6 – 9 JULY 2010
Stop the Intervention
We the people in attendance at the NT Anti Intervention convergence held at Alice Springs 6-9 July 2010 Stand in solidarity with the Aboriginal Peoples, Traditional Owners of Northern Territory to condemn the NT Intervention and call on all political parties to call for abolishment of NT Emergency Response and return rights of self-determination control over their traditional lands, including homelands, outstations and town camps.
We call for a national, independent inquiry into where/how intervention funds have been spent.
We demand all intervention funding from income management/GBMs and SIHIP etc are placed under Aboriginal community control to fund jobs and basic services in all communities
That this conference calls on Amnesty International and other supporting organisations to assist with sending prescribed area delegates to the United Nations for the 77th session of Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
We call on the Australian Social Justice Commissioner of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to provide personell and resources to Aboriginal Peoples in the NT to hear and document cases of discrimination. These resources and people need to be language speakers.
Women’s Statement:
To Prime Minister Julia Gillard:
We, the women, mothers, Grandmothers Aunties, sisters in support of our men who are the shared caregivers of the NT wholeheartedly demand the NTER be abolished immediately.
The media has heralded your promotion to PM as a breakthrough for women. All this talk is a slap in the face for Aboriginal women whose communities are being devastated by this government’s racist intervention.
For 3 years the removal of our human rights has been justified with lies about protecting women from violence and feeding our children. We are living proof of the damage it has caused to us as indigenous peoples of the NT who are trying to survive, live and practice our way of life. Shame on you!
We call on you band Federal minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin to abolish this law that takes away our human rights as Indigenous peoples of this country.
Minister Macklin consistently claims that women support income management and support the intervention. This is not the truth. Under the current policies we have no choice and no change and now a big cloud is covering our struggle and journey. The working Futures policy is about closing our homelands and outstations. This is damaging and destructive for our families, language, law, culture, that is important to us. That’s our identity – passed down through generations, this is what makes us the oldest unique culture in the world.
Income Management, cuts to CDEP, bi-lingual ban in schools and 5 year leases over our land and housing – all these measures are taking away our control over our lives and our communities. Your legal discrimination against us has given a license to racists to abuse us in the street, in supermarkets and to attack our kids at school.
Stop the NT Intervetnion immediately – Jenny Macklin
Jobs with Justice
Resolution “Jobs with Justice”
Worse than Workchoices: Exploitation of Aboriginal workers must stop! – Stop the jobs massacre in NT Aboriginal communities
The Rudd government committed to halving the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in a decade. But due to a continuation of Howard era policies such as the NTER, the gap is becoming far wider. ABS data released on June 3 shows that Indigenous unemployment has drastically worsened from 13.8% in 2007 to 18.1% in 2009. The employment to population ratio of Indigenous males in remote areas decreased 6% in just one year 2008-09.
Minister Macklin has promised to deliver ‘real jobs’ for Aboriginal communities through the NT Intervention. Instead, thousands of CDEP
positions have been lost.
At the end of 2010, 500 ‘real jobs’ created to replace some of the lost CDEP positions in remote shire councils, face the axe.
The commonwealth is refusing to release the $8.5 millionper year needed by the NT government to keep the jobs. Many Aboriginal communities serviced by these shires already suffer atrocious living conditions which shame Australia- 500 more job losses will be devastating.
WORSE THAN WORKCHOICES
Under the new CDEP scheme designed by the Federal Labor Government,
Aboriginal people no longer receive wages. They are being forced to
work providing vital services such as rubbish collection, school bus
runs, sewerage maintenance, construction and aged care in exchange for
quarantined Centrelink payments.
There are cases of people working between 25-40 hrs a week for a base
rate of approximately $120 cash and $110 on the basic card – that is
$4 an hour plus ration! Centrelink is threatening to cut off payment
entirely if people do not participate in CDEP. This is far worse than
anything the Liberals inflicted on workers under Workchoices.
Minister Macklin has referred these shocking revelations to a
departmental enquiry and to Fair Work Australia. But this is not good
enough. The gross exploitation of Aboriginal workers must stop
immediately. The government is planning to spend $350 Million (over 4
years) to expand income management across the NT. This money is
desperately needed to create real jobs in remote communities and
ensure the provision of basic services.
We call on the trade unions, State Labour councils and the ACTU to
endorse this statement, provide funds for its publication and help
organise members to attend a national day of action in September to
push these demands.
The government must act immediately to:-
-Guarantee the 500 threatened Shire jobs
-End compulsory income management
-End current CDEP arrangements forcing people to work for the Basic card
-Turn all CDEP positions into full time waged jobs
-Provide massive investment in job creation and service provision in
all NT communities
No to Radioactive Racism
The nuclear industry continues to have a disproportionate impact on
remote and Indigenous communities in Australia and overseas. Nuclear
projects leave a lasting legacy of environmental contamination and
adverse social issues.
The NT Intervention, NT Government “Working Futures” and other
regressive and paternalistic policies are stripping communities of
funding and resources and pushing Traditional Owners and communities
to consider high impact projects like uranium mines and nuclear waste
dumps in exchange for essential services which are basic human rights.
The Defending Indigenous Rights gathering calls for full government
investment to provide services for all communities.
The gathering supports Traditional Owners and communities resisting
the imposition of uranium and nuclear projects on their country, and
will organise supportive actions, events and alliances in towns and
cities to build the nuclear free campaign.
The gathering supports the strong stance taken by the Electrical Trade
Union in banning their members from working on nuclear projects and
commends the support of the Maritime Union of Australia, Unions NT and
the Australian Council of Trade Unions in solidarity with Muckaty
Traditional Owners opposing the federal radioactive waste dump.
The gathering supports the upcoming Australian Nuclear Free Alliance
meeting and will start work to support delegates to attend the
conference.
We commit to immediate and ongoing protest actions in cities/towns and
a blockade at Muckaty if the site is announced and the community calls
for support.
Defend Aboriginal Languages
i) That we call on the Australian Education Union to pledge support
for any teachers who refuse to follow the policy of assimilation being
enforced on NT communities – the restrictions on teaching in
Aboriginal languages.
That everyone here works to get signatures on AEU petition against
this policy and works with teachers around the country to build forums
and protest actions.
ii) Language is Power!!
We have the power of our own languages!
We don’t need the Intervention/Government to erode our languages by
stopping our children being taught their languages in our
schools/communities!
We must harness our power through our languages and NOT allow this to happen!!
Stop this erosion of our language rights. The government is denying us
our identity, culture through this process
Indigenous media:
i) Call for a boycott of National Indigenous Times:
That conference congratulates Chris Graham, Amy McGuire, Larissa and
others who have edited and written for the National Indigenous Times
over many years. They have reported the truth about Aboriginal
affairs, an area characterised by mainstream media racism and
propaganda.
That we condemn the push to run a pro-intervention editorial line in
the current National Indigenous Times to gain access to government
funding.
We call for a boycott of National Indigenous Times while this sell-out
strategy continues. We support efforts by former NIT staff to
establish alternative forums for news and critical analysis of
Indigenous issues.
ii) Condemn the ABC’s Lateline
That this conference calls upon the federal minister for communication
to investigate the ABC’s Lateline program of reporting false,
inaccurate, misleading statements on Aboriginal communities in its
program of 2005 of alleged sexual abuse. Participants of this
conference condemn the ABC on such program and calls for an on air
apology in casting all Aboriginal communities in a derogatory manner,
particularly the male participants at the conference condemn
child/sexual abuse and those matters should be investigated and not
targeting all Aboriginal communities.
We the people in attendance at the NT Anti Intervention convergence
held at Alice Springs 6-9 July 2010 Stand in solidarity with the
Aboriginal Peoples, Traditional Owners of Northern Territory to
condemn the NT Intervention and call on all political parties to call
for abolishment of NT Emergency Response and return rights of
self-determination control over their traditional lands, including
homelands, outstations and town camps.