Meet George Newhouse, he is the lawyer who is going to bleed the government as he "protects" the rights of Aboriginal people.

Indeed as Jenny Maklin is about to forcibly resume land from the recalcitrant Tangentyere Council who rejected a $100 million Government bid to lease camps for 40 years in exchange for new infrastructure development.

Thats right the council is standing in the way of the Governments goal to build new infrastructure on the land, hopefully replacing the 188 houses and 72 tin humpies that passes as accommodation for some 3000 people.

But George smells blood, he says the forced resumption of leases would go against the Government's commitments to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

In fact, Mr Newhouse has warned forced acquisition will have a massive impact on the Budget;

"This action is going to cost the Government hundreds of millions of dollars.

"The Government's been talking about paying rent to Indigenous land owners or lease owners, but since the Warrigal case, the Government's going to be required to pay just terms compensation.

"And that's more than just rent and it's more than just the unimproved land value."

Given that there are 200+ indigenous languages and a whopping 609 recognised tribes in Australia (NSW 64, NT 127, Queensland 210, SA 43, Tas 9, Vic 34, & WA 122) there will have to be a hell of a lot of funding made available to enable the key Articles of the UN Declaration on indigenous rights.

Why?

• Article 3 provides that indigenous people will have the “right to freely determine their political status” 
• Article 4 provides for the “right to autonomy or self-government”.
• Article 14 provides that indigenous people must have “the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning”.

So that will end up being a lot of specialist "language schools" and "tribal councils" all conveniently funded by our Tax dollars.

But it wont end there. The common law itself will be eroded and twisted even more by the consideration of Indigenous heritage, even though not lawfully binding, the Declaration will affect the "spirit" with which law and legislation is interpreted.

Janet Albrechtsen;

The Chief Justice of the High Court, Robert French, has already fanned treaty talk in recent times by announcing there are no legal impediments to a treaty with indigenous people. “Such an agreement could recognise and acknowledge traditional law and custom of indigenous communities across Australia ...” he said during a speech to the University of Melbourne Law School.

Hang on. We know where this leads. We have seen judges excusing the abhorrent acts of sexual abuse against young girls in the name of traditional customary law. Recall the 55-year-old Aboriginal man who, over two days, bashed and anally raped a 14-year-old girl. He argued that as the girl was promised to him under Aboriginal customary law, he did not understand that her distressed cries meant she was objecting to the violence inflicted on her. A judge in the Northern Territory accepted that argument and sentenced the man to prison for one month. These repugnant decisions effectively get a stamp of approval from the UN Declaration.

Expect to see many self interested groups and individuals use the declaration to push agendas and perhaps literally get away with murder, and worse.

I wonder why John Howard was so cautionary when dealing with some matters;

AUSTRALIA could reverse its position on a United Nations charter of indigenous rights as early as May, the Australian of the Year, Professor Mick Dodson, says.

The Howard government had misgivings that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples would elevate customary law above Western law and conflict with aspects of government policy.

That surly, could never actually happen.

Gwen Brown, 53, one of the most awarded and senior ACPOs in the Territory, has been sacked for hitting her nephew with a stick, but she says she has the cultural right to do so.

Ms Brown, from the Ali Curung community, southeast of Tennant Creek, said her nephew, Patrick, had in September last year stolen the battery from her private vehicle and put it in another car so he could go to Tennant Creek to buy alcohol. Ms Brown said she went to the Ali Curung police and asked an officer to log her complaint. She says he did not do so.

That evening, when Patrick returned home drunk to Ms Brown's house, she dealt with the matter herself.

"I got him and hit him on the butt with a stick, about three times," she said. "It was just a long, thin ceremony stick. He put his arms behind him and I accidentally broke his arm."

Bah... White fella law is for wimps.

The warning signs are all there, but don't expect the Labor government to reverse their decision on reinstating ATSIC. 

FORMER ATSIC chief Lowitja O'Donoghue has unleashed a furious attack on the disbanded body, claiming its male leaders were preoccupied with drinking, gambling and womanising.

At a closed-door meeting in Adelaide yesterday, where indigenous leaders were hammering out how the successor to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission should be constituted, Ms O'Donoghue said the organisation she headed for six years in the 1990s "supported the greedy, not the needy".

ATSIC was a "joke" because decisions were made at casinos instead of the board table, its foundation chairwoman and one-time Australian of the Year said.

"I am sick and tired of going to conferences and forums where gambling becomes the priority," she told stunned indigenous leaders, who were meeting to consider models for the new indigenous representative body promised by the Rudd Government.

"In the afternoons there are empty seats all around the room because too many people are off gambling on horse races or poker machines," she said.

"Aboriginal leaders have a major problem with drinking, smoking and using illicit drugs. The other big problem with indigenous men is they womanise too much -- they don't know how to curb their womanising behaviour.

"It is something they enjoy, and it affects their decision-making as leaders."

I wouldn't be quite so generous with the term "leader" as Lowitja. So now that the dirty laundry is out in the open what will we all do about it?

Ms O'Donoghue, 76, said last night it was the first time she had spoken out about the abuses of power she had witnessed in ATSIC, but she declined to repeat the criticism outside the closed session.

"I did speak out very strongly but it was only for the ears of my people," she told The Australian.

Well thats nice, but see its ALL AUSTRALIANS tax dollars being wasted, and we worry about the welfare of ALL AUSTRALIANS... Not just "Our People"

Indigenous leaders are hopeful a new national body to replace ATSIC will be operating as early as July this year.

Three days of national talks on proposed models for the new body have begun in Adelaide.

The Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, has been chosen by the Federal Government to help set up the new body.

For anyone unfamiliar with the history of ATSIC, It was created by the Hawke Labor government in 1990 to try to give Aborigines a greater say in their affairs, ATSIC had a $1.1 billion budget and 1,300 staff to service Australia's 460,000 indigenous people.

Unfortunately it was rife with opportunistic scum bags, who forced then Minister Philip Ruddock to commission a review by former NSW Liberal attorney-general, John Hannaford, a one-time Labor senator,  Bob Collins and an Aboriginal academic, Jackie Huggins into its going ons.

The findings were damning, some included;

• After more than 12 years, ATSIC has reached a crisis point in respect of its public credibility and with its indigenous constituency.
  
• Great concern is being expressed that this is spilling over from ATSIC and adversely impacting on other areas such as the reconciliation movement.
  
• A concerted effort is needed to reposition ATSIC as a positive force for indigenous advancement; otherwise it will become irrelevant or face abolition.
  
• Groups of its members across Australia were personally making public funding decisions over "work for the dole" schemes, sporting clubs, etc, there was, at least, perceptions of a corruption-ridden shamble.  

But I'm sure that it will all be different this time around.

UPDATE:

Tony Abbot thinks Macklin and the Rudd government is half arsed in its commitment too;

"It's a relief that the cutting of funds to the Crime Commission has been reversed - that's a relief - but my concern is that they got themselves into this position in the first place," he said.

"That suggests to me that they're not nearly as fair dinkum as they'd like people to believe."

and on the appoint ment of the former chief executive of the ACT Department of Territory and Municipal Services, Mike Zissler, as the new head of the initiative this week, replacing Major-General Dave Chalmers.

"One of the significant straws in the wind was the replacement of a general with a public servant," he said.

"Now I've got nothing against the public service, I think they do a good, professional job, but I think that the military are used to getting urgent jobs done quickly under difficult circumstances."

Bureaucracy wont fix the situation. Thats for sure.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2009-03-06 08:06 

Good news but only if they are serious about it;

 The Federal Government will continue funding the legal aspects of the Northern Territory intervention for another three years.

I do wonder what the "Legal Aspects" refer to? Somehow I feel the ALP misplaced sensibilities will get in the way of any real progress. I'll be delighted to be proven wrong.

I like Paul Toohey, he lives and breaths the environment he writes about. He is (to my knowledge) the only national journalist that writes on aboriginal matters that lives in the coal face. And it shows, he brings a passion to his writing that shares his pain over the dilemma facing the indigenous people, the bugling of bureaucrats, the carpet bagging practices of the Indigenous industry, and the disingenuousness of the do-nothing soft left.

Before reading the excerpt below, have a look at the stand he made when Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin announced she would reintroduce the permit system for Northern Territory Aboriginal communities, she said journalists would be an exception and asked the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance - the journalists' union - to come up with comments on how journalists would conduct themselves.

After MEAA federal secretary Christopher Warren consulted three Northern Territory journalists and came up with proposed “code of conduct”, in which Warren proposed that journalists reporting in Aboriginal communities front up and inform local police and council of their intentions before getting to work. Toohey sent his Walkley award back to the MEAA, and was scathing in his criticism of Warren and the lack of Journalist Integrity the MEAA was supporting.

Paul Toohey is a man of exceptional character. So it is no wonder he gets so bothered by the unfolding dislodgement of the NT intervention under the ALP;

THE slow unravelling of the Northern Territory Emergency Response, better known as the intervention, began on November 24, 2007, the day federal Labor took power.

Bess Price, a Warlpiri woman from Yuendumu, says that there have been real improvements in the bush -- vastly better local stores, more food from income management, better dressed children and better school attendances -- which is why now is not the time to give up.

"It really needs to go hard for the next two years," says Price. "The federal Government should keep the pressure it had when it first was introduced to keep people on their toes."

But as the Government deals with the financial crisis, its promises of spending "whatever it takes" seem doubtful. Macklin and Rudd have a vision that goes beyond the intervention. They want to open up the communities, call them towns -- make them normal places.

But beneath Rudd and Macklin is an influential cabal of politicians who would like nothing more than to dance on the intervention's grave.

Federal cabinet may feel it has taken enough hits on the nose from the Left for keeping with income management, but it is not about them. It's about 35,000 Aboriginal kids.

Unfortunately Paul sees the inevitable, Rudd and his ineffectual government winning on Spin, and delivering misery.

No matter what the cost, there is always someone who wants to shape the reality in his perfect imagined world.

A linguist working to preserve threatened languages in a Northern Territory town has criticised the Territory Government for its policy of forcing Aboriginal language schools to teach in English. 

There are six languages in the Katherine region in that critical category because they are only spoken by a handful of elders.

Forget the "Closing the Gap" these kids just need a primitive language for the sake of this nutter's sensibilities. Helping these communities adapt to the modern world and assimilate into the mainstream is the best chance for a prosperous future

The media misses the point. "Closing the gap" has been inactive for over a year and only now Rudd is goaded into action, and what action?

Why a nice cushy position for one of the usual ALP cronies suspects of course;

The Government is advertising the position of Coordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services, to pull together the various initiatives announced during the week.

And so the intervention... the one hope that Aboriginal kids had to establish decency normality in their lives is killed. Killed, as the feigned resolve of  the Rudd government caves to its interest groups. Human Rights triumphs over human decency again, and Rudd wards off the possible tarnish that will stymie his UM ambitions.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says the Government will introduce legislation to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act into Parliament later this year.

The Act was suspended in 2007 to clear the way for it to quarantine welfare payments as part of the Northern Territory indigenous intervention.

Yesterday the Government said it would keep quarantining welfare as part of its attempt to improve Indigenous living conditions.

And so starts the softly softly approach that changes nothing;

Ms Macklin says welfare quarantining can be done in a non-discriminatory way and she says there will be legislation later this year to lift the suspension.

"Income management has been beneficial, particularly to children," she said.

"It has meant that additional food is available to families, more children are able to go to school with food in their tummies.

"But we think it's important to deliver this support in a way that's not racially discriminatory."

But Jenny, its not racial discrimination. Its discrimination against scum bags who don't look after their kids. And what about the Pornography that sparks these scum bags affecting serious sexual assault.

Meanwhile, a Parliamentary hearing has been told there is still a lot of work to do to prevent children in indigenous communities from being exposed to pornography.

"Part of the journey is around education of people on the effects of pornography, as well as just simply banning it."

Let me tell you. The Scumbags are not interested in your Journey. They are taking you for a ride of their own making. Back to the bad old days.

UPDATE: 

Barnaby was wrong on one count, it wasn't a short speech. But it contained hidden among the superlatives and platitudes the real nub of the problem Rudd has in trying to effect change in his follow up from the more successful coalition intervention;

This year we are moving towards establishing a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representative body – to give Indigenous Australians the voice in national affairs that they lost.  

We are undertaking extensive consultations with Indigenous communities on the nature of the representative body.

...But, Mr Speaker, our commitment to consultation will not prevent us from moving quickly, when necessary, to protect vulnerable people – especially, women, children and the elderly.

Sorry Kevin you don't get action from a committee, you get chatter, and a group of people who have a great deal of self interest in perpetuating the problem that keeps them remunerated. The Australians Paul Toohey did what the Parliament should have and asked the recipients of Rudd's inactivity how the closing of the gap was progressing. 

Rose Kunoth-Monks, a senior Arrernte woman who lives between Alice Springs and Utopia, northeast of Alice, has seen little evidence of a narrowing gap.

"I'm afraid I haven't much to report to you," she says.

"All we've got is their huge blue and white signs saying we're a prescribed community. It makes you feel like you've got three heads. I see no improvements, although we've got a police station here at Utopia from the intervention."

The gap refers to many things: education, housing, life expectancy, liquor and violence.

"Chronic law and alcohol-fuelled violence is increasing," says the Country Liberals' Adam Giles, an indigenous man who speaks on indigenous policy.

"It's an ever-expanding gap in the NT. And I can tell you that the outcomes aren't being delivered on the ground in terms of housing. While we continue to wait for appropriate health, housing and education outcomes, that gap will continue to widen."

Up on the Tiwi Islands, chairman of the Tiwi Land Council Andrew Tipungwuti offers a brighter assessment.

"Housing has made a huge difference here since we signed our 99-year-lease arrangement," he says.

"The town is absolutely booming. It's really picking up and local chaps are working. We hope it doesn't end there."

Although Mr Rudd claimed houses were being built in indigenous communities, namely on the Tiwi Islands, Mr Tipungwuti says they are a result of the previous government's commitment.

Housing deals are, however, in place, with work expected to start in bigger Territory communities in the coming dry.

At Darwin's One-Mile Dam, a tiny inner-city Aboriginal enclave, the locals reckon nothing's changed since Mr Rudd gave his apology about 12 months ago.

"It's still the same here," Rosemary Timber says. "We still living in rubbish and squalor."

So while the problems of the past remain, unfixed and unanswered, Rudd traps himself in his own spin 

The task ahead is difficult.

The transformation of communities and of lives will take many years.

And there will be many bumps and setbacks on the road.

The alternative is to do nothing.

We are determined to have a go.

In this country, the burden of history falls most heavily on the First Australians.

The disadvantage they have suffered for more than two centuries have placed great obstacles in our way.

But I also believe that we stand at a moment of great historical possibility.

Mr Speaker, let us seize the moment.

Let us work together, as Australians, with a sense of urgency but also of hope, knowing that we have the capacity and the compassion, the mutual respect and the mutual resolve to act, and so change our nation for the better.

Let us now begin.

In a report on one year of progress. Rudd admits, he hasn't yet begun.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2009-02-26 13:54

UPDATE:

Rudd's impending speech is appraised by Barnaby Joyce in his usual elegant and forthright manner;

“This will be a very short speech. The answer will be virtually nothing,” Mr Joyce said. “What has happened is in some cases it’s got worse."

“Has he done anything of any real substance and commitment that says there’s a new horizon of opportunity for Aboriginal people? No he hasn’t.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

2009-02-26 05:54

Rudd is about to cop a barrage of flak as he delivers the first report card on the Federal Government's efforts in closing the gap between Indigenous Australians and the rest of the population in Parliament today.

He had better come clean actually, or a great number of people will point out his failures and his spin will lay very exposed for all.

The criticism is there even before his report;

Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion is scathing of the Government's efforts.

"That not a single house has been built is an absolute disgrace," he said.

"We know that that [housing] is one of the absolute fundamentals that's got to be dealt with before we close the gap.

"And we also know that a great deal of funding has been put towards it, but the governance arrangements and total failure of the people responsible for this - which is the both the Northern Territory Government and the Federal Government - is an absolute disgrace."

Noel Pearson, already fed up with Rudds inaction on Aboriginal housing, is willing to take on the governments ineptitude; 

"Why can't we get a national momentum going here? Something like the gap in literacy and numeracy can be closed in short order, particularly with primary school kids if you get the right programs. This is core business of schools: to competently teach literacy and numeracy.

"The fact that you (the Rudd Government) have gone for such a half-arsed goal like halving it in 10 years betrays the fact you have no intention of actually pursuing a set of strategies that are going to make any dent in this thing at all.

"I would go toe to toe with Gillard and Macklin and show them half-arsed targets are just a groundhog day of Aboriginal policy."

Gillards excuse;

"If Mr Pearson wants to involve himself in what is not just truckloads of work but several trainloads, we would more than happily involve him in that journey." 

Too much paperwork?!?! You cause the paperwork, you and your Prime Bureaucrat. Stop with the "Busy work" and get to task! You had no problem pushing Mal Brough out of the way, but wont take up the fight yourself. Disgraceful.

Personally I think we will hear a number of platitudes and cop outs today, stand by for;

"The challenge we face in addressing the Indigenous gap cannot be overstated" and,

"cant be fixed in One term"

Sorry is not enough, the aboriginal industry wants more.. much more.

Harold Furber from the Central Australian Stolen Generations and Families Aboriginal Corporation says the apology now feels empty. "There was so much promise, there was so much euphoria from the apology," he said. "It was so long coming, maybe it was too much to ask for that Government would keep that commitment, would keep that euphoria going. "I just find it a little bit difficult to comprehend where the Government is going on this one." Mr Furber says the Federal Government has turned its back on his organisation.

 and from perennial indigenous activist Michael Mansell

"Nothing has changed," Mr Mansell declared. "When Rudd gave the apology, many of us, including me, thought it was signalling a different regime, a different approach to Aboriginal issues from John Howard. "In hindsight I think he was genuine about the apology, but he used Aboriginal people to improve his image. He created a political shield against any criticism."

Mr Mansell contrasted Mr Rudd's quick offer of financial aid for the victims of the Victorian bushfires with the refusal to give payments to the victims of policies that forced the removal of Aboriginal children from their families.

And he blasted the Government for keeping racist laws that exempt the emergency intervention in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory from the Racial Discrimination Act.

And from the Greens;

The Greens Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Rachel Siewert says rather than offering financial compensation to the Stolen Generations, the Government has continued to roll out policies which penalise Aboriginal people.

She says the Government has also botched the main aim of the Intervention, improving Indigenous health.

Well i agree with that last statement. Maybe we should be thankful that the gravy train shortage is causing some grief, or maybe we should all just accept that no amount of money, help outs, hand outs, or "Sorries" will appease these people. 

Australia has just concluded discussions with China on human rights, and China has publicly turned on Rudd; 

Mr Liu said the human rights talks - the 12th between Australia and China - were wide-ranging and gave both countries a chance to better understand issues of concern.

"For example, the Chinese side wished to learn how the Australian Government is taking measures on the issue of Indigenous people," he said.

Aboriginals make up about 2 per cent of Australia's population, but suffer far higher rates of unemployment, substance abuse and domestic violence, and have a life expectancy 17 years shorter than other Australians.

Rudd promised to report on the progress of his "closing the gap" program on the first sitting day of the year, this has been postponed until the 13th of Feb, the anniversary of 'Sorry' day. I think we may yet get another delay... maybe because of the bushfires, stimulus, something.

Why? Because no progress has been made, except for caving in to the demands of the usual crowd of aboriginal industry beneficiaries and bleeding heart lefties.

and the children are still in grave danger.

 Claire Smith,  a Research Professor with the Institute of Advanced Studies for Humanity, the University of Newcastle. With an affiliation is Flinders University, South Australia, has made an astonishing claim, that the intervention will drive a wedge between Australia-American relations;

The first telephone conversation between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and United States President Barack Obama augurs well for Australian-American relations. This first discussion focused on establishing a basis for cooperation in international events, including the global economy, climate change and the war in Afghanistan, all spheres in which the two leaders take a common approach.

 It is only when discussions get closer to home that serious differences could emerge, especially around the issue of racial discrimination.

She then fawns all over Rudd and his glorious symbolic gesture;

Following elections in which each leader obtained a firm mandate for change, their immediate policy priorities focused on global issues. Both reversed the climate policies of their predecessor, and redressed human rights infringements and violations in detention centres. While Mr Rudd stopped use of the detention centre at Nauru and implemented faster, more efficient processes for dealing with refugees, Mr Obama banned torture and ordered the closure of the Guantanamo detention camp.....

....Mr Rudd and Mr Obama are joined by the smart use of symbolism. At the opening of his first Parliament, Mr Rudd brought the nation to tears with his Apology to the Stolen Generations of Indigenous Australians.

She goes on like this for quite a while until finally she hits the punchline...

...the Australian Government's failure to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 is damaging our cohesion as a nation.

So she wants the emergency powers of the intervention lifted, and a return to the bad old days that spawned the Little children are Sacred report. Thats Progressives for you, its not about the poor suffering kids, its about protecting the (human) rights of the brutal bastards who have shaped a society that every Australian should rail against.

Claire is pictured here in the dusty outback she loves so much.