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Lemezina, Zrinka --- "Recent Happenings - November 2008" [2008] IndigLawB 47; (2008) 7(9) Indigenous Law Bulletin 27

Recent Happenings – November 2008

Compiled by Zrinka Lemezina.

5/11

Speaking before delivering an address for the Sydney Peace Prize, Pat Dodson criticized the Federal Government for failing to endorse the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights. Mr Dodson said that Australia behaves ‘schizophrenically. Internationally, we present a front about Australia as a tolerant nation … but domestically we don’t acknowledge that we are swimming in a backwater because we haven’t advanced our social discourse on change.’ Mr Dodson called for State compensation for Indigenous people and for land rights to be formally recognized in the Constitution.

6/11

The WA communuity of Oombulgurri was declared a dry community under a State Government plan to prohibit alcohol in the Kimberley region. Speaking at the 2009 Hawke Lecture, Professor Fiona Stanley criticized blanket bans that are introduced without institutional support such as trauma counseling, mental health services and safe houses for women as ‘inhumane’.

10/11

The Greens reaffirmed their support for reinstatement of the permit system in the NT. Senator Rachel Siewert said that this would ‘be one step on the right path to enabling Indigenous communities to manage their own lands.’

9/11

Cape York Family Responsibilities Commissioner, David Glasgow wants welfare measures under the FRC model to be extended to suburban Brisbane and non-Indigenous suburbs of Mossman in far north Queensland. Megan Davis of the University of New South Wales cautioned against arbitrarily importing such measures into communities that may be differently constituted from those in Cape York.

8/11

Lex Wotton was sentenced to six years’ custody for his role in the Palm Island riot of November 2004. Shanahan J criticized the Qld police investigation into the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee; he said that State and Commonwealth Governments ‘cannot be proud of themselves’ for their response to the riot or subsequent investigation.

10/11

Qld Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Lindy Nelson-Carr announced that the State Government is considering introducing the permit system in Indigenous communities throughout the State.

12/11

The Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (‘CAEPR’) estimates that it could take over 100 years to ‘close the gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. CAEPR considered socio-economic indicators such as average male life-expectancy, personal and household income and rates of home ownership.

12/11

Parliamentary speaker, Mike Reynolds presented Queensland Parliament with a petition calling for a royal commission into the 2004 death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee in a Palm Island prison.

13/11

Professor Mick Dodson was awarded ACT Australian of the Year award for his contribution to improving the lives of Indigenous Australians.

15/11

Dr Chris Sarra, of the Indigenous Education Leadership Institute, has called for the establishment of a Services Responsibilities Commission to scrutinize the performance of service-providers in remote Aboriginal communities, which he describes as substandard.

18/11

Paul Herbert, manager of the Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages, wants a national inquiry into Indigenous languages to be carried out by the Senate Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs.

20/11

The Murri Court in Mackay was officially opened in Queensland today. The Court will allow Indigenous offenders to have their matters heard before a magistrate and local Indigenous Elders.

24/11

Income management commenced in Kununurra in the Kimberley and in Perth’s Cannington district. The trial will give WA child protection authorities the power to make recommendations to Centrelink that welfare payments be quarantined for the benefit of children.

25/11

Two planes have airlifted food to the WA Burringurrah community; the Federal Government says that it has officers in the community to assess why communities are running out of food.

25/11

Indigenous singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was named NT Australian of the Year.


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