Aborigines face ban on alcohol, porn.

[Andy Bowden]

Aborigines face ban on alcohol and porn

James Sturcke and agencies
Thursday June 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Aborigines watch television at an outstation in the Utopia community, Australia
Aboriginal leaders say the proposals are a return to the bad old days of government paternalism. Photograph: Ian Waldie/Getty Images


Pornography and alcohol will be banned for Aborigines in Australia's Northern Territory, the country's prime minister, John Howard, announced today, after a report found that "rivers of grog" were leading to rampant child abuse.

"This is a national emergency," Mr Howard told parliament. "We're dealing with a group of young Australians for whom the concept of childhood innocence has never been present."

The sale, possession and transportation of alcohol would be banned for six months on Aboriginal-owned land in the Northern Territory, Mr Howard said, and sales would be reviewed after that.

Article continues
Some Aboriginal leaders immediately attacked the plan as "disgusting and paternalistic", saying they were not consulted and that they objected to restrictions on how indigenous people spend their welfare benefits.

The child abuse report, Little Children Are Sacred, released last week, found drinking was a key contributor to the collapse of Aboriginal culture and neglect of children, and created opportunities for paedophiles.

The report said hardcore pornography was rife in Aboriginal communities and available to children, who had become desensitised to sex with adults. The sale and possession of pornography is also to be banned.

"A river of grog [alcohol] is killing people and destroying our communities," Pat Anderson, who co-chaired the inquiry, told reporters last week. "There is a strong association between alcohol abuse, violence and sexual abuse of children."

About 60,000 of Australia's roughly 400,000 Aborigines live in the Northern Territory. They are consistently the nation's most disadvantaged group, with far higher rates of unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, and domestic violence. Their life expectancy is 17 years shorter than that of other Australians.

Alcohol kills an Aborigine every 38 hours and accounts for a quarter of deaths in the Northern Territory.

Under Mr Howard's plan, new restrictions would be placed on welfare payments for Aborigines, forcing parents to spend at least half of the money on essential items such as food - a measure meant to prevent wasting money on alcohol and gambling. Family welfare payments would also be linked to children's school attendance.

Aboriginal leaders said it was the kind of government behaviour that disenfranchised their people and created the problems in the first place.

"I'm absolutely disgusted by this patronising government control," said Mitch, who uses one name and is a member of a government board helping Aborigines who were taken from their parents under past assimilation laws. "And tying drinking with welfare payments is just disgusting.

"If they're going to do that, they're going to have to do that with every single person in Australia, not just black people."

The report said banning alcohol sales in some Aboriginal communities had dramatically reduced sexual abuse and violence: "Alcohol is being used as a bartering tool to gain sex from children, either by offering it to the children themselves or in some cases to adult members of their family."

One Aboriginal woman from the Yolngu tribe said "white man's water is a curse" and called for alcohol outlets to be closed.

"Eradicate this curse that is killing us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually," she wrote in a letter published in the report.

The report said: "Many of the Aboriginal people spoken to by the inquiry were not aware of legal issues such as age of consent."

[Body Count]

White Aussies have a history probably worst then that of white Americans.

This is the kind of shit that really ticks me off.

I don't see how anyone could justify one group of people, telling another group of people that they simply aren't allowed to have something....especially considering when it's White Australians telling this shit to aborigines....after all the stunts they have pulled in the past.

This shit is fucking disgusting.

[bombeverything]

Yeah it is disgusting. I heard it on the news the other night (although it had been planned for awhile), as well as the news that the Police Officer who murdered an Indigenous man in Palm Island prison was acquitted. This is blatant racism. They government is also planning to cut welfare payments (already pitiful) to the parents of children who do not attend school, enforce private ownership and remove children from homes. Does this sound familiar? Oh, and the "opposition" fully supports this plan.

According to Howard all would be solved by teaching the children english :D. This, along with banning alcohol and pornography in Indigenous communities is meant to stop child abuse. These communities have been likened to developing countries. The prevalence of domestic violence in Indigenous communities is clearly linked to the poverty, inequality, and racism that resulted from the history of invasion, dispossession, murder and destruction of Indigenous people and their society which accompanied white colonialisation.

For instance according to research, violence against women and children was virtually unknown in traditional Aboriginal society. Men and women shared the food hunting and gathering roles and thus had equal social and economic importance within society. Acts of violence against women received severe punishment and condemnation. The arrival of white settlers brought levels of violence which were previously unknown.

Body> according to social indicators, Indigenous Australians are the most disadvantaged and oppressed Indigenous population in the world.

[Mujer Libre]

Apparently part of this plan involves forcing Indigenous parents to pay for their children to be fed at schools. Wtf?

Also the government is using this issue as a smokescreen to essentially swipe Indigenous land and/or remove what little rights rural communities have to their land. Convenient, especially around election time...

[TC]

The australian state is copying the fascist EZLN/Zapatista oppression of native people. Howard and Marcos = white oppressors of indigenous people's free expression and social lives. :P

[la-troy]

For some reason I can not stop laughing. this shit is hilarious.

But seriously I am all for stopping the abuse of children. And yes I don't believe people should spend their money on alcohol and leave their children out to dry. I also don't believe in murder but locking people up in their house isn't a reasonable solution. and so is this crap. on a different level how can one group of people decide that they can control another sect and treat them like misbehaving children.
I tell my friends that I would never live in a country where a white man is in charge. Call me racist if you want I dont care they always seem to know whats best for u and always feel they have some moral high ground and how their frigging civilized and feel they have to impose their shit on people and never feel they should take their own advice

[SpikeyRed]

Ahh! I'm an Australian, though I live in Victoria, and the Indigenous population down here (at least in my part of the state) has been almost completely genocided, so I don't see them in the local community, but I know I live in an area that was THRIVING with Koori (Vic. Aboriginals) before white men came.

I don't trust Howard at all. His plan rang alarm bells in my head as soon as I saw it announced. First off though, of course I agree the sexual abuse of Children, of any race, but particularly in indigenous Children, because of their long and harsh oppression in colonial and National Australia, is abosoloutly terrible, deplorable and needs to be addressed.

But as has been said, this is exactly the kind of paternalistic view and approach that has been taken to our indigenous population throughout history! I mean geez, It reminds me of when I learnt about "The Stolen Generation" in school, and my teacher told me that the guy who headed the department that carried out the KIDNAPPING of "half caste" children, was called the "Protector of Aboriginies" or something to that effect.

Haven't we learned anything?

Furthermore it is CLEAR too see that Howard has never had a serious or credible view on issues to do with Aboriginals. He refused to bloody well even just offer a serious apology for Aboriginal Treatment in Colonial and National Australia for god's sake! Instead he said it was "regrettable" or some other such cop out (correct me if you know what he actually said).

Also, The Federal Government, under this plan of Howards, is ceasing control of Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory (For those of you non-aussies, the NT isn't a state and as such has less independence\autonomy from the Fed. Govt.) and this rings alarm bells in my head at the possibility of erosion of "Native Title" and the entire Land Rights movement by stealth, under a false guise of "protecting them from themselves". Marbo would be turning in his grave! And it's not so far-fetched to think that Howard would want to get rid of "Native Title" and Land Rights...

They're have also been several important figures that have been working for years (forgive me for not sighting names, I read in the paper\heard it on the radio this 'mornin) in these communities on these problems who question the method of just throwing police from interstate into the fray and expecting them to solve the problem!

Also, it is reasonable to contemplate how effectively interstate police can enforce the laws of another state they have never worked in before! A senior NT Police officer today went on Radio questioning this himself.

A friend of mine brought up some interesting questions in relation to the Alcohol ban question. He said, well, we're being asked to believe a lot of these people are alcoholics and if so, what support services are they going to be offered when the Alcohol supply is literally just shut off? Because this is going to create a whole raft of NEW problems to go with the old ones if it's not properly supported, including an epidemic of withdrawal symptoms, and perhaps violence and abuse motivated no longer by intoxication but by withdrawal and stress?

And in such a situation won't a black market flourish? And if it's a virtual prohibition, what's to stop racist cops, or even misguided ones who think they're doing their job, deliberately seeking out and vilifying Indigenous people who have "contraband" alcohol? Just another way to alienate the Aborigines really...

I think Howard has just politically capitalized on stereotypes and prejudices in Australia, for his own electoral purposes, and as such, by Labor's (opposition party) electoral aims, they haven't much of a choice to go along with it!


A sad sad state of affairs :(

[Hiero]

I think Howard has just politically capitalized on stereotypes and prejudices in Australia, for his own electoral purposes, and as such, by Labor's (opposition party) electoral aims, they haven't much of a choice to go along with it!

He basically plays on the idea of "white mans' burden". The truth is, as exposed recently by Mutitjulu (I think it was their community radio) that these communities for years have always requested more health workers, social workers and other services. Now Howard reponds the only way a settler knows how to, by sending in the cops. It usually sits well with settler middle class Australia, if there is a problem only the cops can fix it.

[Hiero]

Does anyone know if the "Little Children are scarred" report is online?

[Mujer Libre]

Today a whole bunch of Indigenous people (including elders, former ATSIC delegates etc) came out and said that this amounts to essentially a smokescreen for a landgrab, considering that earlier in the year the government had tried to buy back some Indigenous land (I missed the specifics) and offer the communities 99year leases. I was watching 9's news (don't ask) and they basically dismissed these views as "rumblings in the outback"- because yeah, Indigenous views obviously don't matter. As Hiero said, it's all about the white man's burden, paternalism in other words.

It's also interesting to note that shares in uranium miners are apparently on the way up...

[bombeverything]

Originally posted by Mujer [email protected] 26, 2007 09:36 am
Today a whole bunch of Indigenous people (including elders, former ATSIC delegates etc) came out and said that this amounts to essentially a smokescreen for a landgrab, considering that earlier in the year the government had tried to buy back some Indigenous land (I missed the specifics) and offer the communities 99year leases. I was watching 9's news (don't ask) and they basically dismissed these views as "rumblings in the outback"- because yeah, Indigenous views obviously don't matter. As Hiero said, it's all about the white man's burden, paternalism in other words.

It's also interesting to note that shares in uranium miners are apparently on the way up...

Yeah the mining corporations are clearly benefiting from this and apparently Woolworths is happy to provide the food for the schools. I was watching the 7:30 report tonight and it sounded like they were broadcasting a war, which I guess this is. They are sending the military in after all. Seems like the "War on Terror" has failed and is getting old so Howard needed something new. A national emergency? Our Hurricane Katrina? Please.

Another thing I heard was that medical personal will also be arriving soon, most likely to inspect for evidence of child abuse :unsure:. Apparently a first deployment of three police officers will arrive late next week in Mutitjulu.

If anyone hears any updates please post them here.

[SpikeyRed]

Heard Noel Pearson (I think anyway) on the Radio this morning being angry at people who are anti-Howard's plan, saying that, we shouldn't "Condem this plan to failure from the outset" and such, but I mean, really, if Labor arn't going to give it a critical analysis, who is?

Bah! And your right about the Army stuff.
It's illegal in Australia for the Army to actually be used "against" the civi population though, or so my friend in the reserves tells me.
The government\media (almost one and the same really hey?) have been keen to emphasis that the Army is being used as logistics and support for the police and other 'services' being deployed.

Apparently some women and communities are in "terror" and talking of fleeing to waterholes and sand dunes and such to avoid the police and the military. Even been reports of some seriously and explicitly fearing they're children being taken from them in Stolen Generation style. And I would say they have justification of this fear, especially when there would be a lot of Indigenous people alive who have first hand memories of these atrocities taking place!

[bombeverything]

Noel Pearson. He always tries to cover up his clear neoliberalism with terminology such as "self help" and "Indigenous people have to take care of their own problems" etc. It is annoying.


It's illegal in Australia for the Army to actually be used "against" the civi population though, or so my friend in the reserves tells me. The government\media (almost one and the same really hey?) have been keen to emphasis that the Army is being used as logistics and support for the police and other 'services' being deployed.

Unless your an Indigenous Australian I guess, remember they are not really as civilized as us :sarcastic:. Seriously though, I am not sure about this, but either way it could be argued that the police are always used "against" civilians. If the military are supporting this then are they not effectively being used "against" civilians as well? What will happen when something goes 'wrong'? I cant help but have my suspicions about this.


And I would say they have justification of this fear, especially when there would be a lot of Indigenous people alive who have first hand memories of these atrocities taking place!

Indeed.

[Bilan]

Did anyone see when John Howard was being interviewed about this, and the interviewer said something about how it showed similarities to the stolen generations, and Howard goes "We're not stealing a generation, we're saving a generation!"?
This whole thing is so fucking dodgy, and the reaction of the so-called opposition is so appalling.
It's insane that none of these politicians bother to listen to the Indigenous spokes people.
The only one they'll listen to is Noel Pearson, and that's only because he says what they want to hear.

I suppose none of that's surprising. But still. Fills me with rage. :angry:

[Palmares]

I could well envisage some outsider bringing in illegal alcohol, or even making it themselves locally or whatever, and using it as bait to have sex with adolescents.

There you go John Howard you scumbag, ya plan doesnt work!

In all seriousness though, I wonder if this will turn into an anti-imperialist type war? Without any social strcutures to deal with what is about to happen, things are going to get rough...

[Palmares]

Check dis:


Howard's New Tampa -Aboriginal Children Overboard

Below is the text of an article by Jennifer
Martiniello which will be forwarded to major
newspapers in Australia. Please pass on to your
networks. Jennifer Martiniello is a writer and
academic of Arrernte, Chinese and Anglo descent. She
is a former Deputy Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait islander Arts Board of the Australia Council
for the Arts, and a current member of the Advisory
Board of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History
at the ANU.

Howard's New Tampa - Aboriginal Children Overboard
Howard's new Tampa children overboard are our
Aboriginal children. The Little Children are Sacred
report does not advocate physically and
psychologically invasive examinations of Aboriginal
children, which could only be carried out anally and
vaginally. It does not recommend scrapping the permit
system to enter Aboriginal lands, nor does it
recommend taking over Aboriginal 'towns' by enforced
leases. These latter two points in the Howard scheme
hide the true reason for the Federal Government's use
of the latest report for blatant political
opportunism.

It has been an openly stated agenda that Howard wants
to move Aboriginal people off their lands, and has
made recent attempts to buy off Aboriginal people by
offering them millions for agreeing to lease their
lands to the Federal Government, e.g. Tiwi Islands and
Tangentyere in Alice Springs. There was also the
statement by the Federal Government that it could not
continue (?!) to provide essential services to remote
communities, which raised an uproar of responses in
the press. The focus on the sexual abuse of children
is guaranteed to evoke the most emotive responses, and
therefore command attention, just like the
manipulation of the Tampa situation. But while the
attention of the media and the public is being
emotionally coerced, what is being sneaked in under
the covers?

Two issues specifically - mining companies have
applied for more exploration permits in the Northern
Territory, the Jabiluka uranium mining operations at
Kakadu have already hit the media because of the
mining company's applications to the Government to
significantly expand its operations, including
establishing new mines at Coronation
Hill, and another critical issue - nuclear waste.

The Howard Government has already mooted that nuclear
waste should be dumped in the Northern Territory, on
Aboriginal lands. Aboriginal traditional owners are
absolutely opposed to this. We have a long history of
deaths and illness from radiation, from the atomic
tests at Woomera in the 1950s to the current high
incidences of carcinomas in the community at Kakadu
near the Jabiluka site. The main obstacle to the
Federal Government's desired expansion of mining
operations in the Northern Territory and nuclear waste
dumping is, of course, the Aboriginal people who have
occupancy of, and rights under the common law to,
their traditional lands.

Following the stages of the Howard Government's usual
modus operandi (defund, blame, eliminate), defunding
of critical programs for remote Aboriginal community
projects began in July 2004, with coerced changes to
funding contracts, and monies for critically needed
youth and health programs in remote areas being the
first dollars to go. Take Mutitjulu for example, which
was notoriously profiled by the ABC's Nightline
program. I say notorious because one of Senator Mal
Brough's personal staffers was the so-called ex-youth
worker interviewed on that program, and the content of
that interview was laden with myths and mistruths. The
staffer in question failed to appear when summoned
before a Senate inquiry to explain and the Senator's
office is yet to issue a statement. When the community
lodged a formal protest to Government, it was raided
and their computers seized. But the program did show
the effects of the Howard Government defunding of
essential programs on that community, in particular
the youth centre and health centre. The people at
Mutitjulu also just happen to be the traditional
owners of Uluru, one of this country's most lucrative
tourist attractions. The Howard Government would not
like us to ask who benefits by the people of Mutitjulu
being forced off their community. Under the amendments
to Native Title made by the Howard Government, once
Aboriginal people have left their traditional lands,
forcibly or otherwise, their rights under the common
law that every other Australian enjoys over their land
are significantly impaired.

Progressive defunding of Aboriginal art centres has
also begun, with a range of community art centres not
having their funding renewed by DCITA in July 2005 and
2006 in the Northern Territory, from communities in
Arnhemland to mid and southern Territory communities.
The art production facilitated by those Aboriginal art
centres are the only means through which members of
those communities can actually earn a living, as
opposed to being on welfare. But then, dependent
people are easier to control by means of that
dependency.
The Howard Government's failed Shared Responsibility
Agreements (SRAs) have also been the catalyst for
further blame shifting and progressive defunding, take
Wadeye for example.

Our Aboriginal communities are being squeezed further
into dysfunction and disenfranchisement by carefully
targeted political engineering, the systemic and
ruthless roll-out of a planned agenda.
It is no accident that Howard's scheme to address what
he calls the urgency of the Little Children are Sacred
report's 97 recommendations was trotted out so very
quickly, and addresses so very few of those
recommendations. It is sheer political opportunism to
advance an already in motion agenda, and to score
points in an election year. After all, The Little
Children are Sacred report is not the first of such
reports, nor are its findings and recommendations new.
The Federal Government has had the 1989, 1991, 1993,
1997 and 2002 reports gathering dust and deliberate
inaction on its shelves.
Perhaps Mr Howard has been saving them up for a rainy
election year? And of course Mr Howard's scheme
targets only Aboriginal communities, despite the fact
that the findings specifically state that non-
Aboriginal men, that is, white men, are a significant
proportion of the offenders, who are
black-marketeering in petrol and alcohol to gain
access to Aboriginal children. What measures is the
Howard Government going to take about non-Aboriginal
sex offenders, pornographers, substance traffickers
and the like? Nothing according to the measures
announced, but then, they're not Aboriginal and they
don't live on the Aboriginal communities where their
victims live.

So who are the real victims here, the silenced victims
of John Howard's scheme? Aboriginal children, of
course, who will be subject to physically and
psychologically invasive medical examinations,
irrespective of their home and family circumstances,
and who will deal with the mental and emotional
fall-out from that? Aboriginal men, too, who become
the silenced scapegoats, painted by default by John
Howard as all being drunken, child-raping monsters.
Perhaps the fact that almost every picture shown of
Aboriginal men in the media these days shows them
drunk, with a slab, cask or bottle under their arms
leads Mr Howard to expect that one to pass
unchallenged, irrespective of the fact that statistics
show that only 15% of Aboriginal people drink alcohol,
socially or otherwise, compared to around 87% of
non-Aboriginal Australians. The greater majority of
Aboriginal men are good, decent people. Perhaps the
media would like to rethink its portrayals of
Aboriginal men? How about some photos of the other
alcoholics, you know, the white ones. There's more of
them.

And what of our communities? The Howard Government
also hasn't mentioned that the majority of Aboriginal
communities in the Northern Territory are already dry
communities, decided and enforced by those
communities. But then that would spoil the picture Mr
Howard wants to
paint of our Aboriginal communities. Other large
communities, such as Daly River, have controlled the
situation by only having alcohol available from the
community's club and enforce a strict four can limit.
Also forgotten in the current politically
opportunistic furore is the fact that Aboriginal
communities around Tennant Creek and Katherine have
been lobbying Governments and town councils for
decades to restrict the sale of alcohol on Thursdays,
when Aboriginal community people come to town for
supplies. So far their pleas have been rejected.
Nothing in Mr Howard's plan to facilitate that,
either. Or about the control of alcohol when those
people, once forced off the communities into the
towns, bring their problems with them, child abuse or
alcoholism and all the rest. Of course that would make
access to Aboriginal children a lot easier for white
offenders, they won't have to go so far to find a
victim.

One last word on focus of attention. In the famous
Redfern Address, the then Prime Minister, Paul Keating
asked perhaps the most important question for all
Australians to consider. He said 'We failed to ask the
most basic of questions. We failed to ask - What if
this were done to us?' What if this were done to us -
to Mr and Mrs Average Australian, to our schools,
youth centres, health centres, access to medical care,
communities, homes, children, grandchildren? After
all, current national health reports from a wide range
of health organisations name sexual abuse of
non-Indigenous Australian children as a crisis area in
need of urgent attention. And the numbers of victims
are higher. National reports into mainstream domestic
violence, alcohol and substance abuse also call for
urgent action, again the issues are at crisis level,
and the numbers of victims and abusers are far higher
than in the Little Children are Sacred report. None of
the recommendations in all of those hundreds of
national health reports recommend compulsory sexual
health tests for every Australian child under sixteen.
Not one of them recommends that a viable solution is
closing down youth and health programs, in fact they
all advocate that more are needed. None recommend that
the victims' or the offenders' communities and homes
should be surrendered to the Federal Government and
put under compulsory lease agreements, and none
advocate processes which would lead to either the
victims or the abusers losing their rights under
common law to their property as measure to control or
remedy the occurrence of abuse. Would the Howard
Government even dare to contemplate such as that? I
think not. It would be un-Australian, and the
Government it would expect immediate legal
repercussions on the grounds of impairment of human
rights, extinguishment of rights under common law,
discrimination, and a raft of other constitutional
issues. Besides, Mr and Mrs Average Australian don't,
for the most part, live on top of uranium and mineral
deposits or future nuclear waste dumps.

But seriously, the most critical question for all
Australians to ask themselves in the lead up to this
year's Federal Election is just that - What if it were
done to us? With full acknowledgment of what has
already been done to workers, trade unions, student
unions, public primary, secondary and tertiary
education, elderly care, palliative care, medicare,
crisis health care,nurses, teachers, multicultural
affairs, migrant groups, women, child care, small
businesses and artsworkers, among the many, through
the exercise of policies of social engineering and
fear, your answer at the polling booth may just
determine whether it will be done to you, or continue
to be done to you. As reported in the Sydney Morning
Herald 25th June, the Howard Government last week used
the military to seize control of 60 Aboriginal
communities in the Northern Territory, which are now
under military occupation. This is not Israel and
Palestine. The Northern Territory is not Gaza or the
West Bank. This is Australia - but is it the Australia
you thought you lived in? Walk in our shoes,
Aboriginal Australia's, and ask yourselves, what would
it be like to have this done to us? And then, walk
with us.

Jennifer Martiniello

Warning:
This email may contain creative spelling!

[Mujer Libre]

Comparing this to Tampa is really apt in my opinion. Approaching an election the government looks like losing, pull out the old "we're (us good white folk are, that is) saving the children!" lie. And as long as they can sustain the lie, it gives them a blank cheque to do whatever they like and come out smelling great.

[bombeverything]

Some army, police and government officials arrived yesterday to "meet the locals". Officials from welfare, health, and employment departments and territory police and seven uniformed NORFORCE representatives met the people one by one (the Age).


Did anyone see when John Howard was being interviewed about this, and the interviewer said something about how it showed similarities to the stolen generations, and Howard goes "We're not stealing a generation, we're saving a generation!"?

:D. Anyway your right on the mark with your comments.


In all seriousness though, I wonder if this will turn into an anti-imperialist type war? Without any social strcutures to deal with what is about to happen, things are going to get rough...

I can't help but hope so.


Comparing this to Tampa is really apt in my opinion. Approaching an election the government looks like losing, pull out the old "we're (us good white folk are, that is) saving the children!" lie. And as long as they can sustain the lie, it gives them a blank cheque to do whatever they like and come out smelling great.

Yeah good point.

[Comrade_Scott]

the ban is stupid, its not going to help at all..... without alcohol then they will continue to drink the shit from the car (its a rising problem as well) what the damn aussies need to do is to start treating the aborigines like people and with respect and help them and not just take the alcohol and leave it at that. look at the deeper issue and fix it. Until the deeper issue is dealt with that is stop treating them like shit and second class citizens ald like people then things will only go from bad to worse

[SpikeyRed]

And Comrade Scott hits the nail right on the head!

[Black Dagger]

Originally posted by [email protected] 26, 2007 06:15 pm
Does anyone know if the "Little Children are scarred" report is online?
Here you go:

http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/inquirysaac/pdf/b...inal_report.pdf (http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/inquirysaac/pdf/bipacsa_final_report.pdf)

[apathy maybe]

A very good article by one Germaine Greer (I assume she is the famous one) is up on the Guardian website.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330125502-110732,00.html

Obviously biased,

Originally posted by Germaine Greer @ aricle
Any hopes that this attitude might have changed were dashed two weeks ago, when Prime Minister John Howard announced a new crusade. Following a report calling for action on child abuse in Aboriginal communities, he announced a six-month ban on alcohol and pornography within the homelands, compulsory medical checks for indigenous children and restrictions on welfare payments. As commander-in-chief of an army of police, the Australian Defence Force and hordes of doctors and nurses, he will storm the 70 or so autonomous Aboriginal settlements in the Northern Territory. He can do this because the Northern Territory, having failed in a recent, rather half-hearted bid for statehood, is directly administered by the Australian government. For Aboriginal people, Howard's edict is just another sudden and draconian shift in the law as it relates to them; just another pillar in a lifetime of being shoved from pillar to post.

She makes good points,

The prime minister of Australia should know, however, that most of the areas under Aboriginal control in the Northern Territory are already dry. The elders would have greater success in keeping them that way if Howard and his Myrmidons would do the job they have been elected to do. Rather than wresting nominal control of Aboriginal homelands to himself and so undermining the authority of the elders still further, Howard could bring the full force of the law to bear on the white bootleggers who bring grog into dry Aboriginal communities by night and sell it at exorbitant prices.

And covers the history of the thing quite well. Thoughts?

[Sniper of Capitalism]

First of all, we have acknowledge that the Aboriginals doing these horrible thing have to accept some responsibility for their actions. The rest of the Australian population have access to alcohol and porn but do not have an epidemic of 2 year old with STDs.

It's true the this is a pre-election wooing move by the **** Howard. This problem has been present for many years now, but Howard has decided to "try and help them" months before an election. I think he'll lose, though, the working class has recognised his workplace reforms will enable profit-hungry bosses to reduce them to poverty at the drop of a hat.

As for the paedophilia problem in the outback, there are minimal job opportunities for them and Labour doesn't give a shit and the Liberals don't give a shit. They've been left to wallow in hopelessness for generations. If you treat people like shit they'll come to believe they are. That said, the majority of Aboriginals do not do these things, so some responsibility lies with the perps.

[Palmares]

Just wanted to say, if anyone has updates on the situation, id love to hear it. since im in europe, its harder for me to get info.

[bombeverything]

First of all, we have acknowledge that the Aboriginals doing these horrible thing have to accept some responsibility for their actions. The rest of the Australian population have access to alcohol and porn but do not have an epidemic of 2 year old with STDs.

The issue is not whether this behaviour is "right" or "wrong" but that sending in the military to force people to change is not the solution. Unless the extreme structural inequalities and disadvantage experienced by Indigenous Australians are addressed, the problem will continue.

Moreover, child abuse occurs in Toorak as well, why aren't the military in these suburbs? We need to look at the reasons why these things happen, rather than blaming individuals. No one here is suggesting that child abuse is acceptable, but rather noting that policies such as this will only contribute to the problem. It is policies similar to this, that is bluntly racist policies that created the problem in the first place. The government is not there to help the children. They are there to steal land.


It's true the this is a pre-election wooing move by the **** Howard. This problem has been present for many years now, but Howard has decided to "try and help them" months before an election. I think he'll lose, though, the working class has recognised his workplace reforms will enable profit-hungry bosses to reduce them to poverty at the drop of a hat.

It is more than this. It is also a land grab. There are also economic reasons why the government has taken this action, i.e. securing land so that it can be exploited by mining corporations. It is both politically and economically advantageous in my view.


As for the paedophilia problem in the outback, there are minimal job opportunities for them and Labour doesn't give a shit and the Liberals don't give a shit. They've been left to wallow in hopelessness for generations. If you treat people like shit they'll come to believe they are. That said, the majority of Aboriginals do not do these things, so some responsibility lies with the perps.

Unless these inequalities are overcome, nothing will change. A focus on opposing the neoliberal agenda of the Howard government is not in any way condoning or accepting of child abuse, if this is what you are suggesting. All child abusers are responsible for their actions, this is why the focus on child abuse in Indigenous communities is racist.

The reason for the high prevailence of this in Indigenous communities is a direct result of the destruction of their communities that was a result of european colonisation. This is not to say that such behaviour is acceptable, but rather to recognise that this past is linked to what is happening today. The reason that there is a high prevailance of child abuse in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory is not because of "weak", or "bad" individuals, but a history of genocide, dispossession and oppression.

[bombeverything]

Apparently the public consumption of alcohol has now been banned in Alice Springs.