Mission & Justice

Ben Cubby; 24/11/08

As Australia’s pristine Kimberley region is shown off to the world via Baz Luhrmann’s film Australia, some of the area’s trad-itional owners say it is about to be ruined for good. The West Australian Government plans to push ahead with building an enormous sea port to funnel the Kimberley’s stocks of liquid natural gas and other minerals offshore, and has indicated it may strip the local Aboriginal community of its previously granted right of veto over the development. “The industrialisation of the Kimberley is a continuation of government policy of the past,” said Neil McKenzie, chairman of the Jumbarrngunjul Aboriginal corporation, which administers land close to the Government’s preferred port site at North Head, on the Dampier Peninsula.

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Phillip Adams, 22/11/08; (3 Items) 

A black man who saw total catastrophe overwhelm his people. A man of quiet dignity who became a leader and, despite all atrocities and provocations, rejected hatred. A man who tried to reach across the racial abyss to the white man. Barak. No, I’m not misspelling it. This is Australia’s Barak, William Barak, who should be as famous here as Barack Obama is in the United States. It is to our eternal shame that so few know the name. Marcia Langton is right: his story should be told in every classroom. Simpson and his donkey? Burke and Wills? Don Bradman? We know their stories off by heart. But with Barak we have a classic case of the deafening silence.

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Rhys Blakely; 22/11/08

An Indian teenager who dared to write a love letter to a sweetheart from a higher caste was beaten and paraded through the streets before being thrown under a train and killed. Manish Kumar, 15, a member of India’s Dalit, or “Untouchable”, community, was seized by a gang of men as he went to his village school. He was beaten and his head was shaved before he was thrown on to the tracks as his mother begged for mercy, witnesses said. It was alleged that police looked on as the incident took place. A teenager has since been arrested and a policeman has been suspended. Five other men have been detained.

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Barney Zwartz; 22/11/08; (3 Items)

Australia’s most senior Muslim has said he will end segregation of men and women in mosques, in a bold response to Islamic women’s anger at entrenched discrimination. The Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Fehmi Naji el-Imam, said he would put his proposal to the next meeting of the Australian National Imams’ Council and consider how women could share the room with men during prayers. Sheikh Fehmi said segregated worship had been introduced long ago, as a cultural change, not a religious one, and he would argue to end it. “It is good to hear the complaints of the sisters, and to try to find some solution to their concerns,” he told The Age in an exclusive interview. “My duty is to propose, to discuss and try to convince. I can’t guarantee the outcome.”

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Nicola Berkovic; 2211/08

The Rudd Government will dump John Howard’s citizenship test for migrants and replace it with a new, simpler test based on Australia’s democratic values rather than obscure historical or sporting facts. Immigration Minister Chris Evans will today announce a major overhaul of the test, accepting almost all of the recommendations made by a review led by Australian diplomat Richard Woolcott. In a scathing critique, the review found the present test to be “flawed, intimidating to some and discriminatory” and in need of reform. The new test will be based on the five-line Pledge of Commitment recited by new citizens, which recognises Australia’s democratic beliefs and laws, and the rights and liberties of citizens.

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Michael McKenna; 21/11/08

The shock of 50,000 volts hit her 50kg frame without warning. Struggling under the weight of a policeman and two burly security guards, the Taser’s “drive stun” blast on the 16-year-old’s thigh felt like a knife was being driven up and into her stomach. “It was so painful; it was excruciating and horrible and painful,” the now 17-year-old, who cannot be named, told The Australian. “It stopped my whole body from moving. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t know what a Taser was and then there was ‘zap’. I was screaming and crying and I can sort of remember this police officer telling me that he had used a Taser.” The girl was hardly an innocent. The stream of profanities and threats that had poured out of her mouth at the two Queensland police officers minutes before had raised the heat of what should have been a routine confrontation with a pack of unruly teenagers.

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Patricia Karvelas; 21/11/08

Up to 12,000 Aborigines living on 63 former Aboriginal reserves in NSW will be given the chance to buy their own homes under a Rudd Government plan to dramatically extend indigenous private ownership. In its first successful deal to expand home ownership outside the Northern Territory, the commonwealth will contribute half the funds for the scheme, with the NSW Aboriginal Land Council agreeing to match the contribution as part of the $6million funding arrangement. The Government is also actively trying to push for greater indigenous private home ownerships in other states, including Western Australia.

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Samantha Maiden & Paul Maley; 21/11/08; (4 Items)

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks is considering writing a book after he is released from his control order this Christmas, but is content for now to continue his job of potting plants in a Sydney nursery. After Australian Federal Police confirmed last night they would not apply for an extension of the control order on Mr Hicks, which includes a strict curfew and bans him from using the internet or a public telephone, he described the decision last night as “a great relief for my family and me”. “I owe the Australian people a lot,” he said. “The decision not to renew my control order will allow me … to move on with my life. Thank you.”

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21/11/08

Some Muslim imams condone rape and domestic violence within marriage, exploitation of women, welfare fraud and polygamy, a report has found. The report was based on a study commissioned and funded by the former coalition government and produced by the Islamic Welfare Council of Victoria, Fairfax newspapers report. The report, presented on yesterday at a National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies conference at the University of Melbourne, alleged that some Victorian imams: Apply Sharia law only where it benefits men; Hinder police investigations of domestic violence claims; and; Knowingly perform polygamous marriages, which allow a second wife to claim Centrelink payments because they are regarded as de facto wives under Australian law.

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Belinda Merhab; 20/11/08; (2 Items)

The NSW Ombudsman has recommended a two-year freeze on further roll-outs of Taser guns, saying police standards for their use are inadequate, and the health risks are unknown. Bruce Barbour told state parliament yesterday that general-duties police, who were issued the stun guns last month, were using Tasers at a higher rate than special operations police, who began using them in 2002. “It is clear the number of incidents where Tasers will be used in the future will increase significantly,” Mr Barbour said. “There is already evidence of this. Tasers have been used on people on five occasions in the first two weeks of general-duties use. This compares with only 48 incidents over a five-year period” by special unit officers… The use of Tasers, which stun a victim by emitting a 50,000-volt electric shock, have been linked to heart complications and death.

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