Warren Mundine dismisses protests over indigenous intervention
Paul Maley; 24/6/07
Weekend protests over the Northern Territory intervention into indigenous communities have been dismissed by prominent Aboriginal leader Warren Mundine as the work of white middle-class liberals and the same generation of indigenous leaders who let the problems develop in the first place. Speaking two days after a national day of action to protest against the federal Government’s intervention on its one-year anniversary, Mr Mundine, a former ALP president, called onthe public to ignore the demonstrations. He said those responsible had become “totally disconnected” from the plight of Aboriginals living in the affected areas. “Quite frankly, I think some of these people are just locked up in their eastern suburbs homes and don’t have a bloody clue what’s going on,” Mr Mundine told The Australian.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23912399-5013404,00.html
Embed officers for kids: head of intervention
Natasha Robinson; 23/6/08
The Northern Territory government is under pressure to bolster its child protection system following a call from the federal Government’s outgoing task force chief that child protection officers must be embedded in Aboriginal communities. Sue Gordon’s plea to the Territory Government comes as new figures reveal a serious deficit in child protection workers in central Australia - the site of most notifications of suspected child abuse. Since the intervention was launched, only 21 new child protection workers have been recruited in the NT - an increase of just seven workers per year on the average over the previous five years. Dr Gordon told The Australian that multi-functional police centres with child protection workers attached - similar to the model introduced by the West Australian Government following her report
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23904949-5013172,00.html
Same old protest mob
24/6/08
Anti-intervention group a small but familiar movement. Weekend demonstrations have given a face to the small group of people who still cling to the misguided belief that remote indigenous communities are best left to stew in their own dysfunction. Organisers could only manage to rally a few hundred protesters to demonstrations staged in Canberra and state capitals. They were not the faces of mainstream Australia that gathered to witness Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations, or the hundreds of thousands who marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, some with children in strollers, in an earlier bid to persuade John Howard to do the same. Overwhelmingly, the weekend protests comprised the academics and professional Aboriginal people who have been described by Warren Mundine as the Aboriginal industry.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23911005-16382,00.html
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Children, Reconciliation