Indymedia Australia | News and views from the progressive grass roots.

The downside of democracy for Indigenous Australians

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 13/09/2013 - 11:00am

By Chris Graham in The Tracker

One of the features of a modern democracy is that apart from getting the government we deserve, we're also supposed to get the government that the majority of us want.

Like Communism, it's great in theory. But also like Communism, it's often not so good in practice.

At least, it's not if you happen to be a minority group who has long been denied the right to elect your own leaders.

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Cuts to indigenous legal aid a backwards step

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 12/09/2013 - 9:59am

The Coalition’s planned cuts to indigenous legal services will lead to increased prison costs and a shift in demand to already stretched legal aid bodies, critics have argued.

The Coalition plans to cut $42 million from the Indigenous Policy Reform Program, which funds legal services for indigenous people across Australia, over the next four years.

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Warren Mundine: The white sheep of the family?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/09/2013 - 1:44pm

By Gary Foley, September 9, 2013

Prime Minister elect Tony Abbott and Warren Mundine

It would seem at the present time that the former National President of the ALP, Mr Warren Mundine, has momentarily eclipsed the Cape York Crusader Noel Pearson as the Aboriginal Man of the Moment.

Whilst Mr Mundine may lack the intellectual firepower of Noel Pearson, he has nevertheless elbowed his way to the front of the pack with his dazzling late-life conversion to the cause of all things Tony Abbott.

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Australia

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Whistleblowers needed when cultures of wrong-doing rule

Submitted by Gerry Georgatos on Mon, 26/08/2013 - 8:32am

Gerry Georgatos - I stand alongside those who let nothing get in the way of what is right, what is in the common good. I stand alongside those who will let no injustice go unheard, untold. I stand alongside Private Chelsea Manning who has been sentenced up to 35 years in prison for serving humanity's interests. Manning's decision to report to humanity was out of concern for humanity.

Manning should be relieved of the cruel and unfair burden of her prison sentence with a presidential pardon, and she should be acknowledged as both a patriot and as a true citizen of the world.

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Christians label Rudd’s asylum policy morally bankrupt

Submitted by 2060 on Thu, 15/08/2013 - 12:59am

Christian churches say The Rudd Government’s so called “PNG Solution” is morally bankrupt and unworthy of a civilized community.

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“Nauru riot was inevitable”

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 27/07/2013 - 12:57pm

MEDIA UPDATES UNDER THE STORY

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Australia

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CLIMATE of DEATH – Justice denied means more will die

Submitted by Gerry Georgatos on Fri, 19/07/2013 - 2:33pm

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - July 18th, 2013 - Photo: Mother Mavis Pat at her son’s Fremantle Prison (museum) memorial, September 28, 2011 – Photo, Gerry Georgatos - “We have to get rid of racist cops. I don’t want to dwell on the past but I have grown up bitter,” said Whadjuk Noongar Elder Ben Taylor. Mr Taylor said of colonial and post-colonial Australia, “They have been killing our people for two hundred years.”

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Australia

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Treaty, sovereignty, empowerment the key factors for meaningful recognition

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 16/07/2013 - 9:43am

By John Rowsthorne, National Indigenous Times - We fear the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and the leader of the Coalition, Tony Abbott are missing the most important point about recognition of Australia’s First Peoples. Perhaps they are doing so deliberately, perhaps they believe by promoting recognition of Indigenous Australians in the constitution it takes people’s mind from the real issues – we hope that is not the case.

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Australia

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New report puts lie to military claims of clean, green war games in barrier reef and elsewhere

Submitted by kimk on Mon, 15/07/2013 - 11:34am

Today Friends of the Earth release a damning report of the track record of military uses of the environment and the risks US bases and exercises pose to our natural heritage.

The report US Bases in Australia: the social and environmental risks lists the numerous locations that the US military will increasingly use on Australian soil, and comes on the heels of the commencement of the world's biggest US-Australian war games in Shoalwater Bay near Yeppoon in Queensland.

Links: http://peaceconvergence.wordpress.com/ http://brisbane.foe.org.au/

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