WGAR News

WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

9 OCT 2008:

NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION:

Contents:

UN Indigenous declaration

UN INDIGENOUS DECLARATION:

NIT: The intervention: a battalion of human rights breaches

http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=16231

2 Oct 08: "Of the 46 articles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Northern Territory intervention breaches at least 25 of them - more than half. In addition to this, the intervention also breaches almost half of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Australia endorsed decades ago."

NIT: The Big Read: Sorry? Aren't you forgetting something Kevin?

http://www.nit.com.au/story.aspx?id=16230

2 Oct 08: "A fortnight ago, the Australians Greens put forward a motion in the federal Senate calling for the Rudd government to endorse the UN Declaration. Even though Rudd - as part of his election platform - had promised to endorse the UN Dec, Labor joined the Liberals in voting it down. ... But deep down, everyone in parliament knows why Labor is dragging its heels. It comes down to three simple words: Northern Territory intervention. The most overtly racist (and expensive) electoral stunt in Australian political history may well have been the 'brainchild' (a term we use advisedly) of the Liberal Party, but it was a policy Labor supported in Opposition and continued in office. It also happens to breach more than half of the articles in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Twenty-five of them, in fact, and arguably a few more. In addition to that, the NT intervention also breaches 13 of the 30 articles in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an ethos to which Australia has been a signatory for more than half a century." Chris Graham, founding editor of the National Indigenous Times newspaper

See:

WGAR News: Calls to support Indigenous rights declaration:

http://womenforwik.freeforums.org/wgar-news-calls-to-support-indigenous-rights-declaration-t79.html

WGAR News: More calls to endorse Indigenous declaration at UN:

http://womenforwik.freeforums.org/wgar-news-more-calls-to-endorse-indigenous-declaration-at-un-t90.html

GOVT SCRAPS CDEP:

ABC: Govt reveals plans to scrap Indigenous employment scheme

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/07/2383758.htm

7 Oct 08: "The Federal Government has revealed its plans to overhaul the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) Indigenous employment scheme. The Government has released a discussion paper proposing to scrap CDEP everywhere except remote parts of Australia. Instead, from July next year, the Universal Employment Service would take over."

ABC: CDEP scrapping worries Kempsey Mayor

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/08/2385019.htm

8 Oct 08: "A radical plan by the Federal Government to scrap an Indigenous work-for-the-dole scheme has not been welcomed in Kempsey on the New South Wales mid-north coast. Under the proposal, Community Development and Employment Projects (CDEPs)
would be restricted to remote communities. New Kempsey Mayor John Bowell says it is a good idea to review Aboriginal employment strategies. But he says if the CDEPs are scrapped a viable alternative has to be put in place."

Age: Work for dole changes to come

http://www.theage.com.au/national/work-for-dole-changes-to-come-20081006-4v2h.html

7 Oct 08: "Aboriginal work for the dole programs will be scrapped in urban areas and overhauled in remote regions in an attempt to get indigenous Australians off welfare and into real jobs. ... The work for the dole, or Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP), has been heavily criticised as a welfare trap for indigenous Australians. ... The Government said yesterday there were limited job opportunities in some remote areas, making it harder for indigenous Australians to get off the projects."

Australian: Editorial: Indigenous people need right to work

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24456876-16741,00.html

7 Oct 08: "The paper, Increasing Indigenous Employment Opportunity, is focused on the future of the Community Development Employment Projects program, ... Now the Labor Government has indicated the scheme is set for abolition anyway in all but name and the principle of remote community development. CDEP will become another way of delivering job training, and only for remote areas."

CONVERGENCE ON ALICE:

Rollback the Intervention: Statement from Prescribed Area People’s Alliance women’s group

[scroll down the page] http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/convergence-on-mparntwe-alice-springs-29-30-september-2008/

30 Sep 08: "We Aboriginal women from the Prescribed Area People’s Alliance meeting yesterday, September 29 2008, met to talk on issues that affect us the most out of this intervention. We have made a statement. We don’t want the intervention. ...

Calls to action:

1. We call on Quentin Bryce, the Governor General, to come and meet with us women.

2. We call on Jenny Macklin to have proper consultation with us women.

3. Stop the intervention. We want to manage our communities the proper way, the way we want it, this is our community, we are the ones that live there, listen to us and our cultural ways."

Rollback the Intervention: Media Release: “Not one day more” National Convergence condemns delay to NT Intervention Review

http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/media-release-1-october-2008/

1 Oct 08: " “Every day the government stalls on repealing the NT Intervention is another day of unnecessary suffering for the Aboriginal people in the NT and another day that this racism shames our country,” said Monique Wiseman from Sydney. Over 200 peope have travelled to Alice Springs this week to protest the intervention and support communities resisting the Intervention’s measures. The historic covergence brought together people from prescribed areas in Aboriginal communities, Aboriginal town camps and outstations, with supporters and working groups from Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, Northern NSW, Melbourne, Darwin, Newcastle and Perth. ”We don’t need a review to gauge the failure of the Intervention. Listening to elders escribe the humiliation an paid of welfare quarantines, store cards, and forced leasing of their homelands is enough,” said Lauren Mellor from Brisbane. ... “They can pass legislation to impose on us in one night, but with three months they still can’t assess the damage they’ve done”, said Barbara Shaw from Mt Nancy town Camp."

NIT Forums: Living with a racist intervention

http://www.nit.com.au/opinion/story.aspx?id=16200

2 Oct 08: "The Northern Territory intervention faces overwhelming opposition among the people it purports to assist, ... In the Alice Springs town camps, and in the remote communities we have visited, there is a simmering anger - and people are seriously backing recent moves to get organised. A "Prescribed Area People's Alliance" meeting, set to be held in Alice on September 29 as NIT goes to print, will see representatives travel from as far afield as Lajamanu and Maningrida to develop a strategy to stop the intervention. ... An invitation to the meeting, signed in August by 13 community leaders, including traditional owners of Alice Springs, makes the statement: "The intervention is affecting people from different areas in different ways. But everywhere we feel it as a racist policy that has taken our people backwards." " Paddy Gibson, based in Alice Springs, member of the Intervention Rollback Action Group

HIGH COURT CHALLENGE:

Australian: NT intervention unconstitutional, elders tell court

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24438770-5013404,00.html

3 Oct 08: "KEY aspects of the Northern Territory intervention, including the federal Government's five-year takeover of Aboriginal townships, were unconstitutional, the High Court heard yesterday. ... Former Federal Court judge Ron Merkel QC, who is representing the group, told the High Court that the intervention had removed the ability of Aboriginal people to protect their sacred sites and was designed to cut off income to traditional owners. ... But the group faces significant obstacles. First, it must convince the court that section 51xxxi of the Constitution -- which requires that any property acquired by the commonwealth must be acquired on "just terms" -- applies to land in the Northern Territory."

See WGAR News: NT Intervention: High Court Challenge

http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/nt-intervention-convergence-high-court-challenge-4-oct-08

See Bob Brown: NT land grab would fail in High Court

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=196759432&blogID=298853149

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WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)