If you’d like to reflect on human rights in Australia, in particular as they concern Indigenous people and refugees, I recommend to you two speeches pointed out to me by the Concerned Australians group campaigning against the Northern Territory intervention.
You will need about one and a half hours to listen to both, but you’ll find in them a wealth of context away from the frantic 24-hour news cycle and plenty of useful arguments.
One is the Human Rights Oration 2012, sponsored by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, and delivered on 11 December by Ron Merkel, QC, Human Rights Medallist, barrister and former Federal Court Judge.
Ron is widely recognised as one of Australia's leading human rights practitioners, with a particular interest in civil liberties, the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, migration law and equal opportunity. His recent involvement in both the Eatock v Bolt decision, which considered the Commonwealth racial hatred protections, and the Occupy Melbourne case, put him at the leading edge of human rights law in Australia.
He spoke on ‘Human rights – myths and realities’, covering the maltreatment of Aborigines, refugees and free speech.
Click here for the website and under the photograph on Audio - Human rights - myths and realities (mp3, 17MB) (51 minutes). There's also a transcript of the oratyion there.
Professor Clare Martin (Labor) was NT Chief Minister (equivalent of premier in the states) when the Howard government started the intervention.
In her Maurice Blackburn Oration on 5 December, sponsored by the Moreland City Council, one of Melbourne's major metropolitan councils, she also argued strongly against the intervention, but also against the discrimination against the Northern Territory in general.
She asked in the title of her oration, “Is it fair and just that there are 230,000 second-class citizens in the Northern Territory?”
Two examples:
“While I was Chief Minister, all the state and territory leaders were Labor. We were quite a cohesive team, worked together well, supported and rallied around for each other. Not this time. If the federal government – even a Coalition government – could insist that a nuclear waste facility be built in the Northern Territory, then what a relief. A problem conveniently solved for the state colleagues. They all supported statehood for us, in theory, but were pleased our continuing territory status had solved a tricky issue for them. It was not going to be in their backyards.”
“A Northern Territory election was held in August this year. The Labor government led by Paul Henderson lost office because thousands of Aboriginal Territorians decided this time not to vote Labor as they had traditionally done. They voted conservative, for the Country Liberal Party. And why? One of my Aboriginal friends summed it up succinctly. He said, it’s been reform, after reform, after reform, after reform for Aboriginal people and they’re simply tired of it.
“The election gave many a timely opportunity to voice their discontent about two major government policies. Both had Labor Party tags on them: the wide ranging measures of Howard’s emergency response, now continued by Federal Labor, and the Territory Labor initiated local government reforms. It didn’t matter that over the past five years more money had been spent in the bush than ever before: an historic investment in hundreds of new houses and infrastructure, greater police presence and more teachers, or that local government reform was necessary to underpin better governance in the communities. As my friend said too much reform, too often, too much disturbance of lives. It was a vote that said we’ve had enough.”
For a transcript of the complete oration click here.
As I note above, these head-ups came from the anti-interventionist Concerned Australians, who will gladly send you their updates.
I’ve attached sample audios of Merkel and Martin.
