communities. |
| Commitment to end discrimination welcomed but why the delay? 24 October 2008 - AHRC - The federal government’s announcement yesterday that it would modify the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) so it is consistent with the Racial Discrimination Act is long overdue, but it’s decision to delay key elements of this by at least 12 months is deeply problematic, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said today. |
Federal Government response to the NTER Review |
| Compulsory income management to continue as key NTER measure 23 October 2008 - Media Release - The Australian Government will continue comprehensive, compulsory income management as a key measure of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) because of its demonstrated benefits for women and children. |
| Optional intervention gives choice 16 October 2008 - Marcia Langton - THE rancorous debate about the Northern Territory emergency response emanates from two broad camps: those who claim that several measures, particularly compulsory welfare quarantining and five-year leases to the commonwealth over Aboriginal township areas are ineffective and racially discriminatory, and those who are not persuaded by this critique and are concerned that drastic measures are necessary to close the gap in the differential life expectancy of indigenous Australians as against the national average. |
| A successful intervention needs less emotion, more evidence 16 October 2008 - Larissa Behrendt - The interventionists are already decrying the bias of the report by the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review Panel. Many of the intervention's harshest critics believe the report does not go far enough. Either way, it is the first opportunity to engage the Government in a sensible discussion about what aspects are worth saving and what should be abandoned. |
| All sides of politics urged to support NTER Review recommendations 13 October 2008 - ANTaR - Government, the Opposition and minor parties should unanimously support the recommendations of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) review report, according to Indigenous rights organisation, ANTaR. |
| Bill of rights is essential to best serve human rights 9 October 2008 - John Von Doussa - Five years ago I began my term as the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, confident in the ability of the common law and a robust democracy to protect human rights. I leave convinced we need a major legal and cultural overhaul to deal with the human rights challenges of the 21st century. |
| Australia's hidden Empire 3 October 2008 - John Pilger - When the outside world thinks about Australia, it generally turns to venerable clichés of innocence - cricket, leaping marsupials, endless sunshine, no worries. |
| PM told to soften welfare regime as NT plan faces overhaul 30 September 2008 - Responsible Aborigines will no longer be subject to strict controls on how they spend their welfare money under Rudd government proposals to soften the radical intervention into Northern Territory communities. |
| Lawyer blames intervention for rash of Territory murders 5 September 2008 - THE principal lawyer for the Northern Territory's peak Aboriginal legal aid service says his organisation is dealing with an unprecedented number of murder cases, which he links to failures of the federal intervention. |
| NT Intervention a lemon: 28 medical specialists give their diagnosis 4 September 2008 - Dr Hilary Tyler, a medical specialist in Central Australia, writes: I am writing as one of 28 medical specialists working in Central Australia, who have made a joint submission to the Review of the NT Emergency Response. |
| Intervention 'broke my heart', says Martin 3 September 2008 - FORMER Northern Territory chief minister Clare Martin has revealed the Howard government's "blatantly political" move to override her administration with a $1 billion intervention into remote Aboriginal communities "broke her heart". |
Intervention that condemns rather than involves Aborigines |
NT intervention is 'a mess' |
| Australia lacking indigenous voices 8 July 2008 - Human Rights Tribune, Switzerland - While the Australian government insists that important progress was made in the first year of its controversial "emergency response" in the Northern Territory — ostensibly to protect indigenous children from abuse — activists are calling for affected communities to be consulted. |
| Men say sorry for abuse, violence 3 July 2008 - HUNDREDS of Aboriginal men from across Australia have issued an historic apology to their women for the "pain, hurt and suffering" indigenous men have caused them. |
| Tough love 3 July 2008 - The Economist UK - This time “white paternalism” might actually be doing some good. |
| NT "racist" intervention turns one amid protests 26 June 2008 - Racist, draconian and insulting were just some of the words protesters used to describe the federal government's Northern Territory intervention on the first anniversary of the controversial reforms. |
| Out of the ashes 26 June 2008 - Politics rarely works in favour of Indigenous Australians. Indeed, it's probably the largest killer of Aboriginal people, claiming more lives than cancer, car accidents and carcinogens combined. |
| Aboriginal threat to close Rock over abuse crackdown 22 June 2008 - The Scotsman - ABORIGINALS have threatened to close Ayers Rock, known as Uluru, to tourists in protest against a government campaign aimed at countering alcoholism and sexual abuse in remote communities. |
| Aborigines threaten to shut Uluru 21 June 2008 - BBC UK - Aboriginal leaders have threatened to ban tourists from one of Australia's top landmarks in protest at what they describe as racist government policies. |
| NT intervention Indigenous health checks 'nothing new' 20 June 2008 - It is a year this weekend since former prime minister John Howard and his Indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough declared the sexual abuse of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory a national emergency. |
| Time Rudd admitted mistake on NT intervention 19 June 2008 - Media Release Australian Greens - The Australian Greens today called on the Rudd Government to admit they'd made a mistake in backing the ill-conceived approach of the Northern Territory Intervention. |
| AMA opts out of intervention 14 June 2008 - AUSTRALIA'S peak doctors' group will drop out of the Northern Territory intervention and has blasted the Federal Government for relying on altruism to prop up the initiative. |
| Response to NT Emergency Response Review Board 6 June 2008 - Media Release - ANTaR has welcomed this afternoon’s announcement of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review Board by Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin. |
| This Is Our Country Too 5 June 2008 - Australian Times UK - From the makers of With or Without Fidel, Blood Diamonds and Bang Bang In Da Manor comes a brave new documentary that delves beyond Australia’s reputation of sun, surf and sand to reveal a racial divide and contested history. |
| Data shows intervention is a disaster: national rallies planned 5 June 2008 - Media Release Aboriginal Rights Coalition - Extensive surveys conducted by activist groups in Darwin and Alice Springs demonstrate that the federal government’s intervention in the Northern Territory is compounding hardship in Aboriginal communities. |
| Amnesty International Report 2008: State of the world’s human rights 28 May 2008 - Media Release Amnesty International - Governments must turn around 60 years of human rights failure |
| Intervention 'a smokescreen for land grab' 25 May 2008 - A delegate at an anti-intervention conference being held in Sydney this weekend says the general feeling is that the intervention is all about taking land away from Indigenous people. |
| Peace prize for Dodson, a critic of the intervention 21 May 2008 - PATRICK DODSON, the "father of reconciliation", has urged the Federal Government to reconsider its use of constitutional powers to support the intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. |
| Aboriginal kids' health worse in NT: research 17 May 2008 - New research shows that health services for Aboriginal children in remote areas of the Northern Territory are relatively good, but that they have worse health than in other regional areas. |
| Senate inquiry hears NT intervention putting Indigenous children at greater risk 30 April 2008 - Former Indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough has announced his intention to run for the presidency of the Queensland Liberal Party. His decision to re-enter the political fray came as a Senate inquiry in the Northern Territory heard that the intervention he pioneered is placing children in remote communities in even greater danger. |
| PM gets tough to protect children 26 April 2008 - THE Rudd Government is about to launch a major takeover of child protection, leveraging its control of family assistance and childcare to intervene earlier in the child abuse cycle. |
| Aborigines 'locked out of real economy' 1 April 2008 - Aboriginal people are condemned to poverty and treated as "museum pieces" by governments whose education policies have locked a generation out of the real economy. |
| 10 point plan to improve NT intervention 31 March 2008 - Media Release - Modifying the Northern Territory intervention legislation to maximise protection of children from abuse without racially discriminating against Indigenous people is one of the major elements of a 10 point plan outlined in the Social Justice Report 2007 officially launched in Sydney today. |
| Now for the hard yakka 9 February 2008 - The Howard government implemented the emergency intervention in Aboriginal communities - Labor has to make it work. |
| State control for Aboriginal dole 17 January 2008 - BBC UK - Welfare recipients in one of Australia's largest Aboriginal communities have had half of their benefits placed under state control. |
| My NT community faces quarantined Christmas 17 December 2007 - I live in the Aboriginal community of Eva Valley, in the Northern Territory. I've got no television, but when my friend sister Olga told me we had a new Prime Minister, I was crying. When she told me what Kevin Rudd had said, I was crying and she was crying. He said "I'm going to be Prime Minister for all Australians." |
| Rudd to face indigenous heads 15 December 2007 - Kevin Rudd will come face to face with indigenous leaders this morning as he prepares to deal personally with the "challenges" confronting the commonwealth intervention in Northern Territory communities amid the growing outrage over the gang-rape of a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl on Cape York. |
| Northern Territory Intervention - Help Or Hindrance? Australia 9 December 2007 - Medical News Today UK - The Government's Northern Territory Intervention, aimed at improving health and living conditions in Indigenous communities, has been met with mixed reviews in a collection of articles published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia. |
| WGAR - The Working Group for Aboriginal Rights 5 December 2007 - Media Release - WGAR urges PM and Minister for Indigenous Affairs to place a Moratorium on the NT Intervention and immediately ratify and implement the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. |
| 'Invasion' must end, say indigenous leaders 5 December 2007 - A group of prominent Aboriginal leaders have called on the Rudd Government to immediately halt the federal "invasion" of the Northern Territory. |
| Rescuing the Intervention 5 December 2007 - One of the few theatrical highlights of Kevin Rudd’s lacklustre acceptance speech was the dramatic pause after his promise to be ‘a Prime Minister for Indigenous Australians’ and the opportunity this presented for the true believers to explode in rapturous applause. |
| It's time to stop playing politics with vulnerable lives 30 November 2007 - The crisis in Aboriginal society is a public spectacle, played out in a vast reality show through the media, parliaments, civil service and Aboriginal world. |
| Northern Territory Indigenous Initiative Must Be Reviewed And Health Checks Extended Nationally 29 November 2007 - AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, urged the new Government to bring forward its promised review of the Northern Territory Indigenous initiative and look to extend the successful health programs nationally to benefit all Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. |
| “Ending Paternalism: New Leadership, New Partnerships” 29 November 2007 - SNAICC, the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, welcomes the appointment of Jenny Macklin, MP as the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. |
| Scheme 'based on flawed opinions' 29 November 2007 - Pressure to water down the federal intervention in the Northern Territory increased yesterday when former Family Court chief justice Alastair Nicholson said parts of the scheme were based on flawed assumptions about Aboriginal society. |
| 'Stay with intervention' 29 November 2007 - Respected Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton has warned Labor to stop playing short-term politics with the commonwealth's intervention in remote communities and expressed concern about moves to wind back key elements of the reforms. |
| Researcher calls for scrapping of 'racist' interventions policy 27 November 2007 - An Indigenous economic policy researcher has urged the new Labor Government to do away with what it describes as the "racist" elements of the Commonwealth intervention. |
| Spillover of the Federal Political Landslide to NT Government Provide Ground-Breaking Opportunity to Aboriginal Minister 26 November 2007 - Media Release Women for Wik - The spillover of the Federal political landslide to the NT government has provided a ground-breaking opportunity for NT Minister for Family and Community Services and Child Protection, Marion Scrymgour, who has become the first Indigenous woman to become Deputy Leader of a State or Territory government. |
| NT deputy Scrymgour makes history 26 November 2007 - The Northern Territory's new deputy chief minister, Marion Scrymgour, is the highest-ranked indigenous person in government in Australia's history. |
| NT Aboriginal Vote Calls Intervention into Question 25 November 2007 - Media Release - The grassroots organisation Women for Wik, which has been monitoring the Federal intervention in the Northern Territory, has called on the incoming Rudd Labor government to honor its pre-election promises to Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. |
| Brough’s Loss is Aboriginal People’s Win 25 November 2007 - Media Release - The grassroots organisation Women for Wik, which has been monitoring the Federal intervention in the Northern Territory, has described the change of Federal government as a potentially transforming moment in relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, lost his seat, with a swing of around 10%, considerably higher than the national average. “Mal Brough has lost the trust of Aboriginal people, and John Howard has lost the trust of the Australian people,” said Olga Havnen, CEO of the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the NT. |
| Rally opposes NT intervention 24 November 2007 - Speakers at a 100-strong rally supporting the November 17 national day of action for Indigenous rights condemned the Howard Coalition government’s “emergency” intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities and expressed disappointment with the ALP for its “me-too” approach |
| NT Intervention — the Wedge that Couldn’t 21 November 2007 - Aboriginal communities in Central Australia are the latest to be hit by the scrapping of Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) as part of the Northern Territory Intervention. In Hermmansburg, 180 kilometres west of Alice Springs, the transition is not going smoothly. |
| A call for action on stolen generations issues 20 November 2007 - As the Federal Election looms when the result yet may see Australian voters close the Gap between the major parties, the National Sorry Day Committee (NSDC) urges whatever Federal Government is elected to action a whole of government approach in its first 100 days of office that commits to the following recommendations |
| "It's time to get it right"- rallies show national opposition to NT
intervention 16 November 2007 - Women for Wik Media Release -This weekend, people in nine cities and towns across Australia will attend public events protesting the federal government's intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. |
| NT Intervention Damages Sacred Site 12 November 2007- Women for Wik Media Release - The grassroots organisation Women for Wik, which has been monitoring the Federal intervention in the Northern Territory, expressed dismay at the revelation that a pit toilet has been built on a sacred site in the Aboriginal township of Numbulwar, one of the 73 communities directly affected by the intervention. |
| Synod Statement regarding Federal Government Intervention in Indigenous Communities in the Northern Territory 6 November 2007 - “We are now under three laws - our own Aboriginal Law, Australian Law for all Australians and this new white man’s law for Aboriginal People in the Northern Territory” - An Arnhem Land Church Leader. |
| Closing the Space Between Us - The Rights of Aboriginal Children 2nd November 2007 - Today we begin by remembering all the journeys of the Awabakal Ancestors with their children across this land around us. I thank the Traditional Owners and I honour the strength and the value of Aboriginal Culture. This is not, as some Culture War warriors would say, romanticising the past. We cannot understand the scale of the crisis threatening Aboriginal children today unless we have a clear understanding of what has happened to these children in the longer timelines of history. |
| Intervention may force Indigenous jail rates to new highs 1 November 2007 - Aboriginal people now make up almost 90 per cent of the Territory's prison population. |
| MP damns welfare controls 30 October 2007 - LABOR's vice-president, Linda Burney, has condemned the Federal Government's policy of welfare quarantining and declared she does not trust John Howard to deliver his promised referendum to acknowledge indigenous people in the constitution. |
| Aboriginal group fights Canberra's 'land grab' 27 October 2007 - AN ABORIGINAL community in Arnhem Land has launched the first legal challenge against the Federal Government's emergency intervention in the Northern Territory. |
| Intervention Dollars Missing Their Target 26 October 2007 - The grassroots organization Women for Wik, recently re-formed to monitor the Federal Action in the Northern Territory, responded to Galarrwuy Yunupingu's call for new ways to deal with disadvantage in Aboriginal communities, stating that Women for Wik are concerned that the intervention dollars are being spent on the wrong targets, and that this will hinder successful outcomes. |
| Desert elders lash out at intervention 25 October 2007 - THE Warlpiri desert people are angry."This intervention has hit us like a ton of bricks," says elder Harry Jakamarra Nelson. "There's been no consultation with us … We don't know what is expected of us and we really believe that our future is under threat." |
| Labor minister lashes party over intervention 24 October 2007 - AUSTRALIA'S first female Aboriginal cabinet minister has broken ranks with federal Labor in a firebrand speech in Sydney, accusing it of doing little more than "hanging on to the Coalition's political apron strings" over the intervention in the Northern Territory. |
| A never-never land for sense 20 October 2007 - Don Watson visits a resilient Aboriginal community where the would-be protectors are the problem, not the people. |
| Church criticises NT intervention 17 October 2007 - Canberra's intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities is abusive and damaging, and has caused pain, sadness and confusion, the Uniting Church's Northern Synod says. |
| Go back. You are intruding on our lives and our safety 2 October 2007 - I live at Eva Valley in the Northern Territory. It is one of the communities affected by the Federal Government's intervention. I am a single mother. I look after my family, and I support my family. I have six children, some grown up, but we still live together in the community. |
| Northern Territory Intervention Threatens Australian Tourism 28 September 2007 - Today Dr. Jan Turek, (Institute of Archaeological Heritage, Czech Republic) in his Ian Potter Foundation Keynote Address, likened the Australian government's treatment of its Aboriginal citizens to the genocidal excesses of Stalinist Russia. |
| Response of Laynhapuy Region Leaders to Memorandum of Understanding between Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Commonwealth of Australia -
99 Year Lease Proposal 25 September 2007 |
| Paternal feelings help thrash out pact for nation 21 September 2007 - ONE of the more remarkable transformations in the relationship between Aboriginal Australia and the Federal Government occurred as Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough and powerful Aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu sat together in north-east Arnhem Land and began talking about their responsibilities as fathers. |
| Healing missing from indigenous intervention 19 September 2007 - THE need for healing is missing from the Commonwealth's intervention plan to combat child abuse in the Northern Territory, Aboriginal social justice commissioner Tom Calma said today. |
| Northern Territory Intervention Threatens Australian Tourism 18 September 2007 - Today Dr. Jan Turek, (Institute of Archaeological Heritage, Czech Republic) in his Ian Potter Foundation Keynote Address, likened the Australian government's treatment of its Aboriginal citizens to the genocidal excesses of Stalinist Russia. |
| Worldwide Women's Protest Against Federal Action In The Northern Territory 16 September 2007 - An international women's day of action is planned for Friday, October 19 to protest against the Australian Government's action in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. |
| A new independent voice for Aboriginal Australians 14 September 2007 - National Aboriginal Alliance media release - A new national political body for Aboriginal Australians, entirely independent from governments, will be established following a three-day gathering held in Alice Springs this week. |
| NT intervention a millstone 6 September 2007 - That the cracks have begun to emerge in the Howard government's 'NT emergency intervention' should surprise no-one. |
| PM hints at NT intervention expansion 1 September 2007 - Prime Minister John Howard has hinted at the long-term expansion of the Federal Government's intervention into the Northern Territory's Indigenous communities. |
| Wik women sign up for a new battle in Territory 1 September2007 - HUNDREDS of women, including Lady Deane, the wife of the former governor- general, have pledged their support to the lobby group Women for Wik, which its organisers reactivated a week ago to oppose the Federal Government's intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. |
| Is There Hope for the Aborigines? 26 August 2007 - The Washington Post - ALICE SPRINGS, Australia In the air-conditioned plywood room that is the Alice Springs youth court, five Aboriginal teenagers -- four boys and a pregnant 16-year-old girl whose mouth seems permanently fixed in an eerily detached smile -- face a preliminary hearing for the rape and killing of a 14-year-old indigenous girl. |
| Call for UN to supervise Govt intervention 24 August 2007 - A group of Aboriginal people in Central Australia is calling on the United Nations to oversee the Commonwealth's intervention in the Northern Territory. |
| Two-and-a-half months after declaring a national emergency, Howard is finally ready to visit an NT Aboriginal community 24 August 2007 - Prime Minister John Howard is tipped to finally make an appearance on the ground in Central Australia next week, more than two months after declaring that conditions in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory were "akin to a national emergency". |
| Senate passes NT indigenous laws 17 August 2007 - Controversial laws for the Northern Territory's indigenous people have passed Federal Parliament. |
| Brough's secret meeting with Yunupingu 15 August 2007 - GALARRWUY Yunupingu, the Northern Territory's most powerful Aboriginal leader, has secretly met federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough and other indigenous leaders to discuss his concerns about the Howard Government's intervention in remote indigenous communities. |
| Give Aborigines hope 15 August 2007 - Australia has the wealth to help its indigenous people, but this is the wrong way to do it, writes Fred Chaney. |
| Lack of respect will not help indigenous children 14 August 2007 - In 1964 my family joined with others to make the Yirrkala bark petition, which is now displayed in Parliament House, Canberra. The main reason for that petition was to protect our land, law and culture from people who couldn't or wouldn't understand our way of life. At the time, the federal government didn't listen to us - it allowed a big bauxite mine and town to go ahead. It also ignored our elders who wanted to prevent bad influences such as alcohol coming into our country. |
| Let's fight these laws together 13 August 2007 - ONE of the most telling facts about the rushed Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill becomes clear when you look for how many times the word "children" or "child" appears. |
| Racial Discrimination Act is a vital human rights safeguard 8 August 2007 - Media Release HREOC - The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has long been calling on governments to take action to curb violence, and child and alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. However, it is vital that any action taken protects basic human rights, including the right to be protected from discrimination purely on the basis of a person’s race. |
| Parliament Should Carefully Consider NT Emergency Plan Laws 7 August 2007 - Media Release - The Law Council is urging all Parliamentarians to carefully consider the Government’s NT Emergency Plan package of legislative measures when it is introduced into the Parliament later today. |
| Little children are sacred, not political footballs 7 August 2007- Media release - Legislation introduced into Federal Parliament today will do little to protect Northern Territory Aboriginal children from abuse, according to Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR). |
| NT indigenous leaders seek meeting with PM 4 August 2007 - Galarrwuy Yunupingu, former head of the Northern Land Council, said Aboriginal leaders from areas targeted in the intervention had decided to jointly call for the meeting because "it's quite a worrying time in the communities". |
| Alcohol ban for Australian town 1 August 2007 - BBC UK - Residents feared the town would draw Aborigines seeking alcohol The town of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory has become a dry zone, with drinking banned in all public places. |
| Aboriginal organisations condemn government response 30 July 2007 - Survival International - One month after the Australian government set up an 'emergency response taskforce' to tackle widespread child abuse in Aboriginal communities, its actions have been widely condemned by Aboriginal organisations. |
| Consult Aborigines and then plan how to help 13 July 2007 - There is general agreement that we are long overdue in introducing policies and actions that will improve the wellbeing of Australia's indigenous population. That is why there is general approval that the Federal Government is now seen to be doing something. Much of the reaction to this initiative has, however, been superficial. |
| At the crossroads of the permit debate 12 July 2007 - NIT - To get into an Aboriginal community, journalists, tourists and almost anyone else has had to go through an often lengthy process. First, they have to contact the relevant land council, usually based in Darwin or Alice Springs. They have to explain where they want to visit, detailing the dates and reasons for going. |
| Permit removal will mean free-for-all and rampant tourism 9 July 2007 - Northern Land Council (NLC) Chief Executive, Norman Fry, today said Minister Brough's ‘onesize fits all’ approach - whereby all significant communities on Aboriginal land will be compulsorily acquired for five years with the permit system totally abolished for those communities - polarizes complex issues and will inevitably lead to High Court legal action, international complaint, and universal opposition. |
| Maori Party Releases Comment on the 'Little Children Are Sacred' report 9 July 2007 - The Maori Party today confirmed that it is carefully considering the report of the Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse which focuses on the safety of Aboriginal Children in the Northern Territory of Australia. |
| A Statement from the Catholic Bishops of Australia on dignity and justice for Indigenous Australians 7 July 2007- The Catholic Bishops of Australia welcome the high priority the Federal Government has now accorded to addressing the appalling problems facing people in remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. |
| Leaked list reveals an intervention in chaos and a minister running out of spin 6 July 2007 - NIT - The federal government's emergency intervention into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory appears to be mired in confusion and chaos and unsustainable media spin, according to documents obtained by the National Indigenous Times. |
| Worlds Apart 3 July 2007 - The Guardian (UK) - Australia's prime minister is sending in the army to tackle child abuse and alcoholism in the Aboriginal homelands. But his aggressive campaign will only make the situation worse, says Germaine Greer |
Communities overboard |
| Howard criticised as police and troops are sent into drink-raddled townships 1 July 2007 - Sunday Herald (UK) - IT IS a shocking indictment of the dysfunction and despair to be found lurking around the rust-red deserts and sun-baked savannah woodlands of the outback. Australian soldiers - accustomed to fighting vicious ethnic militia in East Timor and battling the Taliban in Afghanistan - were last week deployed to their own backyard. |
Howard's New Tampa - Aboriginal Children Overboard |
| This is 'black children overboard', say elders 27 June 2007 - A letter read to them by elder Donald Fraser, recounted first in English, then in the Pitjantjatjara tongue that is still the first language of the old people, polititely advises that a small contingent of federal and territory officials, together with at least one Federal Police officer, would like to visit and talk to them this morning. |
| Howard and Rudd on the wrong path on child abuse prevention 26 June 2007 - SNAICC Chairperson, Muriel Bamblett, AM, said today, “talk of increased policing, sending in the army, hurricanes, tsunamis and war time cabinets is creating fear and anxiety amongst Indigenous children and families. The current national debate on child abuse is spinning out of control and in danger of wasting a generational opportunity to provide Aboriginal children with the rights and freedoms all children should enjoy.” |
| Open letter to The Hon. Mal Brough MP 26 June 2007 - ACOSS - The undersigned organisations write this joint and open letter in order to convey our views on action required to stop the abuse of children in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, and our concerns about aspects of the Australian Government’s response to this problem as outlined in your statement of 21 June 2007. |
| A human rights based approach is vital to address the challenges in Indigenous communities 26 June 2007 - HREOC - The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has welcomed the Australian Government’s announcements to act to protect the rights of Indigenous women and children in the Northern Territory and urges it to adopt an approach that is consistent with Australia’s international human rights obligations. |
| The Children of the Sunrise 25 June 2007 - Jeff McMullen Speech - As my television program ended one night and the debate on the future of Aboriginal Australians was moving to another phase of tension and uncertainty, Patrick Dodson leant across the panel desk and said in a quiet, measured tone to Mal Brough : “Minister, it is not fundamentally about policy it is about how you value Aboriginal people as human beings.” |
| Mansell Urges Prime Minister to Rethink by Involving Community Leaders from Northern Territory 24 June 2007 - TAC - Michael Mansell has urged Prime Minister Howard to rethink the way he is pushing ahead with his incursion plans in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. “I strongly urge Mr Howard to involve community leaders so they are not “done to” by another “whitefella boss”, Mr Mansell said. |
A Statement from the Stolen Generations Alliance Malcolm Fraser, Lowitja O'Donoghue, Brian Butler |
| Permit changes to make problems worse 22 June 2007 - Central Land Council - The Central Land Council says it is disappointed with the Federal Government’s decision to abolish some aspects of the permit system for Aboriginal lands because it may exacerbate existing problems rather than alleviate the enormous pressures communities find themselves under. |
| Indigenous doctors demand real and long term results in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids’ health 22 June 2007 - AIDA - The Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association urges for a measured, far-reaching and sustainable approach in implementing the Australian Government’s plan to tackle child abuse issues in the Northern Territory. |
| Holistic health approach 22 June 2007 - Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation welcomes the holistic health approach of the Commonwealth’s response to addressing Child Abuse in the Northern Territory, however does hold serious concerns on any draconian measures in land control and policing and implores the Prime Minister to be culturally sensitive in any approaches, forceful measures will not result in sustain positive change or participation by Aboriginal people. |
| Howard's plan is another 'Children overboard' 22 June 2007 - AMSANT - The Northern Territory's peak Aboriginal health body has called the Prime Minister's plan to give sexual health checks to all Aboriginal children in the NT a racist, divisive and illegal act that would alienate people throughout the Territory and cause great social resistance. |
| Indigenous emergency 22 June 2007 - Interview Transcript of the Joint Press Conference of the Prime Minsiter of Australia John Howard and the Hon Mal Brough, Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Canberra |
| Government’s misguided approach will add to trauma of children 21 June 2007 - ANTaR - Draconian measures announced by the Prime Minister today in response to the crisis of child abuse in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities would only add to the suffering of children, according to Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR). |
| National emergency response to protect Aboriginal children in the NT 21 June 2007 - Mal Brough - Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough - In response to the national emergency confronting the welfare of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory, the Australian Government today announced immediate, broad ranging measures to stabilise and protect communities in the crisis area. |
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