The Federal Government's "intervention" is nothing less than an invasion of Aboriginal lands.

 A desperate grab for the mineral wealth of those lands, which Aboriginal people had been previously granted the rights to under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.

 Aboriginal Australians, who live in Aboriginal administered communities have had their rights to self determination swept aside at the stroke of a pen, by a desperate Government, with the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act Amendment Bill, 2006.

I have been a smoker of the most feared plant in Australia since the 1970s and Goverments in different states usually have a fairly tolerant approach(except the NT) to its sale and use.Since last June 2007 my usual dealer and 2 others that i used to buy from have given up selling marijuana to deal only in ice and other powder forms as there is more money in it and the Law Enforcement Agencies leave them alone, so they tell me.

Its no secret that the Federal Government has, through Free Trade Agreements arranged the sale of oil/minerals/gas/uranium to foreign corporations before its extracted from the ground.Now, the previous Howard Government in its arrogant stance on Aboriginal affairs, couldnt sway the Native people to hand over the land for mining to seal the deal with the Corporations to deliver the g

On the 07/07/07, Yungarri Knuppanunka Aunty Sue Charles Rankin, Aboriginal Mother and Grandmother from the Kulin Nation, (Melbourne, Australia) in her fiftieth year will set off from Kaurna Country (Adelaide, South Australia), to walk a journey of 1,500 kilometers to Uluru in Australia’s Northern Territory to bring world-wide focus on Mother Earth changes and the continued deplorable treatment and living conditions of Aboriginal Peoples in the homelands of her Ancestors.

"Our people say if country is sick, people are sick. We have forgotten that we are all connected, we no longer listen to our Mother Earth and each other in a healthy manner."

Indigenous Leaders of the Mutitjulu community today questioned the need for a military occupation of their small community. Here is their statement in full:

We welcome any real support for indigenous health and welfare and even two police will assist, but the Howard Government declared an emergency at our community over two years ago - when they appointed an administrator to our health clinic - and since then we have been without a doctor, we have less health workers, our council has been sacked all our youth and health programmes have been cut.

 We have no CEO and limited social and health services. The government has known about our overcrowding problem for at least 10 years and they’ve done nothing about it.

The Federal government's electoral driven response to allegations of child abuse in some of the Northern Territory's remote  indigenous communities is a scandalous, frightening example of the imposition of collective punishment on the victims.  The  allegations are not new; report after report after report has been issued about the problem during the Howard government's  tenure in office.  Their 'practical' reconciliation response to the Third World state of affairs in some indigenous  communities has been a dismal failure.  Their policies have compounded the problems faced by indigenous Australians.

SCANDALOUS

The Federal government has allowed problems to fester in these communities, adopting an 'out of sight out of mind' approach  to indigenous Australians.  It, and it alone, is responsible for the Fourth World state (A group of people, though living in First World countries who live in Third World conditions) many indigenous Australians find themselves.  This government's arrogant, knee-jerk, draconian response is directed at currying favour with the Australian electorate.  It is not directed at assisting indigenous Australians to deal with problems which are not usual among first nation people's who have been dispossessed of their lands, humiliated, abused, had their children stolen, their culture beaten out of them, their labour exploited and have been forced to live in ghettos that do not have the infrastructure and services that other Australians take for granted.

The problem has been compounded by a government that refuses to acknowledge what has happened to indigenous Australians, and rewards people who obfuscate the past and promote a one-dimensional sanitised colonial version of history.  This government  has further alienated indigenous Australians by refusing to offer an apology for what has happened and it has consistently  refused to offer compensation to the victims.  On every available statistical indicator ranging from child mortality levels,  rates of incarceration and life expectancy, indigenous Australians continue to lag way behind other Australians.

The solution to child abuse in some indigenous communities does not lie in collective punishment, sending in the armed  forces, increasing police levels, stealing indigenous communities lands, forcibly examining their children and removing  welfare payments.  This response is a racist response because it is only directed at one group of people because of the  colour of their skin.

The Howard government's response highlights the extraordinary powers that can be constitutionally wielded by the Federal government.  What has happened in the Northern Territory should concern every Australian.  Australia is one of the few  Western countries whose citizen's human rights are not protected by the Constitution.  As we have seen in the Northern  Territory, the Commonwealth government can, with the support of a pliant Opposition, remove with the stroke of a pen, rights  Australians have enjoyed for generations.  Today, it is the indigenous Australians turn; tomorrow it could be the turn of the unemployed, single parents, people on disability support pensions or people with blue eyes and blonde hair.

The solution to the problems in indigenous communities does not lie in 'practical' reconciliation or a 'remove their rights  and send in the troops' approach.  It lies in acknowledging the past, apologising for it, and entering into a dialogue to formulate a treaty between indigenous and non indigenous Australians that acknowledges their prior occupation of the land which provides compensation, based on a percentage of yearly national Gross Domestic Product, that can be used to provide the infrastructure and services to indigenous people that every other Australians takes for granted.

Australia is the only Western nation that has refused to take this approach to its first nation's people and consequently continues to pay the price for its failure to do so.

WAR

The Howard government's direct intervention in 60 remote indigenous Northern Territory communities, on the pretext that it  wants to tackle child abuse in these communities, is a declaration of war against indigenous Australians.  The Federal government's agenda has been clear for a number of months; it wants to destroy the communal ownership of land in indigenous communities and make the people living in these communities private land owners.

For far too long in the government's eyes, indigenous communities have held up mining companies exploring and mining on their  land.  Communal ownership makes it difficult on the government to give mining companies carte blanche to explore and mine  wherever they like.  Currently, miners  need to enter into negotiations with indigenous communities to exploit their land. Now that the Howard government has taken over these communities land, it can direct what happens on this land.  The Howard government claims that it had to reclaim this land to provide services and infrastructure to indigenous Australians, is a transparent fabrication.

The government did not need to reclaim this land to provide services.  It hopes that over the next 5 years it will be able to  pressure indigenous communities to allow individuals to buy private parcels of land.  Once this happens, banks will be able to lend money to owners, and if they do not meet their repayments, will be able to acquire that land by foreclosing their  mortgage.  It wouldn't be long before mining corporations would own vast tracts of land and indigenous Australians would, like before Native Title was introduced by the Whitlam government in 1972, be strangers in their own land.

The Howard government has little interest in tackling child abuse in remote indigenous communities, it has had 11 years and done nothing until it decided it needed to divert the public's attention from its Achilles heel 'WorkChoices' (or should we say 'WorkUnChoices').  Its plan to divert people's attention by stealing indigenous communities land on the pretext of  tackling child abuse is both scandalous and reprehensible.  It must not be allowed to succeed.

EVIL

Howard's pathetic attempts to use the issue of child abuse in some remote indigenous communities as his electoral trump card, violates every moral principle that is held dear in a civil society.  If we accept that evil is the violation of moral law, Howard's attempts to use the suffering he and his government have helped to create in indigenous communities through indifference and their ideologically driven crusade against Native Title they have hastily organised quasi-military intervention into Northern Territory indigenous communities to attempt to deal with the problem of child abuse, can only be described as evil.

What is about to happen in the Northern Territory is both racist and unforgivable.  It is primarily designed to divert  political attention from the 'WorkChoices' legislation and Australia's disastrous intervention in Iraq.  Howard's  manipulation of the most marginalised and poorest members of Australian society, to bolster his sagging political fortunes,  will turn out to be his political albatross.  His ill conceived decision will hang around his neck in the lead up to the  Federal election like dead putrefying flesh.

Howard's 'boots and all' intervention in the Northern Territory needs to be actively resisted by people of goodwill around  the country.  To allow Howard and his government to carry out this loathsome decision without paying the political price for  that decision, is to be complicit in the destruction of the gains made through the Native Title struggle.

Irrespective of the domination of coverage in the fourth estate by polly babble, people of goodwill need to speak up against this legislation.  They need to publicly refuse to become implicated in Howard's attempts to use the suffering of indigenous  children to steal their birthright - their land.  It is critical we double our efforts as individuals and as groups to ensure  the Coalition pays the electoral price for their arrogance, and the Prime Minister is regulated to the historical footnotes  before Blainey and Henderson engrave his memory in this country's historical consciousness.

ACTION BOX - FOREIGN BOYCOTT OF AUSTRALIA!

I normally try not to get angry, despite the absurdity of much government legislation.  Unfortunately, this time I'm both upset and angry.  I'm upset the Howard government has used overtly racist legislation to promote its electoral fortunes. I'm  annoyed its legislation makes indigenous Australians virtual wards of the Commonwealth government and punishes the innocent  and the guilty in its attempt to wipe out child abuse in some indigenous communities.

The current situation reminds me of a Nazi propaganda film which shows "depraved louse ridden Jews" who had been herded into ghettos by the Nazis for the crime of being born a Jew.  The film was made to reinforce Germans prejudices against Jews.  It was made to justify any actions the Nazis would be taking to deal with a 'problem' the Nazis had created.

The same analogy can be extended to Aborigines in the Northern Territory.  The actions of successive Commonwealth governments have created the very conditions that John Howard now declares are a national emergency.  The Coalition government helped to create the problem in indigenous communities by refusing to acknowledge the past and passing legislation that poured 'bucket loads of extinguishment' on the MABO High Court judgement that gave indigenous Australians rights to land in law.  John Howard, finally acknowledging there is a problem, now sends in the army, removes what few human rights indigenous Australians are able to exercise, steals their land and forcibly removes their children to help solve a problem that he and his government have helped to create.

Although I'm upset by the legislation and the Labor Party's response to it, I'm angry that the fourth estate has supported legislation that punishes indigenous Australians for the crime of being black.  Faced with almost universal support for these racist laws by the government, the Opposition, the fourth estate and possibly a majority of Australians, those of us who find these laws abhorrent have no option but to appeal to the outside world for help.  We need to ask the world to stop trading  with Australia until these discriminatory laws are repealed.

What at first may seem a difficult task, is not so difficult if each and every one of us who disagrees with what is happening in this country, ask the people we know overseas to ask their friends and relatives to boycott doing business with Australia and Australian owned companies, and stop coming to Australia as tourists.  The sooner the rest of the world shows their disapproval with what the government is doing to indigenous communities in Australia, the sooner this madness will stop.

STOP PRESS - BELIEVE IT OR NOT

It is ironic that on the 40th anniversary of the passage of the 1967 Referendum that gave the Commonwealth government the constitutional power to pass legislation on behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the Howard government has  directly intervened in the day to day affairs of Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Its 'boots and all' approach to indigenous welfare is the very same approach that was being pursued by Australian States  when, by a massive majority, the Australian people decided to give the Commonwealth government the constitutional power to  override State legislation, and pass Federal legislation to improve the welfare of indigenous Australians.  The Australian  people gave the Commonwealth government this power to improve the welfare
and position of indigenous Australians in the wider  community.

The Howard government's use of this power to pour 'bucket loads of extinguishment' on the 1992 High Court Mabo decision that recognised indigenous Australians had rights to land in law, its decision to abolish the elected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and replace it with a group of advisors hand picked by the government, its collective punishment  approach to the issue of child abuse in some indigenous communities in remote Northern Territory and its attempts to destroy  indigenous Australians communal ownership of property and forcibly assimilate them into Australian society, highlights the  terrible things that can happen when constitutional arrangements do not protect the individual rights of citizens.

Australia is the only Western country whose Constitution does not protect the inalienable human rights of its citizens.  The Australian Parliament has extraordinary powers; at the stroke of a pen it can remove Australian's inalienable human rights. Today, indigenous Australians living in remote communities in the Northern Territory have had their inalienable rights legislated away by the Howard government.  Tomorrow, it will be unemployment recipients, single parents and people living in  on disability support pensions.  The next day it will be Australian with blue eyes and blonde hair.  The only thing that will  stop Australian governments riding roughshod over their citizen's rights is the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the  Australian Constitution.

Then, and only then, will governments be forced to take into account citizen's inalienable human rights when passing legislation through Parliament.

Joseph TOSCANO /
Libertarian Workers For A Self-Managed Society.

MEDIA RELEASE                                                          
2 MAY 2007

Peter Munk, Chair of Barrick Gold Admits Liability for The Desecration Of Lake Cowal Sacred Site, Australia

At today’s Barrick Gold AGM held at the Convention Centre in Toronto, Neville ‘Chappy’ Williams, traditional owner of Lake Cowal and Western Shoshone delegates from Nevada successfully questioned the Barrick Gold Board of Directors during the live webcast. Shareholders were amazed and concerned the interveners had traveled so far to raise their objections

Peter Munk tried to explain why Barrick Gold shares continued their ‘disappointing’ decline in value whilst the mining industry is “drowning in liquidity” as he put it.

Peter Munk blamed Barrick Gold’s demise on NGOs who pressure governments to require too many permits before mining can commence. He cited 500 permits before the controversial Pascua Lama could begin construction in a glacier area on the border of Chile and Argentina.

The Western Shoshone delegate, granddaughter of the late Mary Dann articulated her intense opposition to Barrick’s plan to mine her Peoples’ sacred mountain.

Next Neville ‘Chappy’ Williams too the microphone and passionately put his case and personally served a Notice to Quit on Peter Munk and the Board of Dirctors. He  stated: “On April 07, Barrick’s mines manager, Bill Shallvey, refused to be served this document. As an elder of the Wiradjuri Nation I serve this document on Barrick Gold o behalf of the Mooka and Kalara united families within the Wiradjuri Nation.”

The Notice to Cease Illegal Occupation of Lake Cowal includes: “Under Wiradjuri custom, tradition and Law/Lore you have received your three warnings. You must now respect the unceded sovereignty of the Wiradjuri Nation and cease all operations; restore the landscape; remove all equipment and replace all artifacts to their GPS’d positions.”
 We reserve our right to take further action as necessary.”

After the AGM Neville ‘Chappy’ Williams approached Peter Munk and stressed that Barrick Gold is desecrating the sacred site of Lake Cowal. Peter Munk tried to say he had so many employees he didn’t really know what Barrick Gold was doing.

Eleanor Gilbert, challenged this by saying: “But the buck stops with you Mr Munk. Ultimately you are the one responsible.” Peter Munk agreed.

Neville Williams continued by detailing the desecration and stressed his right to religious freedom under section 116 of the Australian Constitution. As Peter Munk moved away he turned to Neville Williams and with a haunted look in his eyes said: “I’m so sorry.”

Media from Quebec and Chile recorded Peter Munk’s admission of liability. Later a shareholder approached Neville Williams saying: “I’ve got shares in Barrick. I’m thinking now whether I should sell my shares in Barrick Gold.”

In a peaceful demonstration outside the AGM supporters were handing out the Alternative Annual Report for Barrick Gold [www.protestbarrick.net] when two were roughly arrested for trespassing whilst they stood on the sidewalk.

Contact
Neville Williams
647 268 4440 or +61 421 795 639

By Diet Simon

The Asian Development Bank is planning massive expansion of its lending for palm oil production and other destructive monocultures, including in Indonesia, says a German save the rainforest group.

NSW ABORIGINAL RUGBY LEAGUE & SPORTS INCORPORATED

Press Release: Institute for Papuan Advocacy

West Papuan workers walk off at Freeport mine

West Papuan workers at the Freeport gold and copper mine in the mountains of West Papua have walk off the job on Tuesday 17 April 2007.

Workers are demanding a better deal for Papuans workers and the traditional landowners at the mine.

Freeport is said to have 9,000 employees directly under its management in Indonesia, a third of these are Papuans.