re:

"Jenny Macklin, threatens to withdraw government support from remote communities that are “economically unviable”. The Northern Territory is the only region where Aborigines have comprehensive land rights, granted almost by accident 30 years ago. Here lies some of the world’s biggest deposits of uranium. Canberra wants to mine it and sell it."

The material leading up to this quote is a good argument, but where and when did Jenny Macklin say the above? Does Jenny Macklin want to facilitate the nuclear fuel cycle? Tell us more.

re: "Canberra wants to mine it and sell it."

If digging into this story is to be done, we need more people and organisations named. We need greater specificity than "Canberra".

It may be that the story, as first submitted to The Guardian, originally had a bit more meat on its bones, regarding the present and near future - I'm interested.

Recolonisation of previously colonised peoples is the latest method by which governments and corporations achieve their ends. I had hoped that once the Howard government was out, that such activities would come to an end. Howard and his ministers specialised in recolonisation strategies.

Women and children are easy targets for such policies and I call on all government politicians to refuse to participate in giving a facelift to Howard government practices. It may look better, but the underlying structures will benefit not Indigenous people but corporatised governments and their profitmongering mates.

In the last month we have seen where this kind of thinking takes us.

There are times when human rights must be made subservient to other more urgent human needs. The shameful situation in many NT and WA outstations is one such example when the physical and emotional safety of women and children takes precedence over more esoteric rights.
Pilger's attitude is typical of people who claim to see the problems clearly but can only come up with solutions that have been tried for 30 years and been shown to fail almost totally.
Pilger should live in one of these communities to discover the fear that the withdrawal of the intervention would bring to the people who live there.
We must fix the immediate problems via a solution like the intervention and then we can put in place practical, work-creating solutions to the long term problems as suggested by people like Noel Pearson.
Pilger's article is typical of someone living in a rich urban environment far from the real world of the outstations: full of empty rhetoric and lacking understanding and practical solutions.

Ah, another tidbit of semi-hysterical conspiracy-mongering by our own world class expert on moralistic posturing.

Jenny Macklin, of course, has never said she will 'withdraw government support from remote communities that are “economically unviable”.'

NT Land Rights were not granted 'almost by accident': the legislation was passed by Malcolm Fraser's Liberal National Government, with the support of Whitlam's Labor Opposition, after a long struggle by Aboriginal activists (led by Marcia Langton) and their supporters across all sections of Australian society, despite strong opposition by sections of the pastoral and mining industries.

Pilger seizes on one untruthful crumb to provide evidence for his current conspiracy theory: '“The land grab of Aboriginal tribal land has nothing to do with child sexual abuse,” says the Australian scientist Helen Caldicott, “but all to do with open slather uranium mining and converting the Northern Territory to a global nuclear dump”.'

Well, hells bells, Johnny Pilger is really outdoing himself here.

For starters, Helen Caldicott is an anti-nuclear activist GP, and long term conspiracy theorist herself, not some kind of independent expert scientist of international repute.

What Helen imagines as a "land grab" is in simple fact actually an important necessary attempt to amend a flaw in the NT Land Rights Act 1976. This amendment is enabling governments (Commonwealth & NT) to secure these very small areas (less than 1% of Aboriginal land in the NT) for the common wellbeing of the residents of the patches of land on which Aboriginal communities are built, by placing them under leases (with compensation going to the traditional owners).

This is so that these town areas can be better developed with $700 million worth of housing and essential services for the wellbeing of all the (overwhelmingly Aboriginal) residents - not so that they can be closed down or mined for uranium or used as nuclear waste dumps.

How this socially responsible move can be characterised as a land grab on behalf of yankee nuclear interests is completely beyond my comprehension.

I would suggest that Mr Pilger try to stick to topics about which he actually knows something worth saying.

This causes me to wonder what the Minister thinks of Home Education:

From:
http://www.jennymacklin.fahcsia.gov.au/internet/jennymacklin.nsf/content/nter_anniversary_21jun2008.htm

Transcripts
First anniversary of the Northern Territory Emergency Response
21/06/2008

Darwin

E & O E - PROOF ONLY

Macklin: Thanks everyone for being here today.

(snip to last three paragraphs)

Journalist: Would you envisage that people might be forcibly removed from communities deemed unviable?

Macklin: I think this idea of forcibly removing anyone is way off the mark. I think what's important to recognise - if I go back to the principles, what's important is to make sure that children go to school. What's important is that parents have the capacity and the opportunity to get a job. They're the principles that I'd be working towards.

Journalist: [Indistinct] people might not want to leave. So what would happen there?

Macklin: I think the critical thing is to make it clear that the law is very, very clear on this issue. Children must go to school. Every child in Australia has to go to school. There's a responsibility in each state and territory to make sure that's enforced and just yesterday we've introduced a new mechanism to make sure that children go to school. Parents have a responsibility to make sure that their children go to school and if they don't take the responsibility seriously, their welfare payments will be suspended until they get them to school. I think these are the critical ways to look at this issue. Make sure the children go to school, make sure the parents are able to get work, and then we'll see some improvements in people's lives.

'The land grab I can't comment on' although if Mr Pilger is as dishonest about this as he is aboriginal sexual abuse I have my doubt. Anyone who has worked in communities in WA will confirm that child sexual abuse is at horrendous rates. You can be sure that suicide is a lot more about internal abuse than 'land grabs'. Whilst it could be argued strongly that mining has done damage to the environment it has and is also pouring large truck loads of money into aboriginal communities (much of it squandered). Mr Pilger's own view of history prevents him from having any constructive solutions to child sexual abuse. The view that the problem will just go away if we ignore it or say 'sorry' is one that has been held for 50 years and we have gone backwoods.

i come from kintore nt 0872

am a indigenous person with no family rights as the clc is very adamant on denying me the right to have my father live with us without having to get a permit from them wich is basically permision off them

the clc says that traditional owners have no rights other than to stand or sit where they tell us to thats from their mouths in the supreme court in alice springs .

the permit system does not allow us positive growth properly and the clc wont issue leases so that we can have security to run a buisness or luive in our own home over 17years we have been fighting for our rights . is anyone actually willing to put there money where their mouth is and help us in the homelands please give us legal aid or order the clc to fix the problem up asking for help

please feel free to reply to me as all my other letters to government went unanswered...think can help me fight for my basic rights ?

paintingpintupi@yahoo.com.au
katherine napaltjarri parker
kintore nt 0872

Yes, the whole sorry saga has turned my stomach since that time when Peter Charley allowed Lateline to whored for government propaganda purposes meant to get Howard re-elected.
Truth of the matter is that underneath the bland myth of "civilised" modern Australia, there exists as rapacious a mentality as ever practiced overt outrages a century ago.
As for the ALP, well given its gormless performance on environment, the ABC, student unions, education, ASIO laws retained and a raft of other issues, can the disillusion setting in now be just the deserved backhander for daring to hope that, just once, Labor might have acted on the basis of principle rather than that of populist opportunism, after winning an election.

John Pilger has the same extremist left-wing view on everything. I'm glad that he saw fit to leave Australia and live overseas.

Unfortunately, like his fellow Marxist Germaine Greer, he is still able to visit Australia as he wishes.

If Australia really was the type of country he paints it as, he would not be allowed to return to Australia - ever.

I find Ms. Greer a tolerable, often amusing, pain in the backside; but Mr. Pilger is a disgrace, no matter where he lives.

Paul, mate, Labor, & principle are two words that just can't be worked into the same sentence.

Any principles they had, that Whitlam didn't trash years ago, Richardson sold for a couple of hundred votes, just a few years later.

I think we miss the point here, seeing it published as it is online in Australia; we mistake it as a piece written for an Australian audience. To most Australians it would appear to be just this side of rubbish?

I would suspect that this is meant for non-Australian customers of Pilgers, to show them how he is exposing terrible deeds of evil back in his home country, and thus worthy of publication in the sensational pages. It could be meant to show his awesome connections and access to "secrets" that no one else has, uncovering conspiracies.

It seems to be what he would like to believe rather than what is actually happening in Australia, sure we struggle with how to help some parts of the community - every civilised society does that.

There will always be people who need help, and we do that, we help. Each government does what the society at the time thinks is best, different times are reflective of different solutions - today it is intervention. We don't have intervention everywhere though, only the NT.

As far as Uranium mining goes, NT is not the only source; I think he has swallowed a red herring there.

John,

You cite several alledged failings. What are your solutions? What must Australians do, in your view. A direction is not clear from your post. Can you articulate an apt response to the situation?

John Pilger has fallen in my estimation as a result of his publishing this tripe. I am embarrassed to be Australian... not because of the situation Aboriginal people find themselves in, but because of the rantings of John Pilger. Go figure!

watch them gnash their teeth, salivate and spin their heads
a pilger article to feed upon, their own ignorance to fuel them on.

To Dan,
Aboriginal Australians are more than entitled to the best that Australia can give them in health, housing ,welfare and education .

It is obvious that quite a few OLO writers simply can't stand to give Aboriginal people a hand up .

Dan doesn't seem to realise how important their land is to traditional Aboriginal people - it is everything .

The Maralinga Native people who were forced to give up their land could not possibly believe the new white owners would atom bomb the hell out of something so precious .

Invaders on shaky ground will use any means and invent any excuse to move Indigenous Owners off what they want. It is happening in Australia today - the difference between now and the 18th Century is that we can see it .

Thanks John .

Aboriginal land rights is, and always has been, a counter to the whites attitude and blatant racism. Yes aboriginals did have some sacred sites but they are rare and not large. Ritual sites basically.

But they created this myth of tribal lands when they were hunter gatherers.

Stupid whites fell for it and paid up. Money which went to the few and left the most still huddled on remote and rotten communities where drinking is the only escape from the bleakness of their future.

Most have no land survival skills any longer and white society doesn't want them. They've been betrayed by both black and white leaders and left to rot.

Rebuilding these ridiculously placed communities will produce nothing except more waste.

An example? Did you know aboriginal custom says if a person dies in a house then no on can live in it. That's why they deteriorate and become camp grounds after a time. A new one makes no difference.

What financial future is there in these remote places? None is the answer. Not even anywhere to spend except one shop for a captive audience and grog runners.

Close them down for Christ's sake, move everyone to towns and cities and focus on education.

DavoP,
How about some palliative care facilities in these communities if you don't like them to die in their "homes" ?

I note that the mayor of Katherine wants all those Aboriginals who have gravitated to town because of the Intervention to be all sent back to their communities as they are causing too much trouble and are an eyesore [no pun intended] to the locals and the tourists.

Better them to be a huge problem in their communities - now that's progress.

The mayor of Alice Springs has said they have dryout facilities for about 16 people but need the funding to accomodate about 60 .

Getting rid of the grog and the the drugs and the obscene alcohol advertising on the backs of our Aboriginal and other sporting stars would be a huge plus for all of us.

Education will help but flogging them to town and destroying their culture and language won't.

Perhaps we can apply a liberal dose of skin whitening cream as well when we get them there; although history has it that Aboriginal people originally accepted white invaders as "blacks", admittedly with a few different customs , coloured differently and speaking just another language.

Why can't we accept and do the same for them ?

Katherine Parker from Kintore, NT

Having thought over your situation and my limitations, the best suggestion I can offer is that you gather up copies of your "letters to government" and travel 400 km east, to Alice Springs, and visit your federal parliamentary representatives. And keep visiting until you get a result.

I am hoping that is possible for you.

Good show on the ABC Sunday night, about how Eddie Mabo won his case.

Best wishes

If you'd like to see the whole of the following article, go to http://www.cis.org.au/executive_highlights/EH2008/eh70408.html

Out with the Outstations?
Sara Hudson

The NT government admits policy failure on outstations writes Sara Hudson in the Sunday Territorian, 19 October 08

After thirty years, it finally seems the Northern Territory government is acknowledging the failures of the outstation movement. Last Monday, the Northern Territory government released a discussion paper seeking input on proposed reforms to outstation policy.

Despite spending millions or even billions of dollars, successive governments have failed to provide appropriate standards of housing, education, and essential services in these Indigenous communities. The catalyst for the government’s change in policy is the crisis in Indigenous education, which has occurred because of separatist educational policies.

In these outstations, Aboriginal schools known as ‘learning centres’ do not have the same standards of classrooms, teaching aids, and materials as regular primary schools. They have a separate ’Indigenous‘ curriculum, and largely rely on fly-in-fly-out teachers who do not meet the normal requirements of the Northern Territory’s Teacher Registration Board. Finally, Marion Scrymgour, the NT’s Indigenous Policy Minister, has admitted that the cultural benefits of these outstations have come at the expense of children’s education.

The discussion paper argues that the NT government’s priority is to give children access to adequate services, especially education. People who are uneducated do not have true freedom, because they lack the capabilities to make real choices about their lives. At last, the NT government has recognised that ‘children must have access to education so that when they are adults they have the capacity and options in life to make a considered decision on the path they wish to take.’

kartiya jim writes:

"Aboriginal Australians are more than entitled to the best that Australia can give them in health, housing ,welfare and education ."

......What racist rubbish !

......ALL Australians are more than entitled to the best that Australia can give them in health, housing, welfare and education.

Australians in their 1967 Referenda sort to make unlawful ALL legislation qualifying the rights and responsibililties of ALL Austrlians on basis of race.

Racists are those seeking to qualify rights and or responsibilities on grounds of race.

Appears use of the word "Aboriginal" still cancels otherwise held responsibilities, accountability and rights.

Such as those of landlords.

Considering the treatment of landlords and their agents in wider community around Australia -even the Northern Territory, to the treatment of the "Aboriginal Land Rights" Trusts as landlords.

Is ongoing refusal to require these Land Trusts behave as landlords which causes so many problems in and around their communities.

Insufficient community infrastructure, insufficient and inadequate housing, poor maintenance, inadequate rental rates, lack of tenant security - no valid leases. lack of development in communities, not to mention the poor returns to intended individual beneficiaries of the Land Trusts from their assets.

The Land Trusts behave more like private zoo keepers than landlords.

When Jenny Macklin Commonwealth and Rob Knight MLA NT Government announced their Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP) joint program both admitted long term leases must be in place before capital investments and before the work commenced.

They undertook Commonwealth and the NT Government would work with land councils and communities to secure appropriate land tenure in communities.

When will we see drafts for these leases ?

.