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A forum addressing the impact of the ongoing suspension of the Racial

Discrimination Act by the Rudd Government took place on Sunday,

March 22nd 2009 at 3pm at the Guthrie Theatre, UTS, 702 Harris St,

Broadway, Sydney

 

Marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Speakers:

Larissa Behrendt on behalf of Irene Fisher - CEO Sunrise Health Service, Katherine NT

Valerie Martin - Yuendumu community, NT

David Cooper- National Director of ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) Australia

Geoff Scott - NSW Aboriginal Land Council

Liv Nigro - Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney

Chaired by Eva Cox - Women for Wik

To see the Media Release for further info please click here.

To read Irene Fisher's Speech, please click here.

For audio recordings of the above speakers, please click here.

Sinem Saban introduced and showed the promo of her documentary.

Link to promo of documentary: http://youtube.com/watch?v=V6HmaDe1DS4

Link to interview with The Guardian, UK: http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=373&catID=6

The Rudd government continues to suspend the Racial Discrimination Act to allow NT Intervention measures to be enforced on Aboriginal communities.

Minister Jenny Macklin has said the government "hopes to develop arrangements that will not require suspension of the RDA" by spring this year.

But conditions deteriorate every day the discrimination continues.

The compulsory income quarantine is pushing communities into further poverty and in many cases making it harder to access food.

Irene Fisher will discuss emerging evidence that many key health indicators are going backwards.

And the government is taking steps to entrench Intervention powers.

Communities are being denied any new housing until they lease their land over to the government for between 40-90 years. And despite chronic overcrowding everywhere, only 16 of the 73 prescribed communities are being offered any new housing.

Jenny Macklin has reinforced her commitment to compulsory Income Management and is introducing further punitive measures. Katherine is one area trialling the 8-week suspension of welfare payments for school attendance problems.

To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, come along to hear more about the impact of the Intervention and discuss how to strengthen the campaign against the government's racism.