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Harris, Lochie; Macmillan, Lucy --- "Recent Happenings" [2001] IndigLawB 75; (2001) 5(12) Indigenous Law Bulletin 24

Recent Happenings

By Lochie Harris and Lucy Macmillan

31 August

The Full Federal Court upheld the August 2000 decision of Federal Court judge Maurice O’Loughlin to refuse compensation to two members of the Stolen Generation. The Full Federal Court dismissed Mrs Lorna Cubillo and Mr Peter Gunner’s appeal finding that there was no general policy to remove Aboriginal children from their families irrespective of their circumstances. The appeal judges agreed with Justice O’Loughlin’s view that the delay in bringing legal proceedings had led to ‘irremediable prejudice’ for the Federal Government in defending itself.

At a meeting of Victoria’s native title groups in late August 80 per cent of the groups voted to dismantle the State’s key native title body, the Mirimbiak Aboriginal Nations Corporation, amid claims it had wasted $13 million since 1995. A report into the performance of the Corporation is forthcoming.

The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance was held in Durban, South Africa from 31 August to 7 September.

3 September

Doctor Arnold ‘Puggy’ Hunter, Chair of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation since 1991, died today aged 50. Tributes for Puggy flowed from the Indigenous community and from Federal and State politicians.

In a speech to the Samuel Griffith Society annual conference in Melbourne, Mr Keith Windschuttle claimed that the Tasmanian Aborigines who clashed with white settlers in the early nineteenth century ‘were the aggressors, but only twenty years after colonisation. The first twenty they accepted colonisation.’ It is not clear what evidence Mr Windschuttle has to support his statement.

4 September

The First Steps, a report released by the Western Australian Health Department, showed that Aboriginal children under the age of 14 suffer from sexually transmitted diseases at a rate more than 100 times that of non-Indigenous children.

5 September

More than 434 000 hectares of land at Lake Gregory in a remote area of the Kimberley in WA became the State’s first Indigenous Protected Area, just two weeks after being handed over to its traditional owners. The Paruku Indigenous Protected Area will be managed by its traditional owners, the Jurabalan people.

6 September

Members of the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation told the World Conference Against Racism in Durban that the Australian Government tried to commit genocide against Indigenous people, citing the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act contained in the Native Title Act as an attempt by the Australian Government to reduce Indigenous peoples’ rights.

8 September

390 Indigenous nations of Australia converged on Alice Springs to take part in the Yeperenye Festival, part of the Centenary of Federation celebrations. The major spectacle was a re-creation of Yeperenye Dreaming.

13 September

Gosnells City Council in Western Australia is attempting to reduce the problems associated with alcohol and drug induced public behaviour without resorting to the criminal justice system. The Council has contracted Nyoongar Enterprise Aboriginal Corporation to supply eight Indigenous Community Liaison Officers to patrol the town and attempt to defuse situations before the police become involved. The liaison officers will focus on Indigenous and non-Indigenous youths.

At an opening of a Baptist refuge centre in Adelaide, Lowitja O’Donoghue said that Australia’s process of reconciliation has stalled and will have no real advancement under current Prime Minister John Howard.

14 September

An Indigenous Land Use Agreement between the Queensland Government, the Kalkadoon people and mining companies was signed, allowing 93 exploration permits to go ahead over 12 months.

15 September

Patrick Dodson announced that he will head up an Aboriginal think tank, The Lingiari Foundation, which aims to facilitate cooperation between corporate Australia and the Indigenous community as well as advance Indigenous political and cultural thought.

19 September

In an attempt to reduce alcohol related violence Mornington Island Council, with the support of the local community, has banned the take away sale of cask wine. The higher alcohol content of cask wine is blamed for the noticeable increase in violence on Saturday nights, which was the only night that cask wine had been sold.

20 September

Indigenous activist Murrandoo Yanner became the youngest ATSIC commissioner in the organisation’s history. Twenty nine year old Mr Yanner will represent far North West Queensland and plans to use his elected appointment to fight for a treaty and to combat domestic violence in Indigenous communities.

Noel Pearson said at a principal’s conference in Brisbane that Aboriginal children would not receive the education they needed until their families and communities overcame substance abuse and violence. He said that Aboriginal communities urgently need to restore law and order, and that Australian society in general had come to accept poverty, illiteracy and injustice in Aboriginal communities as inevitable, leading to Aboriginal families themselves ‘downwardly skewing’ their aspirations.

26 September

Mr Bob McMullan, Shadow Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, said a joint Commonwealth/ACT inquiry into illicit drug use in the local Indigenous community was necessary to reveal the extent of illicit drug use and its social and economic impact on the Indigenous community.

28 September

Grant Tambling, Liberal MP and Parliamentary Secretary for Health, said the Commonwealth Grants Commission report into Indigenous funding needed to be given serious attention by the next federal government. This report argues that the Commonwealth needs to significantly lift its spending on Indigenous health to bring it to the Australian average and that Commonwealth education spending for Aborigines was small compared with overall education spending.


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