Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin was addressing a conservative think tank about the future of the NT Intervention on TUESDAY, 9 August
we had a snap protest to demand:
- Stop the NT Intervention
- Jobs with Justice for all Communities
- Land Rights not Leases
- Stop Income Management, no expansion to Bankstown or anywhere!
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
5pm @1 Bligh st, Sydney CBD
Speakers include Nicole Watson, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning UTS
For the Media Release: please click here
Audio:
Jean Parker
Dave Suttle
Nat Wasley
Paddy Gibson:
'Stronger Futures' = No Future for remote Aboriginal communities
This Tuesday is the International Day of the World's Indigenous People's, when the United Nations calls for, "celebration of the unique stories, cultures and identities of Indigenous people's around the world".
But on Tuesday, Jenny Macklin will be addressing the conservative Sydney Institute about the next phase of an Intervention in the NT which is actively trying to centralise Aboriginal populations, decimate communities and force assimilation into the Australian "mainstream".
Macklin will discuss the government's new discussion paper, Stronger Futures, on the future of the NT Intervention. The government is currently "consulting" with communities around Stronger Futures, but the process is a sham. Key Intervention powers will stay.Under this plan there will be no future for the vast majority of remote communities.
Communities are urged to sign "voluntary" long term leases with the government before 2012-a veiled threat that further compulsory acquisition is on the table. Government Business Managers will stay and Community Councils will not be reinstated. Stronger Futures commits to race-based alcohol restrictions that have been condemned as discriminatory and ineffective by all major NT Aboriginal organisations.
Stronger Futures stresses the importance of education but does not acknowledge a 6 per cent drop in attendance since the Intervention. It does not commit to fund any new teachers in chronically under-resourced bush schools. It will expand a scheme that cuts parents off Centrelink if their children don't attend school, but refuses to canvas reinstatement of bi-lingual education programs.
There will be accommodation subsidies for people who migrate to find jobs, but no new jobs on Aboriginal land or new housing for the vast majority of communities.
Compulsory Income Management is not up for negotiation. The government is looking to expand the system to disadvantaged areas across Australia, including Bankstown in Sydney.
Resistance is growing. In Darwin on June 21, there was the biggest protest since the Intervention began in 2007, led by the Prescribed Area People's Alliance. The protest launched a comprehensive program 'Rebuilding from the Ground Up: An Alternative to the NT Intervention', based on principles of self-determination and proper funding for all communities.
Across the NT, Aboriginal people are using the "consultations" to call clearly for an end to the Intervention. Make sure their message is heard loudly in Sydney - protest Jenny Macklin, stop the NT Intervention!
Contact: Jean 0449 646 593
More info on the sham 'consultation' process see:
http://stoptheintervention.org/facts/consultations-mid-2011
http://www.treatyrepublic.net/content/aboriginal-people-stand-sham-nti-consultations
For a map of the protest location see:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1+Bligh+St,+Sydney+New+South+Wales+2000&aq=&sll=-33.864764,151.211072&sspn=0.009105,0.018346&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1+Bligh+St,+Sydney+New+South+Wales+2000&ll=-33.863699,151.211078&spn=0.009105,0.018346&z=16&iwloc=A