Perth

Dexamphetamine and ADHD cons - Mental health policies must move from medication to recovery

Gerry Georgatos
"In Western Australia, 1989, 880 people were prescribed stimulant medication (for ADHD). By the year 2000 this had increased to 20,648, with the WA Health Department estimating 18,000 prescriptions having been issued to children. By 2002 WA prescription rates were amongst the highest in the world, exceeding the US national average,” said Martin Whitely.

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Malcolm Fraser writes Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison have nothing to be proud about in their race to the bottom of the barrel

From occasional commentator and former PM, Malcom Fraser, via http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/abbotts-evil-policy-work-20120617...

The Coalition's latest asylum seeker plan is inhumane and lacks integrity.

TONY Abbott and Scott Morrison recently stood in front of Australia and proudly presented the Coalition's plan to ''ensure integrity and restore confidence in refugee assessment''. There is not much to be proud about in this policy. The announcement was based on misinformed and misleading information that plays straight into the unfounded public fear of asylum seekers.

WGAR News: Upcoming Aboriginal rights events around Australia - 19 events from 17 June 2012

Newsletter date: 17 June 2012

Upcoming Aboriginal rights events around Australia
- 19 events from 17 June 2012

Click on the links for details of the events ...

Event: 4 May - 8 July 2012: Circular Quay, Sydney, NSW
Manuwangku, Under the Nuclear Cloud
Photographs by Jagath Dheerasekara
Curated by Sandy Edwards
Head On Photo Festival
""The photographs are excellent. They are a moving
portrayal of Aboriginal Australia that all Australians
aught to know about on an issue that wont go away."
- John Pilger, Writer and Filmmaker, January 2012"

Hazara refugee threatens to sue ABC over Four Corners story

by: Paul Maley, National Security Correspondent
From: The Australian June 14, 2012
A HAZARA refugee named on the ABC's Four Corners program as an "agent" of people-smugglers is threatening legal action against the national broadcaster unless an apology is issued and the "defamatory" claims withdrawn.

Medhi Rezaiee was named as collecting a payment on behalf of his brother, Mohammed Ali, as part of a Four Corners program into people-smuggling activities in Australia.

Two brothers attempt suicide within 12 hours and AVS officers not called in

Gerry Georgatos
Western Australia’s Greenough Prison has at this time no Aboriginal Visitors Scheme (AVS) according to AVS officer Joyce Capewell and confirmed by the Department of Corrective Services (DCS). In February, two young Aboriginal brothers, around 20 years of age, attempted suicide by hanging, were found in their cells and cut down - such is the despair in Greenough Prison which Mrs Capewell describes. The AVS officers were not allowed to assist the brothers.

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WA's first Aboriginal school principal ostracised by the Department of Education

Gerry Georgatos
Margie Webb was West Australia’s first Aboriginal female school principal – appointed in 1991 to Glen Hill Primary school. In 2000 Mrs Webb caused a storm by taking on the Department of Education on grounds of discrimination. Once again Mrs Webb is standing solid in her drive to see Indigenous languages at Derby High School. However, Derby High School is refusing to include Indigenous languages under the ‘Languages other than English’ program. LOTE is a requirement, and currently Mrs Webb says there is no LOTE at Derby.

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See it to believe it: 3 minute video clip - two human rights activists charged for singing Christmas Carols

Human Rights belong to everyone

Our justice system struggles to find the time to prosecute major criminality however has the time to persecute ordinary folk in the business of awareness-raising

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkxqt456sqw

Rally outside the Perth Magistrate Court on June 28

Expose about two pro-Palestine activists facing court on June 28, 2012 in Perth, Australia.

Miranda Wood and Alex Bainbridge were charged with trespass for singing modified Christmas carols in December 2011. They face a two day trial beginning 28 June 2012.

From the cradle to the grave one injustice after another - Rex Bellotti Jr

Gerry Georgatos
Three and half years have passed since a police-four-wheel-drive struck down 15 year old Rex Bellotti Jr, dragging him underneath the undercarriage of the vehicle, nearly amputing his right leg at the knee which hung on by torn tendons.

The WA Police have languished in their duty to settle the insurance pay out to the Bellotti family who are now bitterly in debt to meet the costs of convalescence for their eldest child, and as they watch the trauma of being blind-sided by the WA Police impact upon their five other children.

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Human Rights Alliance media release - The Australian Government is lying - they told me they knew, and face to face

The piecemeal release of a score of Indonesian children from adult prisons is not enough

Another four children have been released from Australian adult prisons, following the three children released several weeks back, and therefore they were wrongly convicted. It is good they are going home to their families.