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Houston, Jacqui; Randhawa, Trisha --- "Recent Happenings" [2004] IndigLawB 32; (2004) 6(1) Indigenous Law Bulletin 32


Recent Happenings

compiled by Trisha Randhawa and Jacqui Houston

4 March

The Victorian Government has announced plans to establish a Children’s Koori Court to combat Indigenous overrepresentation in juvenile detention and reoffending. The new court, expected to begin sitting early next year, will build on the work done by adult Koori Courts in Shepparton, Broadmeadows and Warrnambool.

4 March

Chicago Tribune correspondent Uli Schmetzer has been dismissed by the newspaper after inventing a bogus source for a disparaging quote about Aboriginal people in a report on last month’s riots in Redfern.

5 March

The Queensland (Qld) Government has violated one of its own alcohol management plans. A bottle of wine was in the Government aircraft at Lockhart River airport. Penalties for bringing alcohol into the region include confiscation of the vehicle used, fines of up to $75,000 and 18 months imprisonment. Some locals called for the Government aircraft to be confiscated in line with the penalties.

8 March

Animal rights group Animals Australia has called for a ban on Tasmania’s muttonbirding season, including disallowing Indigenous hunters to continue commercial trade of the species. Tasmania’s ATSIC Commissioner Rodney Dillon criticised the suggestion he believes will hinder the local community’s attempts to maintain their culture.

12 March

Director of the Gumurrii Centre in Qld, Associate Professor Boni Robertson, has announced that she will stand for preselection with the Australian Democrats. If successful, Ms Roberston could become Australia’s first female Indigenous federal parliamentarian.

12 March

Social Justice Commissioner Bill Jonas has labelled the Federal Government’s practical reconciliation policy a failure in his final Social Justice Report. Commissioner Jonas criticised the approach which has seen minimal improvement in the lives of Indigenous Australians and resulted in an actual decline in some areas including life expectancy. He attacked the Government’s failure to set benchmarks to monitor progress.

17 March

Magistrate Pat O’Shane has been awarded damages for being defamed in a Herald opinion piece. Acting Justice Rex Smart said that the imputations damaged her campaigns to improve Indigenous standards of living, to fight against police harassment of Indigenous people, to prevent the misuse of police powers, to stop violence against women and to redress gender imbalance in society.

20 March

Federal Member for Lingiari in the Northern Territory (NT) Warren Snowden has criticised the Federal Government’s plan to tender out Aboriginal Legal Services, arguing that the move will result in more Indigenous Australians being jailed. The Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service has also attacked the plan as likely to result in many Indigenous people missing out on representation.

24 March

The Federal Court has found that the Lardil, Yangkaal, Kaiadilt and Gangalidda peoples of Queensland’s Gulf of Carpentaria have non-exclusive native title rights to some regions surrounding the Wellesley Islands. It is the first major court decision concerning native title rights to sea since the High Court’s landmark decision in the Croker Island case in October 2001.

26 March

The South Australia (SA) Supreme Court has banished an Indigenous man from his traditional lands for one year. The man, convicted of a stabbing, may enter the lands in a shorter period of time but only at his community’s invitation.

2 April

Two public forums have been held in Darwin to discuss the establishment of an Indigenous court for NT, a proposal which has the support of Chief Magistrate Hugh Bradley and Minister for Justice Peter Toyne. The proposed system will involve Indigenous elders working alongside the magistrate in the sentencing process in a less formal setting than the ordinary court system.

2 April

The Deaths in Custody Watch Committee and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veteran’s and Services Association have reported that two Indigenous children in Western Australia (WA) were chased through the suburb of Northam by white-hooded men. Police Inspector Gary O’Meara said that he had received no official complaint about the incident, but also asserted that the discovery of three white K’s on a suburban road did not necessarily indicate a racially motivated act.

15 April

The Federal Government has announced it will abolish ATSIC and move its programs into mainstream government departments. The Commission will be ‘replaced’ by a government-appointed advisory body of Indigenous people. Prime Minister John Howard justified the move on the basis that separate elected Indigenous representation had been a failure and that the Commission had become too preoccupied with “symbolic issues” such as the push for a treaty, ignoring the need to deliver practical outcomes for disadvantaged Indigenous Australians.

21April

In South Australia’s Anangu Pitjantjatjara lands, the area’s new service delivery coordinator, former Labor NT Senator Bob Collins, has secured the cooperation of Indigenous leaders to identify traffickers in alcohol, drugs and petrol in order to combat social problems such as petrol sniffing and marijuana use.

22 April

The NT Government and Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation have signed an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) which will release the first development land in Alice Springs in a decade. Under the ILUA a development lease will be issued over blocks which Lhere Artepe has identified. The Corporation has three months to sign the lease and commence work.

22 April

WA Coroner Alastair Hope has called for the Department of Justice to remove obvious hanging points in new cells in Hakea Prison following an inquest. The Inquest was told that the cells were built hastily in 1999 – 2000 to deal with a growing number of inmates. Mr Hope strongly criticised the Department for not complying with the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

28 April

The Indigenous Women’s Congress, the first government-appointed Indigenous women’s advisory body in Western Australia, has held its inaugural meeting. The Congress is an initiative of the WA Department of Community Development established to advise the Office of Women’s Policy. Deputy Chairwoman Helen McNeair outlined the groups agenda: “We want our congress to be one that’s going to make a difference and our three main focus areas will be, one, safety for our women and families; two, access to leadership positions; and, three, economic independence.”


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