Newcastle

AMA report says government needs to do more for Indigenous health

Gerry Georgatos
President of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Steve Hambleton says the federal government has to do much more for Indigenous health - "There is a long way to go."

On Saturday May 26 at the AMA National Conference the AMA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Report: Progress to Date and Challenges that Remain was released.

The report summarises the recommendation of the AMA Indigenous Health Report Cards over the past ten years and analyses the major government measures related to the recommendations that have been implemented.

HRA media release: Bob Carr must live up to DFAT's side - Indonesia has lived up to their part - Schapelle soon home

Bob Carr said that it is abominable that children are in adult prisons - therefore release them all, now. Now that the Governor of Kerobokan has supported the right to early parole for Schapelle Corby, Australia needs to keep its side and en masse release all the children - now.

The conversations between DFAT and their counterparts, between Australian and Indonesian foreign ministries have occurred in that the goodwill of a sentence reduction, early parole for Schapelle Corby was brought up alongside the urgent need for Indonesian children in Australian adult prisons to be released.

National Renters Alliance campaign - WA rally August - National day of rallies October

Interviews with the HRA's National Renters Alliance

It started in the Blackwood region of the South West of WA, and then became the WA Renters Alliance, and now it's a national movement with the National Renters Alliance campaign

In August there will be a renters rally for justice at WA's state parliament followed by a coordinated national day of rallies in October

Human Rights Alliance demands release of Indonesian children from WA incarceration

The Human Rights Alliance calls on the WA state government, and on the Commonwealth, for the en masse immediate release of all the Indonesian children incarcerated either by remand or judicial conviction in Western Australian prisons - and in particular HAKEA and Albany Regional Prisons.

Cultural imperialism jailed Indonesian children in Australian adult prisons - and the prime minister's deaf ears

Gerry Georgatos
Ali Jasmin was 13 years old when the Commonwealth of Australia locked him up in an adult prison for being a deckhand on a boat of Asylum Seekers, and hence for assisting people in the safe passage of Asylum to our shores. International maritime laws and the various United Conventions and protocols asserting the rights of those seeking Asylum would cast this young boy as a hero, and rightfully so however not the Australian government and its institutions.

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Did Jackson, Lawler and Abbott tangle Thomson with the HSU? Who else is involved and why?

Gerry Georgatos
The Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper dramas have been used to threaten the toppling of the incumbent government however whether this happens or not the dark pall of aspersions, the eerie shadow over Australian politics and the spheres of influence that are imputed to underlay the manifest of government and its orchestrations are increasingly deeply questionable to many folk - however what are the questions for there to be the pursuit of answers - where do we start looking?

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Aboriginal passports issued to two asylum seekers incarcerated at Villawood

Gerry Georgatos
Sydney's Indigenous Social Justice Association president Ray Jackson tried to issue Aboriginal passports to two Tamil Asylum Seekers who are detained at the Villawood Centre.

Because he held a news conference outside the Villawood Detention Centre, he and three other gentlemen were denied a meeting with the two Tamil men, which had been previously agreed to, by SERCO's centre management.

Mr Jackson speaks to SBS: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/radio/episode/215387/Symbolic-passports-issue...

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The Australian prison system has failed; warehouses of illness & death. Bring on Bastoy for starters

Gerry Georgatos
If you want to know the hearts and minds of a nation, of its consciousness, of its legislators, then day and night look into our prisons.

The two century old modern day prison experiment is failing, that is if we look at the spiralling incarceration rates, adult and youth, and if we look at re-offending rates, the recidivism.

My PhD research argues that people who enter the prison experience, who are incarcerated for relatively short or long terms leave the prison experience worse than they came in.

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Control bill pushed to target Aboriginal peoples and to erode civil liberties

Gerry Georgatos
Australia-wide Aboriginal organisations, communities and rights advocates are more than just apprehensive of the consolidated push by State and Territory governments for the introduction of Criminal Association Control Bills better known as anti-association laws – in Western Australia, the Criminal Organisation Bill 2012 appears that it will be passed and within days.

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An anarchist response to the police murder at a Rainbow gathering near Tenterfield NSW

On April 16 Ryan Pringle, the 33 year old son of a former Balmain rugby league star was shot to death by police at a rural commune called the “School of Happiness” in Northern NSW. The details of this sad day are not completely clear, but it seems that Ryan had arrived at the camp earlier that day, as a group called the Rainbow Family Australia was preparing for a 6 week gathering.