‘Aborigines are in concentration camps’
14/8/08
The recent Federal Government apology to the stolen generation does not go nearly far enough, provocative intellectual Germaine Greer says. Years of ill treatment had been eating away at Aboriginal communities and threatened their future, she told ABC Television last night. “We’re only on the edge of what we’ve done to these people, we have ripped away everything, language, culture, land, self esteem,” she said. “You name any of the things that make you a human being and they have all been stripped away.” Professor Greer said she feared that it was already too late for many Aboriginal communities, criticising the Federal Gvernment’s intervention in the Northern Territory.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24178771-12377,00.html
We failed remote indigenous communities, Macklin admits
John Wiseman; 14/8/08
Commonwealth and state governments had failed indigenous communities in South Australia’s isolated northwest over a long period, federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin admitted yesterday. The admission, which could be seen as a criticism of the Rann Labor Government, among others, came as the minister began personal negotiations with the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara executive board yesterday to gain approval to build housing in its communities in response to the Mullighan inquiry into child sex abuse. Former Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan blamed overcrowded housing, drug and alcohol abuse and pornography as prime causes of child abuse on the APY lands. Speaking in Pukatja, the largest APY community, Ms Macklin said there were “far too many people overcrowded into too few houses”. “Both levels of government over a long period of time have allowed this serious situation to occur,” she said.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24177930-5013404,00.html
Families Commission finally comes to Aurukun
Padraic Murphy; 14/8/08
More than eight months after the Aurukun rape case and other terrible stories of dysfunction in remote communities made headlines around the world, the welfare reform agenda has started in earnest in the isolated Cape York community. The Families Responsibilities Commission, which was set up by the Queensland Government after the rape of a 10-year-old girl by nine Aurukun males, held the first of its private hearings in the town yesterday. Under a plan to improve behavioural standards, make sure children are educated and end violence in the community, the FRC can order counselling or quarantine welfare payments from individuals and families whose children do not attend school or who appear before a magistrate.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24177929-5013404,00.html
Tags: Aboriginal, ArukunAdd new tag, Australia, Government, Greer, Human Rights