Indigenous Australians.

[Ned Kelly]

Indigenous Australians were not allowed to go to university, hold a government job, or own land until 1967. A revolution is out of the question at the moment. Would you support a motion that relieved Aboriginals from paying taxes, as a means of getting them on equal footing? 232 years of oppression and apartheid has resulted in shocking inequality for indigenous Australians, living for 22 years on average shorter and 5 times more likely to be in gaol amongst a wealth of other inequalities.

[gorillafuck]

If it were proposed I would support full reparations from the Australian government to indigenous Australians, yes.

[counterblast]

Full reparations would be a complete return of the Australian continent.

[Start a Fire]

I think that poor Aboriginal communities should be exempt from taxes, and many rehabilitation centers and anti-drug and alcohol campaigns should be implemented in these communities to combat the very common alcoholism. However I think it would be racist for all people of Australian descent to be given reperations, regardless of their economic standings.

I'm not too aware of the quality of the schools in Aboriginal communities, but I think these schools should receive much funding from the government.

[gorillafuck]

Full reparations would be a complete return of the Australian continent.
How would you like this to be enacted in real life?:confused:

I meant good housing, healthcare, living standards etc. for all indigenous Australians as well as autonomy for indigenous communities so they can actually have control over their own lives. Though obviously it's be stupid to think any of this would be handed over by capitalist Australia.

[Ned Kelly]

Full reparations would be a complete return of the Australian continent.

As a Koori, I'd dearly love that. But I'm under no illusions, this won't go down. The minimum I want, and what i campaign for, is reparations for my brothers and sisters that were stolen by the state, and their families. I'd like to see genuine autonomy for not just the remote communities, but us living in the city. The reintroduction of ATSIC is key.

[progressive_lefty]

It's a tough subject, we in Australia are really aware of the wide range of views out there, and not just amongst non-Indigenous Australians.

I think we have to get land rights working well with-in the current democracy set up in Australia, if we could get anything right, I hope it would be that. I think, take for example, an Indigenous community had sovereignty over an area that might have trillions of dollar worth of coal, I firmly believe in their right to send the capitalist packing. Amongst all the things Australia took from the Indigenous, ie. language, culture, family members, land, I think we must connect with the land situation, because sadly we can't do too much about the other things I just mentioned.

[Ned Kelly]

Not building a waste dump as Ferguson wants to on our land up at Muckaty would be a nice start..

[counterblast]

How would you like this to be enacted in real life?:confused:

I meant good housing, healthcare, living standards etc. for all indigenous Australians as well as autonomy for indigenous communities so they can actually have control over their own lives. Though obviously it's be stupid to think any of this would be handed over by capitalist Australia.

I don't have any illusions that this will happen over night.

Short term goals and concessions are good, but without long term goals, people tend to settle for much less than they deserve.

Accept financial reparations, land, and legal protections in the short term; but there is no reason to accept anything less than complete autonomy and self-determination in the long term.