Category Archives: Indigenous Australians

Opposition refers minister to Ibac – as it happened

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Warren Mundine said he has kicked two people off his no campaign group Recognise a Better Way, one of which for allegedly making an antisemitic comment.

I’ve actually kicked several people off our campaign in regard to their comments and I intend to keep on doing that.

That’s just between us and the couple of people we had sent off. I don’t appreciate racist comments … All they know is I got rid of them and I don’t accept any racial comments from anyone in regard to these issues.

… It wasn’t particularly about Aboriginals, one was a very antisemitic comment and I’m not gonna wear that crap.

When I talk about treaties, when I talk about constitutional recognition, it is in regard to treaties that are signed between the commonwealth government and First Nations peoples.

… I believe in treaties between the First Nations and the commonwealth and at that, and I put it in that context.

I was involved in the beginning … and then after it got further down the track in regard to [what] it was looking at, [then I said] I don’t support that.

It has to be the First Nations, it has to be the traditional owners who make those agreements. I can’t speak for other people’s country, and they can’t speak for my country.

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Vandals damage Indigenous birthing tree sacred to Victoria’s Djab Wurrung people

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Police investigate vandalism of tree that was set to be demolished for major road project before large protests in western Victoria

A sacred Indigenous birthing tree that was once at the centre of large protests in western Victoria over Aboriginal cultural heritage rights has been vandalised with a pro-highway message and had three drill holes cut into its trunk.

Police are investigating after the tree – sacred to the Djab Wurrung people – was vandalised near Buangor, about 180km west of Melbourne. The Djab Wurrung people have been fighting for four years to prevent the destruction of the birthing trees as part of a major state government road project.

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Warren Mundine urged to give full details of ‘sacking’ of no campaign volunteers over alleged racist remarks

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Spokesman for Indigenous voice to parliament no campaign also condemns comments by Advance board member questioning Stan Grant’s skin tone

The Liberals for Yes have demanded that Warren Mundine explain the full details of “secret sackings”, after the Recognise a Better Way spokesman claimed he had ejected two volunteers for making racist remarks.

On Tuesday Mundine separately denounced as “bizarre” comments by the Australian Jewish Association head, David Adler, who is on the advisory board of reactionary campaign group Advance, questioning Stan Grant’s skin tone. Adler has reportedly said he did not intend to insult the presenter, adding “I am 100% zero racism”.

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Coalition’s position on the voice ‘clear as mud’ and ‘completely confused’, Burney says – as it happened

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‘Mistakes of the past’: David Littleproud compares voice to ATSIC advisory body

Littleproud says the proposal for the voice to parliament will “repeat the mistakes of the past”, comparing the proposal to ATSIC.

No, again, David, the problem comes from the lived experience we have. And it might work in suburbs in capital cities but when you’re talking about representative bodies in rural and remote Australia, you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of square kilometres, hundreds of different diverse communities that have different challenges and needs.

We were saying let’s have common sense.

Why not let the market decide but let’s educate Australians. This won’t happen overnight. This is something we need to bring them on that journey. That’s why I wanted to have some political leadership but from across the aisle, and say let’s have a national energy summit, bring Australians into our trust and let them decide what the energy mix should look like and live town our international commitments.

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National party refuses to back Peter Dutton on alternative Indigenous voice proposal

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David Littleproud says his party has ‘real concern’ about regional advisory bodies Dutton has promised to put in legislation, but not in the constitution

The Nationals have refused to commit to legislating an Indigenous voice if the Coalition wins the next election, undercutting Peter Dutton’s attempt to win over voters with an alternative proposal.

Dutton has campaigned against enshrining a voice to parliament in the constitution, arguing it is “risky” to mention the advisory body in the nation’s founding document.

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NSW Liberal leader backs Indigenous voice saying rewards ‘outweigh the risks’

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Mark Speakman’s statement comes as Peter Dutton says he will ‘fight for’ constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians

The New South Wales opposition leader, Mark Speakman, has announced his support for the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament, saying that “the potential rewards outweigh the potential risks”.

Speakman is now one of two state Liberal leaders publicly backing the yes vote, alongside the Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff. On Friday, Western Australian Liberals leader, Libby Mettam, reversed her position and said she would vote no. Mettam said she changed her mind after the furore in the state over cultural heritage laws.

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‘We were the frontline’: Australia’s only all-Indigenous battalion remembered as last Torres Strait digger dies

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They were underpaid and trained with broom handles, but that didn’t stop the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion fighting for their country

The last surviving member of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion (TSLIB), the only all-Indigenous battalion to serve for the Australian Defence Force, has been laid to rest.

Mebai Warusam, 99, was buried on his home island of Saibai in the Torres Strait on 5 August, only weeks after the second last survivor, Awati Mau, 96, was buried in his community at the tip of Cape York.

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Politics live: tourism boost as China approves resumption of group travel to Australia

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Coalition argue migration rates are behind housing crisis

The Coalition have pursued Labor over those figures, despite the numbers being lower than what was forecast when the Coalition was in power, and due to the re-opening of the borders after the pandemic closures.

I’m very supportive of migration to Australia which helped build this country, but the pace and the rate of that migration is absolutely a legitimate issue for public debate and the impact that has on services into our community is also very legitimate, particularly housing. Frankly, I thought this was a particularly tone deaf contribution from the business community today, suggesting that the only numbers that matter were the permanent migration program and not the temporary workers, students who are coming here right now.

Because we know they are coming in extraordinary numbers and by the end of this year, I’ve been told by people in the industry it’s going to be eye wateringly high numbers, perhaps the largest ever on record.

If we want to continue to be competitive in attracting global talent, our migration system needs to be reformed.

Australia is competing against other countries for the best and brightest; and slow or complex migration systems, which do not provide appropriate levels of certainty for someone looking to uproot their lives to move internationally, puts us at a serious disadvantage.

There is a current misconception that our migration figures are higher than normal.

It is important to recognise migration numbers currently recorded simply reflect a rebalancing after the pandemic border closures in 2020 and 2021.

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Indigenous Australians Agency refutes Jacinta Price’s claim that Uluru statement is 26 pages

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Exclusive: Government agency wrote to voice referendum no campaign leader, saying her claim was incorrect and pointing to publicly available one-page document

The National Indigenous Australians Agency has written to Coalition senator and no campaign leader Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to flatly deny her claims that it told her the Uluru statement from the heart was a 26-page document, again confirming it is a one-page document.

It is likely to further escalate tensions in the parliament over the voice referendum, after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, described Coalition questions about the Uluru statement as “conspiracy theories”. Prof Megan Davis, the Uluru Dialogue co-chair and architect of the Uluru statement, claimed opponents were seeking to “confuse the mainstream media and our political leaders”.

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WA premier Roger Cook axes Aboriginal cultural heritage laws after outcry by landholders

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Government apologises for new laws it says went too far and placed unnecessary burdens on everyday property owners

The Western Australian government has apologised and scrapped its controversial Indigenous cultural heritage protection laws just weeks after they came into effect.

The premier, Roger Cook, and Aboriginal affairs minister, Tony Buti, made the announcement after days of speculation and months of intense pressure from the state’s farming, mining and pastoralist industries over concerns the new laws were confusing and difficult to implement.

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No vote overtakes yes in all states except Victoria, Guardian Essential poll shows

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‘Hard no’ opposition to the Indigenous voice rose in July but young people, women remain strong supporters

More Australians are planning to vote no in the Indigenous voice referendum than yes, a first for Guardian’s Essential Poll.

The Essential poll of 1,150 voters released on Tuesday found that 47% did not approve of the voice, with 43% in favour and the remaining 10% unsure. That represents a reversal of July’s results, which found yes narrowly ahead by the same margin.

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Australia politics live: NSW government considers aerial shooting of wild horses in Kosciuszko

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State government seeking feedback on proposed amendments to park’s wild horse management plan. Follow the day’s news live

Voice being weaponised politically and to help ‘raise funds’: Andrew Gee

Andrew Gee had more to say about that:

I think that at the moment the voice is being weaponised politically for a number of reasons, and obviously, it helps raise funds and I know this because I’m still getting the emails saying, ‘the voice is terrible, please give some money’.

They’re doing it I think to shore up leadership positions. I think they’re doing it to just have some ground to fight on. But ultimately, I think, the hope that this is the pathway to victory is a bankrupt hope.

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Australia news live: pre-emptive release of Sofronoff report ‘denied me procedural fairness’, Shane Drumgold says

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ACT director of public prosecutions steps down after agreeing with ACT attorney-general Shane Rattenbury his position was ‘no longer tenable’. Follow live news updates today

PM urges people to look at the yes and no pamphlets

Albanese is asked about the word “Makarrata”, which has been subject to attack by the no campaign.

Why would someone disagree with the idea of Makarrata, with which is a Yolngu word for coming together after conflict - what that is about is just advancing reconciliation.

What the no campaign insists on doing is talking about anything but what is in the question before the Australian people. I would say to your listeners, have a look at what the question is, have a look at the yesand the no pamphlets. The yes pamphlet with its optimistic appeal for hope and a vision for the future, and the no campaign quoting people, misquoting people who are not actually supporting it.

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Voice would ‘fail at first hurdle’ if not enshrined in constitution, Albanese says

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Speaking at the Garma festival in the Northern Territory the prime minister issued a plea for support for a yes vote, saying there will not be another opportunity any time soon

Anthony Albanese says the Indigenous voice would “fail at the first hurdle” if it were not enshrined in the constitution, again rejecting calls from sceptics to change the referendum and simply enact the First Nations consultation body in regular laws.

The prime minister says the Labor government and Coalition opposition have broadly similar policies on the voice, but maintained the voice must be protected in the constitution because of the request from Indigenous Australians through the Uluru statement from the heart.

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Noel Pearson says Indigenous voice is not about ‘party politics’ and will cut wasteful spending

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Pearson says referendum is not a competition ‘between blue and red’ after Anthony Albanese’s Garma festival speech

The prime minister’s Garma speech was the “unequivocal” support for an Indigenous voice to parliament of an Australian leader, not a party politician, the Cape York leader, leading “yes” campaigner and Guugu-Yimithirr lawyer Noel Pearson has said.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told the Garma festival in north-east Arnhem Land on Saturday that he would not defer or delay the referendum, and dismissed “no” campaigners as being “desperate to talk about anything but the actual question”.

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PM accuses Coalition of ‘creating noise and confusion’ over voice – as it happened

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Australia has ‘nothing to fear and everything to gain’ from a yes vote, Anthony Albanese says. This blog is now closed

Albanese says he won’t announce date of voice vote at Garma

Albanese will not announce at Garma what date the voice to parliament referendum will be held on:

I’ve made it clear a year ago what the timetable would look like, that it would be in the last quarter of this year. Obviously when we get into December, you are into the rainy season, so that gets knocked out. September, it could be held then except we have the footy finals.

We’ll make an announcement soon. We’ll talk through with the Australian Electoral Commission and make sure it’s an appropriate date, one that doesn’t clash with other events.

What is occurring with this referendum is it’s a clear proposition … the words are clear that have been put forward, they’ve been passed by the parliament, overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Indeed, across the parliament, both sides say they support constitutional recognition. Both sides say that you need to legislate the voice. The only difference is that Peter Dutton is saying that if you actually … enshrine it in the constitution, that that is something that they oppose.

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Anthony Albanese vows ‘no delaying or deferring’ of Indigenous voice vote

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In Garma speech, PM says there is ‘nothing to fear and everything to gain’ and no vote in referendum would only lead to ‘more of the same’

There is “nothing to fear and everything to gain” from an Indigenous voice to parliament, Anthony Albanese has said at the Garma festival in Arnhem Land on Saturday, in his strongest pitch yet for Australians to vote yes in the upcoming referendum.

The prime minister promised to stay the course on the vote, due between September and December this year.

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‘An opportunity to be lifted up’: Anthony Albanese hails local clan council as model of Indigenous voice at Garma festival

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The event began with a solemn and loving tribute to beloved late Gumatj leader Yunupingu

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has reaffirmed his commitment to implementing the Uluru statement in full, saying “no one will be hurt by a yes vote in this referendum, but we have an opportunity to be lifted up”.

Asked by reporters if he still was committed to the Uluru statement in full, Albanese simply answered: “yes”.

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Australia news live: ‘nonsense’ to suggest Qantas has an outsized influence over Albanese government, Alan Joyce says

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Queensland to give free meningococcal B vaccine to infants, children and adolescents

The meningococcal B vaccine will be made free for infants, children and adolescents in Queensland.

After hearing the stories of heartbroken Queensland families, I had to act.

We know the meningococcal B strain can be lethal and – if a young person is lucky enough to survive the disease – it’s likely they will develop permanent and sometimes devastating complications.

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Traditional owners win pause in woodland clearing at cultural site in Darwin

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Defence plan to build housing at Lee Point/Binybara put on hold after calls for habitat of Gouldian finches and black-footed tree rat to be protected

Clearing of savanna woodlands for a defence housing development at Lee Point/Binybara in Darwin will be paused until the end of March in a win for traditional owners and members of the Darwin community.

Defence Housing Australia said in a statement it had voluntarily decided to stop work at the site until 31 March 2024 while it worked with government agencies and responded to an application regarding Aboriginal cultural heritage at the site.

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