Newsletter date: 1 May 2013
Contents:
* John Pilger, The Guardian: Australia's boom is anything but for its Aboriginal people
* Daniel Emerson, The West Australian: Nation's political bloodshed 'ignored'
* Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: The Killing Times
* Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: WA Governor states that he was misinterpreted
* The Wire: Coalition says remote communities should fund own water, sewerage [interview with Paddy Gibson]
* Rachel Siewert, New Matilda: When Did Labor Stop Caring?
* Other articles
* JOHN PILGER, THE GUARDIAN: AUSTRALIA'S BOOM IS ANYTHING BUT FOR ITS ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
- Analysis / Opinion
The Guardian: Australia's boom is anything but for its Aboriginal people
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/28/australia-boom-abori...
28 Apr 13: "The story of the first Australians is still poverty and humiliation, while their land yields the world's biggest resources boom ... More than any other colonial society, Australia consigns its dirtiest secrets, past and present, to wilful ignorance or indifference. ... Barely a fraction of mining, oil and gas revenue has benefited Aboriginal communities, whose poverty is an enduring shock. In Roebourne, in the mineral-rich Pilbara, 80% of the children suffer from an ear infection called otitis media, which can cause partial deafness. Or they go blind from preventable trachoma. Or they die from Dickensian infections. That is their story." John Pilger, war correspondent, film-maker, author
* DANIEL EMERSON, THE WEST AUSTRALIAN: NATION'S POLITICAL BLOODSHED 'IGNORED'
- News
The West: Nation's political bloodshed 'ignored'
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/16795649/nations-political-blood...
19 Apr 13: "Malcolm McCusker has become the subject of a rare public challenge after deputy Labor leader Roger Cook yesterday contradicted the WA Governor's assertion that Australian government was achieved without bloodshed. ... In his speech to the joint sitting of Parliament, Mr McCusker said: "Australia has one of the oldest democratic systems of government in the world, a system achieved without civil war or bloodshed, and which is the envy of many."" Daniel Emerson, The West Australian
* GERRY GEORGATOS, THE STRINGER: THE KILLING TIMES
- Analysis / Opinion
The Stringer: The Killing Times
http://thestringer.com.au/the-killing-times/
20 Apr 13: "Last week, Western Australia’s Governor, Malcolm McCusker, in what was a surprising gaffe or an act of ignorance claimed in a speech to a joint sitting of Parliament that Australia as we know it was "achieved without civil war or bloodshed." It is an insult to Aboriginal peoples, and to the hundreds of descendants of the hundreds of Aboriginal cultures whose ancestors were slaughtered in massacres. Governor McCusker asserted that Australian democracy and its Government arose without civil strife. This was all too much for the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Roger Cook ... " By Gerry Georgatos, a life-long human rights and social justice campaigner, a multi-award winning investigative journalist
* GERRY GEORGATOS, THE STRINGER: WA GOVERNOR STATES THAT HE WAS MISINTERPRETED
- Analysis / Opinion
The Stringer: WA Governor states that he was misinterpreted
http://thestringer.com.au/wa-governor-states-that-he-was-misinterpreted/
26 Apr 13: "The Governor of Western Australia, Malcolm McCusker said he was disappointed by a misinterpretation of various statements within his recent speech to the opening of State Parliament following the March 9 election. He was upset because he felt his long association with Aboriginal Australia was being diminished when in fact he has been an ardent supporter of righting many of the wrongs inflicted upon Aboriginal peoples. ... Today, the Governor’s Official Secretary sent The Stringer a statement. ... " By Gerry Georgatos, a life-long human rights and social justice campaigner, a multi-award winning investigative journalist
* THE WIRE: COALITION SAYS REMOTE COMMUNITIES SHOULD FUND OWN WATER, SEWERAGE [INTERVIEW WITH PADDY GIBSON]
- Audio
The Wire: Coalition says remote communities should fund own water, sewerage
Produced by Tim Roxburgh
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=10294
29 Apr 13: "Water and sewerage are usually local government responsibilities, but the federal government has just renewed 44 million dollars in assistance to remote communities for these kind of services. The coalition says the money should stop, but other observers say that those communities have no way of fixing their already inadequate services through rates alone. ...
Featured in story: Paddy Gibson - Senior Researcher at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney"
* RACHEL SIEWERT, NEW MATILDA: WHEN DID LABOR STOP CARING?
- Analysis / Opinion
New Matilda: When Did Labor Stop Caring?
http://newmatilda.com/2013/04/24/when-did-labor-stop-caring
24 Apr 13: "Income management and other paternalistic 'welfare' strategies are the hallmark of the Gillard Government's social policy - not so-called 'Labor values', writes Greens Senator Rachel Siewert. ... The impact of income management on individuals, particularly Indigenous people, is primarily one of disempowerment and coercion, which will have a long lasting emotional and social impact. As with the reality of life on Newstart, the facts about income management’s cost and effectiveness are easily overlooked by the older parties." By Rachel Siewert
* OTHER ARTICLES:
- Audio
National Indigenous Radio Service: Dumbartung calls suicide prevention summit
http://www.nirs.org.au/blog/NEWS/article/29153/Dumbartung-calls-suicide-...
30 Apr 13: "The Director of the Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation in Perth says a ‘crisis summit’ in May will aim to address 'epidemic' levels of Indigenous suicide."
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