Concentration Camps in Australia

Despite claims from Government that more people are engaging in Work for the Dole, penalties for non-attendance at Work for the Dole were higher than ever, at 46,258 in the quarter. These penalties are not waived or worked off and because Aboriginal people in remote areas work much longer hours that their city counterparts, they are penalised at a much higher rate. With an exasperating number of penalties in remote communities, not only do the participants get penalised, but the lack of income affects the whole community. [node:read-more:link]

The Bar Association of NSW's submission to a Law Reform Commission inquiry into First Nations incarceration calls for a new approach to sentencing which takes into account the deprivation and disadvantage inherent in an individual's Aboriginal background. The association also calls for an end to mandatory sentences, which make it impossible for courts to make any allowance for such disadvantage in their decisions. The rate at which Aboriginal people end up in jail is appalling and in NSW last year Aboriginal people were 3 per cent of the population, but 24 per cent of the prison population. [node:read-more:link]

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. [node:read-more:link]

Along with the Papal Apologies we have been researching the Bible and its scriptures, because one thing that haunts the memory of our Old People, and this memory has been handed down to us in this generation to this day, is the realisation: They came with the Book in their hand when we were the sovereigns of the soil, but within 50 years we were killed with impunity and we were imprisoned not for any wrongs doings, but simply because of who we are. The question we must now ask ourselves is what is the relevance of the Papal Apology to Oceania [node:read-more:link]

PM Turnbull's Royal Commission into juvenile justice in Northern Territory is a cowardly act by a Prime Minister, who is ducking for cover in an attempt to protect his Minister, Nigel Scullion, from being scrutinised by the national and international community, which has been shocked into total disbelief at what was shown on Australian National TV by ABC Four Corners report 'Australia's Shame' on Monday 25 August 2016. We thank Cara Meldrum Hana for her investigative journalism skills to expose graphically what had been ignored by the authorities for so long. [node:read-more:link]