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Hunter, Catherine --- "Recent Happenings" [2006] IndigLawB 16; (2006) 6(17) Indigenous Law Bulletin 24


Recent Happenings February 2006

compiled by Catherine Hunter

3 February

Despite the passing of the claims deadline for stolen wages reparations in Queensland, Elders have said that they will continue to fight. The Elders decided that the deadline is irrelevant to them because the reparations offer itself is discriminatory. President of the Fitzroy Basin Elders Committee, Margaret Lawton, said that the State Government does not have the right to tell them what offer they can have, and to make a time limit on claims. Fred Edwards, an Elder from Normanton, commented that the Government expected them to take the offer ‘lying down’ just as they were forced to accept the loss of their wages.

3 February

In NSW, the reparations process has been criticised by the Opposition as being unfairly slow and designed to discourage claimants. The system is so bureaucratic and time-consuming that some claimants are likely to die before their cases are considered. Brad Hazzard, Opposition Spokesman for Aboriginal Affairs, argued that the NSW Government has a moral obligation to pay claims quickly and to provide lawyers and researchers.

4 February

A recent bushfire in south western Victoria revealed evidence of an early Aboriginal settlement and has added to the debate regarding whether Indigenous people were hunter-gatherers. The site contained dwellings which are believed to have housed up to four families, eel traps, walking tracks and cutting tools. This is evidence that Aborigines in the area had a complete society and used aquaculture. Researchers have found another site at Lake Condah which was used for the smoking of eels for barter with other groups.

6 February

The Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (‘WA’) has released an extensive study of Aboriginal customary law. One of the major recommendations of the report is for pilot Aboriginal courts to deal with the high incarceration rates of Indigenous people in the State. The pilot system would involve greater recognition of customary laws and is not intended to be a ‘soft option’. The recommendation is supported by the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA.

10 February

NSW Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, announced his plan for the Redfern community in Sydney. This was despite the fact that the area has been a focus for Indigenous organisation for many years, and a place of significance to at least one tribal group, and that the land was given to the Aboriginal community by the Whitlam Government in the 1970s. The plan is intended to create jobs and a new town centre, but will not provide the residential housing, Aboriginal business college, retail centre and markets suggested by the Pemulwuy Project. Mick Mundine, Chief Executive of the Aboriginal Housing Company that owns the Block labelled the plan a win for developers. Lyn Turnbull, a member of the community group REDWatch, said that the intention is to keep families out of the area. She said that the area had a very family-oriented community before the escalation of the drug trade in the 1990s.

15 February

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (‘HREOC’) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, has welcomed recent attempts by governments to tackle drug problems in Indigenous communities. The SA Government has set up the first clinic for the rehabilitation of petrol-sniffers in the country. Mr Calma noted that, in 2002, the SA Coroner made a recommendation in his findings from the inquests into the deaths of three Anangu youths who were chronic petrol sniffers and lived on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands, that such a facility be available. This proposal was mentioned again in the HREOC Social Justice Report 2003. Mr Calma was also pleased with the Federal Government’s move to make unsniffable fuel available in the central desert region and the formation in July 2005 of the Tri-State Disability Strategic Framework between the Northern Territory, WA and South Australia in July 2005 for the provision of disability services to the people from Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands, to help address substance abuse.

16 February

Mr Calma released the HREOC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Report for 2005. He said, ‘There is no greater challenge to the Australian values of decency, fairness and egalitarianism than the inequality in health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the non-Indigenous population.’ The Report sets out a human rights framework for achieving health equality within a generation. Mr Calma said that the lack of improvement in Aboriginal and Islander health status, and the inequality gap, reveals the failure of governments to commit to an urgent plan of action to address these issues.

16 February

A radical approach adopted by the Howard Government and state premiers three years ago to remedy disadvantage experienced by Indigenous communities appears to have invested far more into administration of the scheme than to the program recipients. The aim was to assign each of ten communities to a different Federal or state department which would be responsible for programs. An Elder from each community would be consulted by the department to ensure the funding was well-targeted. The program also intended to prevent duplication between Federal and state agencies. However, the results show that, to date, the system has spent more than ten times more on administration than on the communities.

21 February

The 2005 Native Title Report has been released by HREOC. The report criticises the Federal Government’s plan to address living standards in Indigenous communities by encouraging individual leases on communally-owned Indigenous land. The report says that where this approach has been pursued in other countries, it has not resulted in improved economic conditions for Indigenous peoples. The approach was also criticised as discriminatory because of the option for compulsory acquirement of Indigenous land where consent is ‘unreasonably’ withheld. Mr Calma argued that this would breach international human rights standards. The Report also noted that Aboriginal land and native title rights can prevent Indigenous people from using their land for economic development. The land rights system does not transfer rights to minerals with land to Indigenous peoples, and the native title system supports the exploitation of land and natural resources by non-Indigenous Australians. Recent criticisms of Indigenous people for having failed to develop their economic position can be seen to be inappropriate.


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