12 noon, Saturday 22 June 2013
Paul Keating Park, The Mall
Bankstown (near Bankstown station) http://goo.gl/maps/f8IHi
- Repeal 'Stronger/Stolen Futures' Legislation!
- Stop Income Management - not in the NT, not in Bankstown, not anywhere!
- Reinvest in community-controlled services and jobs!Speakers:
- Kylie Sambo, NT youth leader living on income management
- Maree O'Halloran, Welfare Rights Center
- Robin Croon, Public Service Association
- Wafa Ibrahim,Child, youth and family support officer, Arab Council Australia
June 21 will mark six years since John Howard began the NT Intervention and sent the military into Aboriginal communities. This was one of the most shameful days in the history of Australia's brutal and racist treatment of Aboriginal people and set the struggle for Aboriginal rights back many decades.
Government statistics show that since 2007 in the NT incarceration has increased 80%, reported rates of attempted suicide and self harm are up almost 600%, child removal rates increased 80% and there is more alcohol related domestic violence (sources below). Almost $1 billion has been wasted on bureaucrats and punishment.
In 2012, the Labor government passed the Stronger Futures legislation that extends the main measures of the NT Intervention for another 10 years. Aboriginal people will continue to be treated as second class citizens: police can enter their homes without a warrant, courts are unable to consider cultural circumstances when sentencing, alcohol and R18+ material are restricted regardless of community wishes and more than 10,000 Aboriginal people are held on income management against their will.
Stronger Futures legislation also extended income management and the BasicsCard to new "trial sites" around Australia, including Bankstown in Sydney. But a strong campaign uniting Aboriginal people, community organisations, migrants and trade unions has helped hold this back.
The Public Service Association (PSA), who represent Child Protection workers in Bankstown, have voted to ban income management and have made no referrals. They are refusing to be part of the expansion of the racist NT Intervention. Bankstown has the lowest number of people on income management out of all the "trial sites".
Income management has been a disaster - but the government wants the system to cover even more people. New rules mean that from July 2013, compulsory income management will apply automatically to anyone in the NT and in Bankstown who is under 25 and exiting prison, along with young people who have an 'unable to live at home' status with Centrelink or who are on a 'special benefit' due to homelessness or other circumstances.
If we act now we can stop this happening and defend the rights of some of the most vulnerable people in our community. Join us for a protest to demand an end to Apartheid-style policies in Australia.
Statistics on changes in NT from 2007 - 2012 available from: Closing the Gap in the NT Monitoring Report
Jan-June 2012, Productivity Commission report on Government Services 2013
More info: www.stoptheintervention.org, Jean 0449 646 593,
Facebook: ‘Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney’ or https://www.facebook.com/events/231126303695118/
