This piece was published today by New Matilda.
Last Saturday marked the first anniversary of the Northern Territory Intervention, but it is far from something we should be celebrating. It has been a long year for those living with this paternalistic, top down policy; one that will no doubt make future generations ashamed.
This legislation was a [...]
Read Full Post »
The folks over at GetUp have put together a petition to the Government for the upcoming review of the NT Intervention:
Watch the brief video appeal from members of some communities affected, read the fact sheet and sign the petition to demand a consultative approach that protects human rights, not strips them away.
Read Full Post »
We are one year on from the inception of the NT Intervention, and today is a day we should not be celebrating. It has been a long year for those in the NT communities of this paternalistic, top down approach that will make future generations ashamed.
This legislation was a knee-jerk reaction that seemed designed purely [...]
Read Full Post »
The Rudd Government needs to take a careful look at Martin Ferguson’s handling of the latest tragic chapter of Australia’s 50-year nuclear waste story. A cursory review of the history of Government attempts to force nuclear waste dumps on unwilling communities shows an unbroken record of Government failure. It’s time for new thinking.
Former Science Minister [...]
Read Full Post »
(Between Rudd’s rhetoric on Indigenous Australians and budget commitments)
The level of spending committed to Indigenous disadvantage in the budget barely sets the Government on the right road to delivering on the Government’s election promise to actually ‘close the gap’. Despite the rhetoric from the Government on closing the gap and their signing on to the [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Agriculture, Budget, Christine Milne, Climate change, Coal, Drought, Education, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Family & Community, Forestry, Greens, Health, Housing Crisis, Indigenous Australian, Industrial Relations, Logging, Marine, NT Intervention, Peak oil, Poverty, Renewable energy, Senate, Solar PV, Solar Thermal, Sustainable Farming, Tax, Transport, Water, Web 2.0, Welfare, Wind Power, YouTube on May 29, 2008 | 3 Comments »
This has taken a while, but we finally have Christine’s Budget Reply Speech up on YouTube and postable to the blog. Those of you who have enjoyed reading or listening to it may be interested in watching it.
In five parts.
Read Full Post »
Today is National Sorry Day. It is a day when we reflect, remember and recognise the pain and suffering applied to members of the Stolen Generation, when they were forcibly removed from their families by previous Governments.
In February of this year, Prime Minister Rudd gave a formal apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Agriculture, Budget, Christine Milne, Climate change, Coal, Disability, Education, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Family & Community, Forestry, Greens, Health, Housing Crisis, Indigenous Australian, Logging, NT Intervention, Peak oil, Poverty, Renewable energy, Senate, Solar PV, Solar Thermal, Sustainable Farming, Tax, Transport, Water, Welfare, Wind Power on May 16, 2008 | 22 Comments »
Instead of replying to the details of the Rudd-Swan Budget, I decided this year to use their backward-looking, future-phobic presentation as the launching pad for a broader discussion of what we might do if we had a Government with the vision and guts necessary to take on the twin challenges of climate change and peak [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Housing Crisis, Human Rights, Indigenous Australian, NT Intervention, Poverty, Rachel Siewert, tagged indigenous, intervention, NT, emergency, racism on May 2, 2008 | 6 Comments »
This is an excerpt of a full article I’ve written for newmatilda.com
I’ve just been on the road with the Senate Inquiry into the NT Emergency Response Consolidation Bill - the Government’s proposed changes to Howard’s original legislation.
It has been obvious for a while that there are some serious flaws with the NT [...]
Read Full Post »
I welcome today’s release of the 2007 Social Justice Report by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma – it is an influential and pivotal document which I expect will have a major impact on the upcoming review of the Northern Territory Intervention.
Read Full Post »
