Category Archives: Indigenous Australians

Victorian premier confronts ‘bloody stains of colonisation’ at historic Indigenous truth-telling inquiry

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Jacinta Allan’s journey to deepen her understanding of injustices is one many Victorians will need to embark on for Yoorrook to succeed

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, entered the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s hearing room on Monday holding a message stick bearing the names of the state’s Indigenous groups who have participated in the truth-telling process.

During a smoking ceremony ahead of the premier’s evidence, Travis Lovett, a deputy commissioner at the truth-telling inquiry and a Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man, presented the premier with the message stick. He implored Allan to carry with her the stories of First Nations people who have put their “heart and soul” into the commission’s work.

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Truth-telling ‘critical’ to treaty, Victorian premier says before historic appearance at Indigenous-led inquiry

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Jacinta Allan says failure of voice referendum hardened her resolve to ‘present the facts’ about impacts of colonisation

Ahead of a historic appearance at Victoria’s Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry, the premier, Jacinta Allan, said Australia’s failed voice referendum had strengthened her resolve to help “present the facts” about the state’s history and inequalities faced by the First Nations people.

Allan on Monday will become Australia’s first state leader to provide evidence at an Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry, which has the same powers as a royal commission. The Yoorrook Justice Commission is now holding public hearings investigating land injustice.

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Urban Rampage banned from using Centrepay to sign up mostly Indigenous customers to credit arrangements

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Asic finds arrangements posed ‘significant risk’ of financial hardship but clothing store says it will appeal ‘racist and paternalistic decision’

The Australian Security and Investments Commission has permanently banned the clothing store Urban Rampage from using the government’s Centrepay system to sign up mostly vulnerable Indigenous customers to “inherently inappropriate” credit arrangements that place them at risk of financial harm.

Coral Coast Distributors – which operates 10 Urban Rampage stores in regional and remote locations across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, selling household items – can no longer sign-up customers into Centrepay credit arrangements.

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‘Epidemic’ of violence against Aboriginal women in NT is getting worse, exasperated experts warn

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Despite having Australia’s highest rates of domestic violence, particularly against Indigenous women, the NT only receives about 1% of federal funding, senators hear

She was a domestic and family violence advocate; a leader in her community and the country. But in 2021 Kumarn Rubuntja was murdered by her partner, Malcolm Abbott.

“We lost one of our own,” the Tangentyere family violence prevention manager, Dr Chay Brown, told the murdered and missing First Nations women and children parliamentary inquiry.

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First Nations boy, 10, dies in apparent suicide while in state care in Western Australia

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Advocates say the boy took his own life, leaving his family ‘devastated’ and triggering a coronial inquest

A 10-year-old First Nations boy has died in an apparent suicide in state care in Western Australia, advocates for the family say.

Advocates for the family say the boy, who cannot be named, took his own life on Friday night, leaving his family “devastated” and triggering a coronial inquiry.

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Great Barrier Reef discovery overturns belief Aboriginal Australians did not make pottery, archaeologists say

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Paper dates 82 pottery pieces found in single dig site at between 3,000 and 2,000 years old

Groundbreaking archaeological research may have upended the longstanding belief that Aboriginal Australians did not make pottery.

A paper published in the Quaternary Science Reviews on Wednesday details the finding of 82 pottery pieces from a single dig site on a Great Barrier Reef island, dates them at between 3,000 and 2,000 years old and determines that the pots were most likely made by Aboriginal people using locally sourced clay and temper.

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NSW to review child protection screening algorithm over concerns about racial bias

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Families minister says system is ‘not delivering the outcomes we want to see’ as almost 50% of children in care in NSW are Aboriginal

The New South Wales government will review a child protection tool that disproportionately affects Aboriginal children – and that has not been updated in the state for more than a decade.

The controversial system known as “structured decision making” (SDM) has been in use since 2010 to screen for at-risk children.

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‘Time to be fearless’: NT attorney general urges Australian leaders to pursue treaty after voice defeat

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Chansey Paech says the Uluru statement is ‘not finished’ despite the result of the voice referendum

The Northern Territory’s attorney general is urging the nation’s leaders to put last year’s voice referendum result behind them and move to forge treaties with Indigenous people because “the time for sorry business is over”.

The attorney general and deputy chief minister, Chansey Paech, is urging the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and state and territory colleagues not to allow the referendum result to stall progress on the other elements of the Uluru statement from the heart.

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Government ignored warnings more than 100 companies may be misusing Centrepay scheme, Asic says

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Services Australia’s failure to act ‘inexcusable’ and urgent action needed to help people struggling to get by, senators say

The corporate regulator repeatedly warned Services Australia that it should review and consider removing more than 100 companies from a government-run debit scheme that allows early access to welfare payments.

But it said its attempts to sound the alarm about potential misuse of the scheme have had no impact.

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Victoria government blasted for rejecting truth-telling inquiry’s key recommendations

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Yoorook Justice commissioners disappointed ‘crucial’ recommendation to immediately raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 without exceptions was rebuffed

Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly and the head of the state’s Indigenous truth-telling commission have criticised the Allan Labor government for seeking more time to consider overhauling child protection and criminal justice systems.

The government on Wednesday handed down its response to a report by the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which called for it to tackle systemic injustices experienced by First Nations people in the child protection and criminal justice sectors.

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Ten lawyers tell court Lehrmann may have leaked confidential material to Spotlight program – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Aviation firefighters will walk off the job amid revelations many of the nation’s airports are ill-equipped to handle emergencies, AAP reports.

Leaked risk assessments carried out by Airservices Australia reveal travellers at 13 airports including Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide airports, were found to be at extreme risk if there was a fire or aircraft incident because of a lack of firefighting resources.

These leaked documents confirm that Australia’s air travellers face a dire risk every time they set foot on an aircraft in Australia.

Clearly, this significant and ongoing risk to all Australian air travellers is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.

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Second energy firm wrongly received money from welfare payments under Centrepay scheme

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Services Australia is working with Ergon to return overpayments, prompting fears the issue first identified at AGL could be widespread

A second Australian energy company wrongly received money from the welfare payments of former customers, prompting fears that the issue identified at AGL could be widespread.

Guardian Australia revealed last week that $700,000 had been diverted via the government-run Centrepay debit system from the pockets of more than 500 welfare recipients to the energy giant AGL.

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Labor’s offshore gas bill labelled ‘a betrayal’ by First Nations activists

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Leaders with responsibilities for sea country on way to Canberra to lobby against legislation

The Albanese government is facing major blowback over changes to its offshore gas bill, which the crossbench and environment groups have labelled “window dressing” that fails to prevent new rules watering down First Nations consultation.

Seeking to clear the decks before Easter, the government is expected to reveal tweaks to its proposed vehicle efficiency standards this week. And on Monday Labor introduced amendments to add safeguards to the offshore gas bill after widespread concerns, including from within it own ranks.

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NSW outlaws gay conversion practices and makes it harder for young people to get bail

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LGBTQ groups welcome legislation passed after marathon overnight sitting, but critics line up to warn bail laws will put more children in jail

Gay conversion practices have been outlawed in New South Wales and it will be harder for teenage offenders to get bail after two laws passed the state’s parliament overnight.

The laws will, separately, ban conversion practices such as religious “straight camps” that attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation and introduce an extra test for some young people seeking bail.

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Crossbenchers back Lidia Thorpe’s call for federal government to act on deaths in custody reforms

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Exclusive: Victorian senator criticises lack of monitoring of royal commission recommendations and demands ‘tangible and achievable action’

An alliance of parliamentary crossbenchers has backed a call from senator Lidia Thorpe for the federal government to urgently address long called for reforms in landmark reports on Indigenous deaths in custody and child removals.

Thorpe, the Victorian independent, said the Australian Human Rights Commission should be empowered to oversee progress on the key Closing the Gap measures.

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Concerns raised over solitary confinement in Queensland youth detention after deaths of two First Nations boys

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Government report says placing children in prison isolation can affect their health and wellbeing in ‘severe, long-term and irreversible ways’

A Queensland government report has raised concerns over the use of solitary confinement in youth detention, detailing the case of two First Nations children with disabilities who died after spending extensive time in isolation at overcrowded and understaffed youth detention centres.

The Child Death Review Board’s annual report, tabled in state parliament on Thursday, details the anonymised cases of two boys, Harry* and Jack*. The report does not explicitly state their cause of death but Guardian Australia understands it to be suicide.

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WA floods: severe weather hampers search for seven people missing in remote Western Australia

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Road conditions are dangerous along the route the group is believed to have taken from Kalgoorlie to Tjuntjuntjara, police say

Severe weather is hampering search efforts for seven people who are missing amid ongoing flooding in remote Western Australia.

The group – which includes four children and two elderly drivers – left Kalgoorlie, about 600km east of Perth, on Sunday and were travelling in two vehicles north-east to the Tjuntjuntjara Aboriginal community.

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Indigenous leader accuses NT government of ‘clear conflict of interest’ with online gambling industry

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Exclusive: Yingiya Mark Guyula says companies are ‘making big money’ off some of the poorest in the community

An Indigenous leader and independent MP has accused the Northern Territory government of having “a clear conflict of interest” with the $50bn online gambling industry and of ignoring First Nations health and advocacy groups.

Yingiya Mark Guyula, a Liya-dhälinymirr Djambarrpuyngu man, said online gambling was an increasing problem in remote areas. He accused some companies of “making big money off some of the poorest people in our communities”.

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Father of Indigenous man who died after incorrect diagnosis tells inquest ‘hospitals are not safe for us’

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Family members pay emotional tribute to Ricky Hampson Jr, ‘Dougie’, who died less than 24 hours after leaving Dubbo Base hospital

Family members have described an Aboriginal man who died after an incorrect diagnosis at Dubbo hospital as the “favourite” child and the “light of every celebration”.

Ricky Hampson Jr, known and referred to as “Dougie” throughout the inquest, died on 16 August 2021, less than 24 hours after leaving Dubbo Base hospital, after being “erroneously” diagnosed with a drug-related illness.

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Kumanjayi Walker inquest told of ‘clearly racist’ NT police awards that appear to contradict senior officers’ testimony

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Zachary Rolfe evidence calls into question the testimony of several senior officers to the court earlier this week

Award certificates allegedly given out to members of an elite Northern Territory police unit were “clearly racist”, calling into question the evidence of several senior officers, a court has heard.

Zachary Rolfe told an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker earlier this week that he believed a racist mock award had been bestowed by the Tactical Response Group to the member who behaved most like an Aboriginal person.

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