By Sarah Marland, Campaign Coordinator, Amnesty International Australia
He has worked hard all his life on a cattle station in the Northern Territory, droving, fencing and dropping bores. Yet Frankie Holmes Kemarr feels betrayed.
For the last three years Frankie, along with over 45,000 Indigenous people, has been subject to measures under the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) that discriminate on the basis of race.
This week the Australian Government is in the global spotlight, reporting to the United Nations in Geneva on how it is combating racial discrimination. And we’ll be in the room, making absolutely sure Indigenous voices are heard.
Let’s not miss this moment: can you put the spotlight on our leaders to truly recognise the rights of Indigenous peoples?
Since 2007, Frankie - an elder from the Amperlatwaty community - has had his pension ‘quarantined’, which takes half his income and puts it on a ‘BasicsCard’ account, rather than in his bank account. This money can only be used at designated stores to buy particular things - food, medicine, clothes or electricity.
Like so many living in Aboriginal communities, he doesn’t understand why this has been imposed on him and why it continues. He feels betrayed: that the government has imposed measures that take no account of his and his family’s needs - or his life-long service to one of Australia's most important industries.
Write to the leaders of the major political parties and demand they stop the humiliating impact the NTER has had on Indigenous peoples
What we’re asking for is simple: we want laws and government programs that empower Indigenous people to take full control of their lives again. And these programs need to be done in a way that doesn’t breach international law, with full consent of the people affected. As Frankie says: "We’re going backward, please we don’t want to go backward. We’ve done that".
In hope for a better future for Indigenous Australians.
