Songlines

Saturday 1st November 12:30pm till 4pm
Guaranteed Safe Environment

This is a call out to people who think unity/greatness/family is the way for our people Reclaim our people & community

Come along and enjoy some family time with ya kids and family, hear some history, share some history, make a statement that black fullas are as strong & proud…..

free if you have no money or a gold coin donation to self support the continued event

* Bbq (sausage sizzle)
* Fruit
* Bottled water
* Live & deadly, acts
* Jumping castle
* Face painting

I believe drug dealing & drug use don’t belong to aboriginal culture, I know you do too!

Shane Phillips
Chief Executive Officer
Tribal Warrior Association Inc
111 Regent Street, Redfern NSW 2016
Tel: 02 9699 3491

“INCREASING INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

A Discussion Paper on Proposed reforms to the CDEP and Indigenous Employment Programs”

http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/internet/facsinternet.nsf/vIA/cdep/$file/Increasing_Indigenous_Employment_Opportunity.PDF

Note – some indigenous Australian’s consider what is happening to be part of the Australian government’s massive behaviour modification experiment which does not treat them as cultural partners nor recognise them as First Peoples with a right to self-determination – and that changes to the CPED program are part of an unspoken strategy to extend the NT compulsory income management measures as a mega-control trip belonging to the bad old days of the White Australia policy.

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http://nitv.org.au/

NITV Goes Free-to-Air Across Sydney – NITV Broadcasts to Channel 40

National Indigenous TV (NITV), a 24 hour, Indigenous television service, will launch in Australia’s largest free-to-air television market on Monday 27 October 2008.

Tune in to digital Channel 40 via the DIGITAL FORTY FOUR network to catch a range of programming that includes a daily news and weather service created by and for Indigenous people, award-winning sports programs, stunning dramas, insightful documentaries, cultural programming, music events, children’s shows, hilarious comedy, Indigenous lifestyle and reality series, and entertaining movies.

NITV will be available to those of the 3.8m people in the Sydney metropolitan area covered by the service who currently receive digital terrestrial television free-to-air signals. The service will be carried on Broadcast Australia’s digital free-to-air television trial platform known as DIGITAL FORTY FOUR. NITV can be found on digital Channel 40. For those not currently receiving digital television, the service can be received through the purchase of a set top box or digital television set. Details of the coverage of this service can be found at www.nitv.org.au.

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WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

24 OCT 2008:
NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION:
GOVT RETAINS WELFARE CONTROLS

Greens media release: NTER review a sham – ALP backs racial discrimination

http://www.greensmps.org.au/content/media-release/nter-review-a-sham-%E2%80%93-alp-backs-racial-discrimination

23 Oct 08: “The Australian Greens have denounced the decision by the Rudd Government to ignore the recent Northern Territory Emergency Response review and to push ahead with income quarantining regardless of the evidence — labelling the Government’s commitment to the review
“an empty sham.”

“This confirms that Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin never intended to pay attention to the review report,” said Senator Rachel Siewert today. …

The ALPs empty promises about ‘social inclusion’ and ‘evidence-based policy’ are clearly dead in the water,” she said.”

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Australian Human Rights Commission

Thursday, 23 October 2008

Gaps in our legal system around human rights protection continue to have a real and devastating effect on the life chances for Aboriginal people in Australia more than 40 years after Aboriginal leader Charlie Perkins first undertook the freedom ride, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said tonight while delivering the 2008 Dr Charles Perkins Memorial Oration at the University of Sydney.

Commissioner Calma said the current federal government’s commitment to working in partnerships with Indigenous peoples rather than treating them as ‘passive recipients’ made the next few years critical in the struggle for equality.

“While we may see the first black candidate elected to the presidency of the United States of America in two weeks time, reflecting on our own progress in Australia presents us with a markedly different picture,” Commissioner Calma said.

“Unlike all other western democracies, we have no Charter or Bill of Rights in Australia – not for Aboriginal people, not for anyone,” he said. 

“Unlike Canada, we have no constitutional recognition of the rights and status of our First Nations peoples.

“If things were fine just the way they were in Australia, and we had a system of government where we were well represented, well serviced, and well protected, then maybe we wouldn’t need to have conversations about human rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

“The reality however, is much different,” he said.

Commissioner Calma’s Charles Perkins AO Memorial Oration can be found online at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/speeches/social_justice/2008/20081023_still_riding.html

A podcast of Commissioner Calma’s Charles Perkins Oration will be available on the University of Sydney website at http://www.usyd.edu.au/podcasts/index.shtml

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Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
Media Release 23/10/2008

Compulsory income management to continue as key NTER measure

The Australian Government will continue comprehensive, compulsory income management as a key measure of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) because of its demonstrated benefits for women and children.

The Government will continue and strengthen the NTER to protect women and children, reduce alcohol-fuelled violence, promote personal responsibility and rebuild community norms in Northern Territory (NT) Indigenous communities.

Last week, the Government released the report of the independent Review of the NTER which found that the situation in remote NT communities and town camps remained sufficiently acute to be described as a national emergency.

For this reason, the current stabilisation phase of the NTER will continue for the next twelve months before transitioning to a long-term, development phase.

The Government accepts the three overarching recommendations of the Review Report.

The Government is determined to improve the safety and wellbeing of children in remote NT communities and make real in-roads towards closing the gap.

Achieving this will require careful transition from the first phase of the NTER.

Long-term success through the development of communities requires that key NTER measures are able to generate greater individual and community responsibility.

This means that long term measures cannot rely on the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA).

The development phase of the NTER will commence when increased levels of personal and community responsibility are demonstrated.

The development phase will maintain and strengthen core NTER measures including compulsory income management, five year leases, alcohol and pornography controls, while placing a greater emphasis on community development and community engagement.

The current comprehensive income management system will be extended for at least twelve months. We will design a compulsory income management policy which does not require the suspension of the RDA. This will involve consultation with Indigenous communities.

Legislative amendments to bring existing NTER legislation within the scope of the the RDA will be introduced in the Spring Parliamentary session next year. The Government will respond in full to the Review Board’s recommendations, including future funding arrangements, over the coming months.

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The Australian
Western Australia does a U-turn on Aboriginal issues

Debbie Guest, Victoria Laurie | October 17, 2008

WESTERN Australia’s new Attorney-General Christian Porter has plans that has the Aboriginal Legal Service in a state of fear.

WA already has the nation’s highest incarceration rate for Aborigines. And ALSWA executive director Dennis Eggington believes it will go even higher under Mr Porter’s plans.

More than half of the state’s male prisoners are Aboriginal men, even though Aborigines make up a mere 3.5 per cent of the state’s population. Male and female Aboriginal prisoners collectively make up 42 per cent of the prison population.

“Western Australia is going against world trends and hard factual data shows what we’re doing is not working,” Mr Eggington said.

Those aspects of Mr Porter’s policies that worry Mr Eggington include:

* Greater use of mandatory sentencing;

* The introduction of orders against anti-social behaviour; and

* A cap on discounting sentences for early guilty pleas.

But in an interview with The Australian, Mr Porter was unapologetic. He said indigenous justice issues would not be top of his list of priorities and he would not focus on recommended reforms to tackle high rates of Aboriginal incarceration.

He was either uncommitted or hostile to two of the key recommendations on Aboriginal justice made in a 2006 report by the Law Reform Commission of WA.

Mr Porter dismissed the commission’s call to recognise tribal law and would not commit to the continuation of WA’s only Aboriginal court in Kalgoorlie.

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Full report available at http://www.nterreview.gov.au/report.htm

Executive summary below

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