“The 2010 federal election is an opportunity for the Aboriginal community to pass judgment on the Rudd government’s policies on Indigenous affairs,” Sam Watson, Murri community leader and Socialist Alliance lead Senate candidate for Queensland, said on 21 April.
“In 2007, the Howard government was thrown out of office because of popular opposition to its policies on many issues. It is unlikely that Rudd is in real danger of losing power, but there still needs to be a protest vote right across the Aboriginal community against the racist policies of the federal Labor government.
“The Aboriginal people will make this election a referendum on the Rudd government. Three years on from the fall of the extreme conservative Howard government, things have not changed for Indigenous people. If anything, they have gotten worse.
“Howard’s Northern Territory Intervention has been continued under Rudd. The Northern Territory Lands Rights Act has been overridden. The Anti-Discrimination Act has been effectively overturned.
“Aboriginal unemployment, lack of education, and poor housing are at record levels. Aboriginal health is worse than Fourth World standards, especially when compared to the mainstream community. Our people continue to suffer one of the lowest life expectancy rates in the world.
“When you apply a measuring stick to the Rudd government on Aboriginal policies, it fails badly. At least, with the Howard regime there was no attempt to conceal their racism. They were proud of it.
“The Rudd Labor government rode to power promising so much, but has delivered so little. Aboriginal and other voters need to punish Kevin Rudd, and remind the government that they rely on the ordinary people for their survival.”
Watson urged: “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need to get politically active, to get involved in the campaigns for their rights, to register and get out on election day.”
On the question of Aboriginal people and the criminal justice system Watson added: “The lessons of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody are still being ignored. Of its 339 recommendations few have been implemented. The rate of arrests, detention and deaths in custody of Aboriginal people remain at shocking levels. In the last five weeks in Queensland, there have been four deaths in custody, of which two were Indigenous.”
Watson said: “Governments are privatising prisons and police watchhouses to the detriment of all prisoners. This exposes vulnerable people to even greater risk of harm.
“These questions of Aboriginal rights will be major issues for Socialist Alliance in the lead-up to the federal election later this year.”
Sam Watson, together with Townsville-based research officer and union activist David Lowe, have been endorsed as the Socialist Alliance Queensland Senate team for the upcoming federal election.
For more information or interviews with the candidates, phone Jim McIlroy on 0423 741 734