WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
WGAR Website: http://wgar.info/
Contents:
Event 1-3 July: New Way Summit (Melbourne)
Event 6-9 July: Indigenous & Non Indigenous Gathering (Alice Springs)
Aboriginal low-paid employment
Aboriginal unemployment
Aboriginal housing
Other NT Intervention articles
Other Aboriginal articles
EVENT 1-3 JULY: NEW WAY SUMMIT (MELBOURNE)
- Media Release
Indymedia Australia: New Way Aboriginal summit just before NAIDOC week
http://indymedia.org.au/2010/06/07/new-way-aboriginal-summit-just-before...
7 Jun 10: Chair of the New Way Summit Task Force, Michael Anderson's statement: "The next New Way Summit that was set down for the June long weekend has been shifted to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of July, prior to the start on 4 July of the National Aboriginal & Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) week. This is to take advantage of the greater than usual attention to Aboriginal issues generated by NAIDOC. The Melbourne New Way Summit convener Ms Sharon Firebrace said that this is a more appropriate time for it to occur ... The Melbourne New Way Summit themes are genocide, sovereignty and treaty. ... The governments know that they do not have authority over Aboriginal people but use force and threats to make us submit to their will. But the New Way Summit participants know and understand this weakness and will address it."
EVENT 6-9 JULY: INDIGENOUS & NON INDIGENOUS GATHERING (ALICE SPRINGS)
Stop the Intervention: Gathering in Alice Springs 6-9 July 2010
http://stoptheintervention.org/Gathering-in-Alice-Springs-July-2010
[includes large poster]
Defending Indigenous Rights Land~Law~Culture
July 6-11 in Mparntwe-Alice Springs
http://defendingindigenousrights.wordpress.com/
ABORIGINAL LOW-PAID EMPLOYMENT:
- Audio
SBS Audio and Language:
Aboriginal: Working for $4 an hour
By Michelle Lovegrove
http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/aboriginal/highlight/page/id/89412/t/...$4-an-hour/in/english
10 Jun 10: " ... Now the Gurindji people face another challenge. It has been revealed that they are being paid just $4 an hour for up to 30 hours' work a week, through Centrelink. That money is also subject to income quarantining through the Northern Territory Intervention. Gurindji elder Peter Inverway speaks with Michelle Lovegrove."
Rollback the Intervention: Audio
June 2, 2010: Kalkaringi workers’ rights rally- Darwin Parliament House
http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/audio-recordings/
Speakers include:
Jimmy Wavehill, Peter Inverway, Maurie Japarta Ryan, Aunty Kathy Mills, Kara Touchie (ACTU), Rob Wesley Smith, David Cooper (ANTaR) and Paddy Gibson (IRAG).
- Video
ABC: NT workers protest over low wages
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/06/02/2916686.htm
2 Jun 10: "Indigenous people from the remote Wave Hill Station say the federal intervention is stripping them of rights as they have to work long hours for little pay."
- News
ABC: Aborigines 'forced to work 30 hours for $195'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/02/2915831.htm?section=justin
2 Jun 10: "An elder from Kalkaringi, about 500 kilometres south-east of Katherine in the Northern Territory, says Gurindji people are being forced to work up to 30 hours per week on construction sites under the Commonwealth's Community Development Employment Projects. In return they get a food card and Centrelink money totalling about $195 per week."
ABORIGINAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
- Video
ABC: CDEP jobs to be axed
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/06/11/2925252.htm
11 Jun 10: "LAETITIA LEMKE, Presenter: Local government councils across the Territory are preparing to sack hundreds of long term employees. From the first of July, federal government funding supporting community development employment workers will dry up. Two years ago the federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin made changes to CDEP. The idea was that local government and the Territory government would create mainstream jobs for the workers - but that hasn't happened."
- Opinion/Analysis
Crikey: Rudd overpromised on indigenous unemployment
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/06/04/closing-the-gap-rudd-overpromised-on...
4 Jun 10: "Yesterday, employment data for 2008 and 2009, the first two years of the Rudd government, were released. And the figures suggest that rather than delivering on their ‘closing the gap’ pledge, the Australian government might have exacerbated the expansion of the indigenous unemployment gap it has committed to halve." Professor Jon Altman and Dr Nicholas Biddle, Australian National University
- Media Release
Greens call for fresh approach as Indigenous unemployment jumps
http://rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au/content/media-release/greens-call...
4 Jun 10: "The Australian Greens are extremely concerned about the widening gap in employment rates between Australia’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens spokesperson Employment and Aboriginal Issues says the latest ABS figures show the unemployment rate among Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander population increased alarmingly from 13.8% in 2007 to 18.1% in 2009, a loss of around equating to around 2000 jobs."
- News
ABC: Federal Govt rules out extra CDEP funding
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/08/2921269.htm
8 Jun 10: "The Federal Minister for Remote Services, Warren Snowdon, has indicated the Commonwealth will not provide more funding to keep Indigenous people employed at shire councils in the Northern Territory. The Local Government Association says 500 people employed under a work-for-the-dole program, known as CDEP, are at risk of losing their jobs when funding runs out this month."
Koori Mail: Widening jobs gap demands 'fresh approach'
[scroll down page] http://www.koorimail.com/index.php
7 Jun 10: "THE Australian Greens say a four per cent rise in Indigenous unemployment in the two years to 2009 shows the Federal Government isn’t doing enough to provide Indigenous people with realistic employment options and work-ready skills. The Government pledged in 2008 to halve the unemployment gap within a decade and has blamed the economic downturn for the jump but Greens Senator Rachel Siewert says that’s unacceptable."
ABC: 500 jobs 'at risk' as CDEP funding ceases
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/04/2918143.htm
4 Jun 10: "The Local Government Association is calling on the Commonwealth and Northern Territory Governments to help stop about 500 people losing their jobs in remote areas. The association says remote shires were given $8 million to provide "real jobs" for people coming off the Aboriginal work-for-the-dole program, known as CDEP. But the association's president, Kerry Moir, says the shires do not have the money to continue providing the jobs once the government funding ends this month."
ABORIGINAL HOUSING:
Opinion/Analysis
Australian: Nothing constructive in housing disaster
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/nothing-constructive-in-hou...
10 Jun 10: "Read carefully: 11 houses have been built and 160 repaired in two years for more than $200m. But at the government's valuation of $450,000 for a new house (no land costs) and $75,000 for a refurbishment, the sum spent should be only $16.85m. The location of the missing $183m is not known." Adam Giles
- News
Australian: Report warns of Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program failure
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/report-warns-of-strategic-in...
10 Jun 10: "THE nation's largest Aboriginal housing project - blighted by delay and poor governance - is at risk of failing to deliver on its original promises as resources are squeezed and management systems flounder. They were the conclusions reached by Northern Territory Auditor-General Frank McGuiness in a report that has angered senior federal bureaucrats ... "
NT News: SIHIP cost balloons out another $140m
http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/06/07/153661_nt-business.html
7 Jun 10: "THE problematic strategic indigenous housing and infrastructure program will cost the Territory taxpayer more than twice than was originally promised. Opposition Treasury spokesman John Elferink said the government revealed during the Council of Territory Co-operation hearings last week that the housing scheme would cost the NT an additional $140 million."
ABC: New house sits empty in Aboriginal community
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/04/2918089.htm?section=justin
4 Jun 10: "A new government-funded house that was due to be handed over to a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory almost three months ago is still empty. The house has been locked-up and deserted in the Arnhem Land community of Gunbalanya, about 330 kilometres east of Darwin, for 11 weeks. It was built under the $672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program [SIHIP] by the Earth Connect Alliance."
OTHER NT INTERVENTION ARTICLES:
- Background to the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Northern Territory National Emergency Response
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Territory_intervention
STICS (Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney):
http://stoptheintervention.org/
IRAG (Intervention Rollback Action Group):
http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/
Intervention walk-off's Blog:
http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/
WGAR (Working Group for Aboriginal Rights):
http://wgar.info/
- Media Release
Greens MPs: Rudd should drop income management laws
http://www.greensmps.org.au/content/media-release/rudd-should-drop-incom...
9 Jun 10: "The Australian Greens have renewed calls for the Federal Government to abandon legislation to extend punitive income management provisions, saying most Australians are unaware that the measures have been introduced to Parliament. ... Senator Siewert also accused the Government of shamefully trying to discredit a study into nutrition in remote Aboriginal communities which provided compelling evidence that the Northern Territory Intervention was not working."
- Opinion/Analysis
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), ANU:
Income Management and the Rights of Indigenous Australians to Equity
Jon Altman
Topical Issue 3 / 2010
http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/Publications/topical/2010TI3.php
Jun 10: "This paper examines the changing policy rationales for income management in prescribed Indigenous communities. The proposed welfare reforms currently before the Australian Parliament will fundamentally alter a citizenship rights-based approach to welfare, replacing it with one that is skewed towards a far higher level of state governmentality of citizen subjects. ... "
SMH: NT policy failing the children
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/nt-policy-failing-the-children-20...
14 Jun 10: "Three years on, despite unprecedented levels of investment, the emergency response remains a political game that leaves the best interests of the children on the sidelines. We need a new approach, grounded in a genuine respect for traditional culture and with human rights principles at its core, to tackle the entrenched poverty and discrimination faced by indigenous peoples in Australia." Sarah Marland, campaign co-ordinator for Amnesty International Australia
The Economist: Correspondent's diary - Tracking the intervention
Road-tripping into the prescribed areas of Australia's Northern Territory
http://www.economist.com/node/16315656
11 Jun 10: "The road from Alice Springs is breathtaking. Wild horses graze on grass from recent rains. Wrecked cars are casualties of the dead-straight road’s mesmerising dangers. Then, as I pass the boundary leading to Wallace Rockhole, an aboriginal settlement, a big blue sign by the road jolts me back to my journey’s purpose: “Warning. Prescribed Area. No Liquor. No Pornography.”"
Croakey - the Crikey health blog:
The Government campaign against researchers who dared question income management
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2010/06/11/the-government-campaign-ag...
11 Jun 10: "Yesterday a media release from Macklin and Snowden triumphantly claimed: The number of people being supported through income management has reached 17,000 ... Supported? The language of this document follows an extraordinary report and session of senate estimates last Friday when staff from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) did a very suss demolition job on the Menzies data casting doubt on the value of income management."
New Matilda: Exaggerating The Vegetables
http://newmatilda.com/2010/05/24/exaggerating-vegetables
24 May 10: "The Government likes to say that the NT Intervention has improved Indigenous health - but the problem is there's no proper evidence for their claims, writes Thalia Anthony"
- News
Australian: Northern territory Intervention sees abuse cases double
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/northern-territory-intervent...
11 Jun 10: "CHILD abuse and neglect cases in Aboriginal communities uncovered as part of the radical Northern Territory intervention have more than doubled, from 106 in 2007 to 247 last year."
OTHER ABORIGINAL ARTICLES:
- Media Releases
Australian Human Rights Commission:
Two major reports highlight the need for a plan to achieve Indigenous health equality within a generation
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/2010/55_10.html
4 Jun 10: ""Both of the reports released today highlight the need for a concerted national effort to plan for Indigenous health equality," Mr Gooda said. "It is absolutely vital that a plan be developed in partnership with Indigenous Australians as a national priority if both the Close the Gap Statement of Intent commitments and the Council of Australian Governments’ targets are to be met.""
Greens: Little to celebrate on Mabo day
http://rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au/content/media-release/little-cele...
3 Jun 10: "The Australian Greens have used Mabo Day to renew calls for the Federal Government to take further action towards true reconciliation and to abandon the proposed changes to Native Title Act -- which they have described as 'unnecessary, out of proportion, and embracing and extending the logic of the Howard-era Wik amendments'."Unfortunately for Indigenous Australians there is little progress to celebrate this Mabo Day," Australian Greens spokesperson on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, Senator Rachel Siewert said today."
ANTaR Queensland: Justice, Rights and then Reconciliation
http://antarqld.org.au/node/58
26 May 10: "On Sorry Day and the eve of National Reconciliation Week, ANTaR Qld President, Kitty Carra, questioned the use of the word reconciliation in relation to Queensland. By definition reconciliation includes contrition, confession, the acceptance of punishment, and finally absolution. In other countries the reconciliation movement is inseparable from the examination of truth."
- News
National Indigenous Times:
A step in the right direction for Stolen Generations
http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=19889
27 May 10: "The Stolen Generations Alliance is calling for all Australians to honour and acknowledge May 26 as the anniversary of the release of the Bringing them home report released in 1997. As the peak national advocacy and representation body for Stolen Generations across Australia, the SGA recognises the key role played by the National Sorry Day Committee and essential support of the Australian community to establish this anniversary as National Sorry Day."
National Indigenous Times:
Bridge walkers still saying Sorry for no redress
http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=19886
27 May 10: "The National Sorry Day Committee (NSDC) and its partners hosted approximately 150 Canberrans marking National Sorry Day by walking across their local bridges on Wednesday the 26 May 2010. ... "People who joined in on the walk were asked to sit down halfway along the Commonwealth Bridge for a minute's silence to draw attention to the fact that the Australian Government continues to refuse to deliver the outstanding reparations and compensation that complete the requirements of a full apology," said Helen Moran."
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WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)