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25 Jun 2011 Rally Self Determination Now

 

Four years of racist shame...

Stop the NT Intervention - Self Determination Now!

Rally Saturday 25 June 2011

1pm Sydney Town Hall
march to Belmore park for speakers and concert

- Apply the Racial Discrimination Act unconditionally
- No Income Management: not in the NT, not in Bankstown
- Land Rights not Leases
- Jobs with Justice: no work for the BasicsCard

Speakers include:
- Katherine Napaljarri Parker, Kintore NT
- Lee Rhiannon, Greens NSW Senator Elect
- Jack Johnson, Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council (South-West Sydney)
- Nicole Watson, Jumbunna Research
- Paddy Gibson, STICS

For the poster: please click here

For the media release: please click here and here

For Media Coverage: please click here

 

It has been four years of racism and devastation for Aboriginal communities under the NT Intervention. Rather than ‘Closing the Gap' punitive measures designed to ‘assimilate' Aboriginal people have made shocking social conditions even worse.

Government statistics show Indigenous incarceration rates have risen by almost 30 per cent, as schools attendance rates drop and thousands of workers are put onto Centrelink as Community Development Employment Projects shut down. There are growing crises in urban centres such as Alice Springs as large numbers move in from the bush.

Despite government claims of reinstating the Racial Discrimination Act (following its suspension in order to introduce the Intervention in 2007), large parts of the Intervention policy still do not comply with the RDA. This includes the forced acquisition of township land, powers to seize assets and the imposition of Government Business Managers. Despite the RDA supposedly being applied to Income Management, government statistics show that 94% of people in NT under IM are Indigenous.

Rather than acknowledge the failure of the Intervention, the government is threatening to extend these measures beyond their 5-year sunset clause. And Tony Abbott wants a ‘new Intervention'.

In May budget, the government announced an extension of Income Management to five marginalised areas around Australia - including Bankstown in Sydney.

An increasingly broad constituency within Australian society, including unions, NGOs, the Greens, community groups and church groups are coming out against Intervention measures and punitive welfare policy.

Aboriginal people will rally in Darwin on June 21 to mark 4 years of Intervention and launch an alternative program which demands a shift from policies designed to force assimilation to self-determination, Aboriginal control and proper funding for all communities. The Stop the Intervention Collective are organising a rally in Sydney on June 25 to support this program.

Join the rally against racism and for Aboriginal self-determination!

contact: Mon 0415410558 Jean 0449646593

 

Media coverage

Alternative Media Group - Protest marks 4 years of NT Intervention - 30 June 2011 - http://stoptheintervention.org/facts/articles/protest-marks-4-years-of-nt-intervention

The Examiner - Protesters rally over NT intervention - 26 June 2011 - SYDNEY - The federal government will "meet its Waterloo" in its attempt to introduce income management to a western Sydney community, protesters say.
http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/news/general/protesters-rally-over-nt-intervention/2206707.aspx