Indigenous Law Bulletin
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compiled by Jacqui Houston
Abdullah Mbamba, the UN Secretary-General’s representative in Australia, has warned the Federal Government to take under serious consideration the impact climate change will have on Indigenous communities. Mr Mbamba says that ‘climate change refugees’ are just as likely to come from remote Australia as from other countries.
The Coronial Inquiry into the shooting death of an 18-year-old man in Wadeye in October 2002 has heard that police dispute resolution practices were changed after the death. Counsel assisting the Coroner told the inquest that police conducting ‘crowd control’ at organised fights were in effect condoning the violence and were therefore accessories to a crime.
The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (‘TAC’) has called on the Federal Government to rethink its approval of the Gunns Pulp Mill in the north of the State. TAC State Secretary Trudy Maluga says that the heritage assessment arranged for by Gunns did not consult the Aboriginal community and did not consider the impact the mill would have on mutton birds and shells commonly used in cultural craft.
New South Wales Fair Trading Minister Linda Burney has called for an investigation and education campaign in response to a Sydney Morning Herald report on a company in Queensland. The Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (‘ACBF’) signs up Indigenous people to pre-paid funeral schemes which take up to 15 per cent of their income and contain strict terms and conditions.
New laws passed by Northern Territory (‘NT’) Parliament today will remove the presumption in favour of bail for serious sex offences. Such legislation, which aims to protect victims and witnesses from intimidation and further violence, was one of the 97 recommendations made in Wild and Anderson’s 2007 Little Children are Sacred report.
Delena Foster, Mayor of Palm Island in Queensland, has signed an agreement with the Federal Government today for reform of welfare and housing. The $14 million strategy will see market rents charged for housing, tougher tenancy conditions, the building of up to 20 new homes and the introduction of income management. The Queensland Government has said that it will amend legislation for Deed of Grant in Trust land to allow for 99-year leasing.
The Prime Minister has tonight made an address to the Sydney Institute where he has outlined his proposal to hold a referendum to add a ‘Statement of Reconciliation’ to the preamble to the Constitution. Reconciliation Australia says that they support the proposal but add that a formal apology is another, important step which must be taken to progress reconciliation.
Among a flood of responses to the Prime Minister’s announcement of his proposed referendum, Henry Councillor, Chair of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, asked whether Mr Howard would now sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Mr Councillor said the move would be a gesture of good faith.
Federal Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Malcolm Turnbull, has approved the Woodside Pluto gas development in Western Australia. While Mr Turnbull’s media release discusses the approval with strict conditions to protect animals, ecology and the marine environment, no mention is made of the ancient Aboriginal rock art of the Burrup region.
The South Australian Government has today released its Statutes Amendment (Young Offenders) Bill 2007 (SA) which would establish a Youth Parole Board to deal with young repeat offenders and allow young people charged with serious offences to be tried as an adult. The Bill also makes community safety a compulsory consideration when determining a sentence for serious repeat offenders.
An area of the Great Sandy Desert measuring almost 30,000 square kilometres will be officially recognised today as being under the native title of the Ngururrpa people. An agreement has been reached between the Ngururrpa people and the Western Australian Government whereby the exclusive right to possess, occupy, use and enjoy certain parts of the land has been recognised.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says that with mitigation measures taken into account, there is no reason to stop the $1.7 billion Traveston Crossing Dam project. An environmental impact statement found that three areas of significance to local Aboriginal people would be flooded by the project. The report also says however that a $50 million mitigation package could address all environmental and cultural heritage concerns.
A ceremony is being held today in Sweden to commemorate the return, by the Stockholm Museum, of the remains of at least 10 Aboriginal people to their country in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The remains were taken from graves during an archaeological expedition in 1910-11.
Consultants Morgan Disney & Associates have today released their independent report into Shared Responsibility Agreements (‘SRAs’): Don’t Let’s Lose Another Good Idea. The report highlighted ‘significant examples’ of governments failing to meet their obligations within a reasonable period of time in addition to increased ‘red tape’.
Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett has labelled as ‘fanciful’ the claim by Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough that Indigenous people don’t want an apology from the Government. Senator Bartlett said that Mr Brough was ‘dishonest’ to suggest that because Aboriginal people in NT communities tell him that they want better health and education for their children this means they do not want an apology.
The Maningrida community in the NT is taking legal action against the Federal Government’s emergency intervention into the Territory’s Aboriginal communities. The proceedings issued in the High Court today claim that the compulsory acquisition of townships through five-year leases is constitutionally invalid. Ron Merkel QC is representing the applicants on a pro bono basis.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released a report which shows that 90 per cent of the NT’s prison population is Indigenous. The report, 1362.7 Regional Statistics, Northern Territory, 2007 also found that almost 85 per cent of juveniles in prison are Indigenous.
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2007/56.html