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Different treatment may have led to riot, says PM

By Meaghan Shaw

27 February 2004 - Prime Minister John Howard has suggested that the Redfern riot was partly the result of a policy of treating the indigenous community differently to the rest of Australia.

Mr Howard said the riot arose from a combination of factors including a "total breakdown in family authority within Aboriginal communities".

"I think they sometimes arise from a policy perhaps of treating different groups in the community differently," he told 3AW.

"The solution very much lies in treating everybody equally and as part of the mainstream as far as law enforcement is concerned."

Mr Howard also angered the Redfern community by saying there was no evidence Thomas "TJ" Hickey was being pursued by police when he died.

The teenager died on February 15 after becoming impaled on a fence when he fell off his bike. His death sparked a riot, with Aboriginal community members blaming police.

"I think the allegations that have been made against the police are unreasonable and I defend very much the position of the police in a situation like that," Mr Howard said.

Jenny Monro, who has lived in Redfern for 30 years and is a friend of TJ's family, said Mr Howard had no right to comment after three legal inquiries were launched into the circumstances surrounding the youth's death.

Labor leader Mark Latham last week also said the parents of young Redfern rioters bore responsibility for six and seven-year-old boys jumping on police cars and smashing windows. "Where were their parents?" he asked at the time.

Yesterday, Mr Latham would not be drawn on Mr Howard's comments, but Labor's indigenous affairs spokesman Kerry O'Brien suggested Mr Howard was trialling a campaign similar to one being run in New Zealand.

There, the National Party surged in the polls earlier this month after Opposition Leader Don Brash accused Helen Clark's Government of treating Maori people differently from the rest of the population.

Australian Democrats indigenous affairs spokesman Aden Ridgeway said Mr Howard had displayed "breathtaking naivety" and should appraise himself of the facts, including the alarming incarceration rate of young indigenous people. "This is not an issue of just law and order," he said. "It's also a question of why young indigenous people and their parents aren't able to get jobs or to stay on at school."

Acting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission chairman Lionel Quartermaine said: "I'm sorry the Prime Minister's taken that line. He should be focusing on how he can lift the standards and poor health and poor education of Aboriginal people and bring it up to equal par. And then (he can) talk about equality in this country."

Later, when asked to clarify his remarks, Mr Howard's spokesman said he would "leave his comments as they are".

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Redfern leader says PM out of touch

February 27, 2004 - An Aboriginal community leader says Prime Minister John Howard is out of touch and should hold off comments on Redfern until the full story is known.

Redfern community representative Shane Phillips said reactions to Mr Howard's comments had been amazement and amusement.

In his remarks on Thursday Mr Howard said he had seen no evidence that police had been chasing Thomas Hickey whose death sparked the recent riot.

Mr Howard also attributed Redfern's problems in part to a total breakdown in family authority and said that everyone should be treated equally and as part of the mainstream under the law.

"He is out of touch," Mr Phillips said on the Nine network, blaming dispossession as the fundamental cause for indigenous unrest.

"A few generations after people have been dispossessed, you find that what happens is that people act out.

"You find that all over the world and that is what has happened in this case."

Mr Phillips said he would accept that police had nothing to do with Thomas Hickey's death if that was revealed by the inquiries.

"If that is the case we will all accept that. I'll accept that," he said.

"We just need to find out how it all pans out. As the leader of our country he (Mr Howard) should hold off until it's all done.

"To make an opinion at this stage is just not wise."

Mr Phillips said he did not deny Redfern's problems were also due in part to a breakdown in family authority and that also stemmed from dispossession.

"Wherever you go in the world, if a nation of people has been dispossessed - taken their land away, their language, their rights, their culture, their families have broken down - you will find later on you are going to have these sort of problems surface," he said.

"What we are not looking for here is a handout. What we need is a common solution, everyone working together.

"We know that there are problems around Redfern and everywhere in Australia with families and family breakdown."

Source:AAP

PM accused of racism over Hickey

February 26, 2004 - Prime Minister John Howard's comments about Thomas Hickey's death were typically racist, a long-standing Redfern community member said.

Mr Howard said there was no evidence to suggest the 17-year-old boy was being pursued by police when he died, and allegations made against officers were unreasonable.

The teenager died on February 15 after becoming impaled on a fence when he fell off his bike.

His death sparked a riot in the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern, with Aboriginal community members blaming police. Police have denied they had been chasing the youth.

Jenny Monro, who has lived in Redfern 30 years and is friends with the late teenager's family, said Mr Howard had no right to comment after three legal inquiries were launched into the circumstances surrounding the boy's death.

"It's a typically racist response from John Howard," Mrs Monro said.

"All Aboriginal people in this country know he is one of the most racist prime ministers that Australia has ever elected."

Mrs Monro said Mr Howard had dismantled Aboriginal organisations, infrastructure and funding since coming to office in 1996, and had not said sorry about the Stolen Generations.

"He is part of the reason for the problems now in places like Redfern," Mrs Monro said.

She said the tragedy was that every Aboriginal parent in the country could emphasise with Thomas Hickey's family, but non-indigenous Australians could not.

Mr Howard described the youth's death and the riot which followed as "a very sad development".

He said the troubles arose partly because of a breakdown in the family authority within Aboriginal communities.

He also said: "I think they sometimes arise from a policy of perhaps treating different groups in the community differently. I think the solution very much lies in treating everybody equally and as part of the mainstream as far as law enforcement is concerned."

Meanwhile, police have begun identifying ringleaders of the Redfern riots and have made a number of arrests.

A seventh person was charged on Wednesday over the riot.

Source: AAP

Further information: redfern riots

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