Just when you thought the Australian Federal Government couldn't get any more contemptuous of Indigenous Australians and our rights, wants and needs, this comes along:
Jenny Macklin, Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, announced that compulsory acquisitions of Alice Springs town camps. The act itself is enraging but unsurprising, as the Northern Territory Intervention has been understood by Indigenous people to be a land grab since its early days, but the timing is particularly despicable.
The announcement was made yesterday... on the first day of Reconciliation Week.
What a kick in the guts for those who have believed this government's promises about Reconciliation to be genuine.
Firefly has a round up of links on the issue.
In other "great start to Reconciliation week" news, Mackline also announced that compulsory income management for Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory will not be at odds with the re-instated Racial Discrimination Act. For those who are unaware, the Intervention was only possible because the RDA was suspended for a period of time. Now that it's being reinstated, the government's position is that income management has been "helpful" to Indigenous people, and hence does not conflict with the RDA.
I would submit that this is a pretty big indicator the RDA itself needs to be amended.
ETA: Protest on June 20th, the two year anniversary of the Northern Territory Intervention.
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Oh, dear God, Morgie edition
6 hours ago
2 comments:
The RDA doesn't conflict with the selective income management? Oh dear... yes, obviously the law isn't strongly worded enough to prevent these handy "exceptions". There are ways to go about income quarantining, should a community want it as some do, or for people in particular situations, such as having been found to be spending all money on alcohol rather than food for kids, and that doesn't fucking involve blanket targeting one racial group. Is anyone talking about income quarantining for poor whites who are underfeeding their kids for instance? And as for the quarantining to be "sticky" (is this true?), so that you can end up in, say, Sydney, or nomadic, and still be fucking having to find some store to fucking income manage you cos apparently you can't on your own...
Yes, yes, yes, everything you said. :) If the laws, which are racially specific, aren't clashing with the RDA? The RDA is broken.
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