Natasha Robinson; 2/12/08; (2 Items)
Aborigines who live in the most remote parts of the Northern Territory are to be excluded from an inquiry into their very existence. Territory consultant and Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson yesterday conceded he would spend the next two weeks conducting public hearings on the future of remote outstations - without visiting any of them. The Territory Government is formulating a policy on the future of about 500 outstations, following an agreement last year that it would take over responsibility for the settlements from the federal Government. Under that agreement, the commonwealth will hand over $20million a year over three years to provide municipal and essential services such as water, electricity and sewerage, as well as infrastructure. Mr Dodson described the amount as “very minimal”.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24737378-5013404,00.html
‘Cappuccino’ intervention critics attacked
Natasha Robinson;1/12/08
A former senior commonwealth public servant who controversially aired allegations of child abuse at the central Australian settlement of Mutitjulu has broken his silence to condemn the “ignorance and ideology” peddled by “urban cappuccino chattering class” critics of the Northern Territory intervention into remote Aboriginal communities. Gregory Andrews says he paid a high price for speaking out about Northern Territory Aboriginal problems. Gregory Andrews, who was an executive in the commonwealth’s Office of Indigenous Policy Co-ordination in 2006 when he blew the whistle on alleged sexual abuse at Mutitjulu, an Aboriginal community near Uluru, says basic human rights for Aboriginal people must be placed before the right to be treated equally under the welfare system. “I think that when there’s a crisis - we have to put basic human rights first,” Mr Andrews told The Australian yesterday. “If you can’t enjoy the basic human right to be born without fetal alcohol syndrome, to live without violence, or to go to school with a full belly, then you can’t enjoy these other structural rights such as the right to be treated equally by the welfare system or indeed land rights.”
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24731845-5013172,00.html
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Drugs, Human Rights, Land Rights