WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
WGAR Website: http://wgar.info/
Contents:
Jobs with Justice Petition
Aboriginal work for rations
Aboriginal unemployment
Alyawarr walk-off protest videos
Other Aboriginal Articles
JOBS WITH JUSTICE PETITION:
- Petition
Jobs with Justice: The Petition
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/jobswithjustice/
"To the Honourable President and members of the Senate in Parliament assembled:
The NT Intervention promised Aboriginal people real jobs.
Instead, thousands of Community Development Employment Project (CDEP) positions have been lost. Under the new CDEP scheme, some Aboriginal people are being forced to work providing vital services such as rubbish collection, school bus runs, sewerage maintenance and aged care in exchange for quarantined Centrelink payments. ... "
ABORIGINAL WORK FOR RATIONS:
- Background
WGAR News: ... Aboriginal low-paid employment
[scroll down page] http://indymedia.org.au/2010/06/15/wgar-news-events-new-way-summit-melbo...
- Speaking Tour
Stop the Intervention:
Report from speaking tour of Kalkaringi "BasicsCard" worker P. Inverway:
http://stoptheintervention.org/uploads/files_to_download/3rd-NT-Interven...
"From 4th-11th June P. Inverway (PI), a construction worker from Kalkaringi (Wave Hill) in the NT toured Sydney. PI is working for $4 an hour plus $85 a week for food on his BasicsCard. For this he and ten others have been doing 24 hours a week turning an old power station into a new arts and craft centre. ... Workers at the meetings were astounded and disgusted that PI is being paid $4 an hour to do the work they get paid $24 - $26 an hour to do."
- News
Age: For some workers, the struggle will never end
http://www.theage.com.au/national/for-some-workers-the-struggle-will-nev...
16 Jun 10: "GURINDJI member Peter Inverway grew up hearing his stockman father's tales of once having been paid in rations, never dreaming he might one day know the same indignity. That was until the federal government intervened in Northern Territory indigenous communities three years ago. ... "
The Guardian: Opposition to return of work for rations
http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2010/1458/05-opposition.html
9 Jun 10: "Peter Inverway, a Gurindji worker from Kalkaringi says Gurindji people are being forced to work up to 30 hours per week for Centrelink entitlements. Half of the entitlements are quarantined on the Basics Card as part of the government’s Community Development Employment Program (CDEP). This is a new measure of the Northern Territory Intervention."
Green Left: Aboriginal workers demand jobs with justice
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/44382
6 Jun 10: "Elders from Kalkaringi community say people in their community are being forced to work for up to 30 hours a week on construction sites or they will have their Centrelink payments cut. As if being forced to work for the dole wasn’t bad enough, half their benefits are also “quarantined”: placed onto a Basics Card that can be spent only on food, clothing and medical supplies."
ABORIGINAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
- Background
WGAR News: ... Aboriginal unemployment
[scroll down page] http://indymedia.org.au/2010/06/15/wgar-news-events-new-way-summit-melbo...
- Radio
ABC Radio National - Breakfast: Indigenous jobs
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/2928050.htm
16 Jun 10: "The Rudd government has set itself a target of halving the employment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade. Part of the plan involves radical changes to CDEP, the Community Development Employment Projects program, commonly referred to as Indigenous work for the dole. But as Cathy Van Extel reports, the latest official figures point to a spiralling Indigenous jobless rate and Aboriginal communities say the loss of CDEP is creating greater social disadvantage."
ABC Radio National - Breakfast: Indigenous councils respond to CDEP
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/2929093.htm
17 Jun 10: "But a number of councils say they simply don't have the funds to employ additional workers, and the loss of the CDEP funding is having an impact on the delivery of services. There's also concern that the CDEP reforms will jeopardise fledgling Indigenous enterprises in remote communities."
- Video
ABC Radio National - Breakfast:
Video: Jenny Macklin on Indigenous employment
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/2928048.htm
16 Jun 10: "Jenny Macklin, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, discusses how the changes to the work for the dole scheme will affect Indigenous Australians."
ALYAWARR WALK-OFF PROTEST VIDEOS:
- Background
Intervention walk-off's Blog
http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/
- Video
Green Left: Alyawarr walk-off protest vs NT Intervention
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/44434
Vimeo: Back to Country : Alyawarr Resistance
by jagath dheerasekara
http://vimeo.com/12577970
15 Jun 10: "In July last year, the Alyawarr people walked off from the prescribed area controlled by the government, and began to build a new community on their homeland or as they call it Country. My ongoing project is about their survival, struggles and aspiration."
OTHER ABORIGINAL ARTICLES:
- Video
YouTube: Australia nuclear waste dump row
Al Jazeera's Azhar Sukri reports
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq6OIl5R-8E
15 Jun 10: "Australia's government is pushing its plans for a nuclear waste dump in a remote part of the country's Northern Territory. It has signed an agreement with the traditional owners of the land who will receive $10m in compensation, most of it in cash. But the proposed nuclear dump has divided local people while and environmentalists warn it could one day be used to store waste from overseas."
- Radio
SBS Audio and Language: Aboriginal
Racism in Country Rubgy League?
By Michelle Lovegrove
http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/aboriginal/highlight/page/id/90972/t/
16 Jun 10: "The racism-in-rugby furore leading to Timana Tahu handing back his Blues' jersey is not an isolated incident, says ex-Manly's Michael Anderson. Is there racism in rugby league? The NRL says no. Many voices, including Aboriginal ex and current players, say - yes. ... "
- News
Australian: Top End Aboriginal housing push 'doomed from the start'
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/aboriginal-australia/top-end-ab...
16 Jun 10: "MANAGEMENT of the nation's largest Aboriginal housing project was doomed from the start, a Northern Territory parliamentary committee has been told. The NT Auditor-General, Frank McGuiness, told an estimates hearing in Darwin yesterday there was a "complete lack of management" in the model used to roll out the federal government's $672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program."
- - -
Subscription to 'WGAR News' is free.
'WGAR News' monitors the media, including alternative media, focusing on the Australian Federal government intervention into Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal communities along with other Aboriginal rights issues.
The e-newsletters include media releases, opinion pieces and news items. Subscribers can expect to receive about 2 e-newsletters each week.
To subscribe, email wgar.news@gmail.com and include the words "subscribe WGAR News" in the message header.
To unsubscribe, email wgar.news@gmail.com and include the words "unsubscribe WGAR News" in the message header.
- - -
You can also subscribe to our second list 'Contact WGAR' which focuses on activities and events and provides a point of contact.
To subscribe, email contactwgar@gmail.com and include the words "subscribe WGAR Contact" in the message header.
- - -
WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)