WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

31 JULY 2008: NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION

Contents:

Converge on the Centre: Sept 29-Oct 5, 2008

Media Releases

Radio Interview

News

CONVERGE ON THE CENTRE: SEPT 29-OCT 5, 2008

Come to Mparntwe - Alice Springs. Get involved in helping fight the racist NT Intervention

http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/converge-on-the-centre-sept-29-oct-5-2008/

9 July 08: "Actions include: * Rally to mark the Federal Government's Review Report * Listening Tour to communities to meet with Aboriginal Elders * Major Actions in solidarity with affected communities"

MEDIA RELEASES:

MR: Aboriginal royalty funds spent on Top End intervention

http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/media-release-aboriginal-royalty-funds-spent-top-end-intervention

30 July 08: "Even more shocking is the knowledge that the Commonwealth government are not putting any of their own money into the programs being initiated under the Northern Territory Response Act. It has in fact been learnt that the funds being used come from the Aboriginal royalty monies controlled by another parliamentary act and administered by the Federal Minister for Finance. If we are Australians, then why are we not using public money to establish and improve basic infrastructural needs out in our remote communities? No white sector of the Australian community would permit the use of private money in this manner." Michael Anderson

DARC: Community leaders to tell Brough: “Intervention is taking us backwards”

http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/media-release-community-leaders-tell-brough-intervention-taking-us-backwards

28 July 08: "Today, a delegation of community members including leaders from some of Darwin’s Town Camps will attend Mal Brough’s public lecture on the Intervention to show their continued opposition to the racist and punitive legislation implemented last year without any consultation."

AMSANT: ‘What’s in it for Aboriginal health?’

http://amsant.com.au/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=118&Itemid=101

22 July 08: "The Territory’s peak Aboriginal health group says both the current government and the Country Liberals had acted reprehensibly by under-spending tens of millions of dollars from Aboriginal health and essential services, and both had failed to provide any vision to bring health equality to all Territorians. The evidence of this is the on-going Federal Government ‘intervention’." Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory

RADIO INTERVIEW:

The Wire: Tony Abbott says all Australians on welfare should have payments quarantined

[scroll down page] http://www.thewire.org.au/daydetail.aspx?SearchDay=2008-07-29

29 July 08: "Welfare and indigenous groups have condemned the federal oppositions plan to extend the idea of so called “welfare quarantining”. The Shadow minister for indigenous affairs Tony Abbott says all welfare recipients who have children, should have half their payments set aside for food and rent. Under the Northern Territory intervention this scheme is already underway in more than 70 aboriginal communities. Half of these welfare payments are provided as food vouchers and can’t be used to buy things like alcohol or cigarettes. Now Tony Abbott wants this controversial approach adopted nationwide and applied to non aboriginal families. Featured in story: Andrew McCallum: CEO of the Association of Childrens welfare agencies, Les Malezer: Chairperson from the foundation for Aboriginal and islander research action."

NEWS:

ABC: Intervention fosters racism, Alice woman claims

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/28/2316329.htm

28 July 08: "An Aboriginal woman says Indigenous people in Alice Springs are battling racism as a result of the Federal intervention measures. Barbara Shaw, part of the Intervention Rollback Action Group, says the emergency response has perpetuated a stereotype that Indigenous people are alcoholics who abuse their children. ... Ms Shaw says a call by the Coalition's Indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott to extend the intervention for another five years is ill-informed and patronising."

NIT: All welfare payments should be quarantined: Abbott

http://www.nit.com.au/story.aspx?id=15526

28 July 08: "The coalition wants all welfare recipients to have half their payments quarantined for essential purchases like food and rent. Some 73 Aboriginal communities are already subject to welfare quarantining, by which a proportion of payments can only be spent at specified shops, as part of the federal government's Northern Territory intervention."

ABC: Intervention needs 5 more years: Abbott

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/27/2315574.htm

27 July 08: "The Federal Opposition says the intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities should keep operating for at least five years. This week Indigenous elders used a Federal Cabinet meeting in Arnhem Land to call on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to scrap the controversial measures, which were put in place by the former government."

Australian: 'Failed state crisis' of remote Australia

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24079566-5013172,00.html

26 July 08: "He [General Sanderson] said the "obvious inference" from the federal Government's intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities was that it too was directed at a failed state. ... General Sanderson told The Weekend Australian that remote Australia needed more population (not the closure of Aboriginal communities), civilian infrastructure that would allow a broad range of economic activity and effective regional governance."

GLW: Arnhem Land leaders slam ‘wasteful’ NT intervention

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/760/39254

26 July 08: "Aboriginal leaders from Arnhem Land met with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on July 23 and called for the restoration of the Racial Discrimination Act. The act was suspended in June 2007 to allow for the passing of the bi-partisan Northern Territory (NT) intervention legislation. The Arnhem Land leaders also demanded that the Aboriginal Benefits Account (ABA) no longer be raided to fund the unpopular NT intervention."

NIT: Thousands call for end of intervention in petition

http://www.nit.com.au/breakingNews/story.aspx?id=15503

25 July 08: "Thousands of Aborigina Australians are petitioning to have the Northern Territory emergency intervention abandoned. Activists say their petition will be tabled in federal parliament in mid-September to coincide with the end of the Rudd government's 12-month review into radical measures to combat child sex abuse."

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WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)