Colonialism

The United Nations has described Australia's lack of progress on Closing the Gap as "woefully inadequate", saying the over-incarceration of Indigenous people is a major human rights concern. Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Ms Tauli-Corpuz said it was unacceptable that despite two decades of economic growth, Australia had not been able to improve the social disadvantage of its Indigenous population. She urged the Federal Government to establish a treaties and truth-telling commission.

'Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the Northern Territory', and their members have received widespread concerns about the debilitating impacts that CDP is having on its participants, their families and communities.

Onerous and discriminatory obligations applied to remote CDP work for the dole participants mean they have to do significantly more work than those in non-remote, mainly non-Indigenous majority areas, up to 670 hours more per year

In the April issue of Land Rights News I celebrated the 30th anniversary of the progressive and supportive Blanchard report 'Return to Country': the Aboriginal Homelands Movement in Australia. And I wondered what celebration or reproach the 10th anniversary of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response, the Intervention that was militaristically launched with extraordinary media fanfare on 21 June 2007 might elicit.

The answers to this question are threefold.

Response to the Referendum Council's so-called modest and substantive recommendation of a referendum to have an advisory-only 'Indigenous Voice' in parliament. $800 million plus has now gone down the gurgler, but then this is what happens when a government meets resistance, a resistance that has been going since 1770. It must be an enormous disappointment for the Turnbull government and Shorten's expectations that Leibler and his First Nations cohorts have failed miserably to deliver the goods, that is to assimilate First Nations Peoples in to the colonial constitution. Turnbull is clearly aware of a looming 'heroic failure'.

Aboriginal Embassy Statement from the Sacred Fire
'WALKOUT STATEMENT' Opposing Constitutional Recognition and Manufactured Consent
- We, the First Nations People who gathered at the Sacred Fire of the Aboriginal Embassy on 24-25 June 2017, reject the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ and its’ Guiding Principles. The ‘Uluru Statement’ is a reflection of the corrupt proceedings of the Referendum Council’s Regional Dialogues and the National Constitutional Convention.

Labor and the government have come to a "settled position" which will deliver native title law changes through federal parliament next week. The bill, slated to be debated in the Senate on Tuesday, is aimed at resolving legal uncertainty around more than 120 indigenous land use agreements relating to major projects, including Queensland's Carmichael mine proposed by Indian resources giant Adani. The bill expected to pass parliament next week reverts the system to the pre- McGlade status quo.

On his return from Uluru, Ghillar, Michael Anderson details the rigged processes of the Referendum Council's National Convention and the subsequent media: 'I was absolutely shocked and horrified at the disjointed discussion that occurred on ABC TV Q&A last night ( 29 May 2017). In my opinion the conclusions that occurred at the Referendum Council's National Convention at Yulara, Ayers Rock Resort, were totally betrayed by the Q&A panel. Having been permitted to sit as an observer in the main National Convention at Yulara near Uluru, I was privy to observe the proceedings and I sat through the 'Synthesis' of the Regional Dialogues and what they called the breakout workshops as well, where the key topics were 'The Voice', 'Treaty', 'Strategy'.

The message from the grassroots is clear. We are the Sovereign Owners of Our Nations.

Our Law is the Law of the land. We oppose the lies and the hypocrisy of the Australian government's Referendum Council and their highly paid sellouts.

We are the true Sovereign owners of our land. NO CONSENT to theft, lies and government and corporate propaganda.

A formal complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman about the serious breaches of process that have occurred and are currently occurring by the Referendum Council, which has been formed under the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Maureen E. Davis, Marbk and Ghillar, Michael Anderson include several articles that explain the inconsistencies and deviations from the Referendum Council's stated processes. They call for an immediate investigation of the matters raised and also call for the formal suspension and termination of the activities of the Referendum Council.

'We do need to understand who is running the Referendum Council, which is now trying to distance itself from the failed Recognise and Reconciliation campaign for the constitutional inclusion of the words 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders'. This engine room they call the 'Referendum Council' must be urgently scrutinised. Who are these people and what are their backgrounds?' - Ghillar, Michael Anderson provides an overview of the deceit by our own people who are being led by a government with a treacherous agenda.