Category Archives: Indigenous Australians

National gathering of First Nations women aims to bring ‘gender justice’ to Indigenous issues

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Conference will help to design institute to ensure Indigenous women and girls have input into policies that govern their lives

First Nations women have the right to move beyond “holding society together, healing, reducing harms and violence, and guaranteeing cohesion and healthy environments for everyone” and be free to imagine “gender justice”, the social justice commissioner June Oscar says.

More than 900 First Nations women are meeting in Canberra this week, the first national gathering of its kind, to bring “a necessary First Nations gender lens” to everything from housing to education, healing and economic development.

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Victoria’s police chief apologises for systemic racism and discrimination against Indigenous Australians

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Shane Patton acknowledges at Yoorrook commission the police uniform is a symbol of fear for some First Nations people

Victoria’s chief police commissioner has unreservedly apologised for past and present actions of the force that inflicted trauma on First Nations people.

Shane Patton appeared before the state’s Indigenous truth-telling inquiry on Monday morning.

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Warning social media being ‘weaponised’ over referendum – as it happened

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Senators Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell have agreed to back the government’s housing affordability legislation.

The housing minister, Julie Collins, has told ABC Radio the deal was struck after the government agreed to build 1,200 social housing homes in every state and territory:

We’ve agreed to make sure that every state and territory gets a fair share of housing from the housing future funding from other federal government programs.

What we want to do is make sure that every state and territory gets their fair share of funding.

Many of these deaths occurred in the home. There is opportunity for others present to avert death and reverse the effects of an opioid overdose if they administer a medicine called naloxone.

The Australian Government has funded the availability of naloxone for free, without a prescription, for anyone who may be at risk of witnessing or experiencing an overdose.

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Commonwealth Indigenous leaders demand apology from the king for effects of colonisation

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Exclusive: Aboriginal Olympian Nova Peris says ‘change begins with listening’ as campaigners from 12 countries ask for ‘process of reparatory justice to commence’

Australians have joined Indigenous leaders and politicians across the Commonwealth to demand King Charles III make a formal apology for the effects of British colonisation, make reparations by redistributing the wealth of the British crown, and return artefacts and human remains.

Days out from Charles’s coronation in London, campaigners for republic and reparations movements in 12 countries have written a letter asking the new monarch to start a process towards “a formal apology and for a process of reparatory justice to commence”.

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Noel Pearson warns of ‘almost endless protest’ if Indigenous voice referendum fails

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Pearson says reconciliation efforts would be ‘dead’ if the proposal is rejected, while a yes vote would have ‘tectonic’ positive change

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has called Tony Abbott’s calls to scrap the voice to parliament “absurd”, claiming the proposal has been examined longer than any other public policy idea, and warning that a no vote could lead to a future of “almost endless protest”.

Pearson, an architect of the voice, said on Monday that he feared reconciliation efforts would be “dead” if the referendum failed and predicted years of protests if the voice was rejected. By contrast, a yes vote would have “tectonic” positive change for the nation, he said.

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Aboriginal legal services frozen or at risk of shutting in 17 communities across NSW and Queensland

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Advocates call for federal government to provide urgent funding for culturally safe legal services to prevent worsening Indigenous incarceration crisis

Four communities in Queensland have had their Aboriginal legal services frozen and more than a dozen communities in New South Wales are at risk of losing theirs, prompting calls for urgent funding from the commonwealth government to help First Nations clients.

Karly Warner, the chair of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services national peak body NATSILS, said communities were now at risk of not being able to access culturally safe legal services and lead to a worsening crisis of Indigenous incarceration.

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Dysfunctional treatment of Indigenous Australians will continue unless voice exists, Ken Wyatt says

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Ex-Liberal minister tells referendum committee First Nations people despair for their future because they are never listened to

Australian governments still have a “missionary zeal” of wanting to “deal with Aboriginal people” that hasn’t changed, and unless there is an Indigenous voice advising governments the present dysfunction will continue, the former minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt has told a parliamentary committee hearing in Perth.

Wyatt, a Yamatji man, said the dysfunction has led to what he called “a futility syndrome” among Indigenous young people, who feel despair that they have no future in the nation because they are never listened to.

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Indigenous mother of baby murdered by abusive partner says police failed her in ‘every way’, inquiry hears

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Tamica Mullaley told committee into missing or murdered Aboriginal women and children her child would still be alive if officers ‘did their job right’

An Indigenous mother whose son was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by her former partner says her baby could still be alive if police had done their job properly and believes officers failed her family in “every way”.

In testimony on Thursday, Tamica Mullaley says she described how she was left bleeding after being attacked by her abusive partner Mervyn Bell in Broome in 2013 – but when police arrived after being called to assist her, they arrested her, claiming she was abusive to officers.

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‘Great shame’: Daniel Andrews highlights injustice over Indigenous children in care and justice system

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Overrepresentation of First Peoples ‘is a source of great shame’ for the Victorian government, premier tells Yoorrook chair

Daniel Andrews has expressed his government’s “great shame” regarding the overrepresentation of First Nations children in Victoria’s child protection and criminal justice systems, saying racism and injustice need to be “confronted and addressed”.

In a statement representing the strongest language the premier has used about the removal of Indigenous children from Victorian families, Andrews acknowledged that discrimination against First Nations people persisted today.

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Raising age of criminal responsibility to 12 ‘falls short’ of First Nations’ expectations, Victorian attorney general admits

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Jaclyn Symes urges other jurisdictions to follow state after announcing ‘staged approach’ to ensure support services are in place

Victoria’s attorney general has acknowledged that plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 “falls short” of expectations from First Nations groups but described the move as a “first step” and urged other states to follow suit.

Jaclyn Symes confirmed the government will introduce legislation later this year to raise the age from 10 to 12, with no exceptions, which will come into effect in late 2024. It will then be increased to 14 by 2027.

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News live: thousands gather in capital cities for Anzac Day commemorations; no tsunami threat to Australia from Indonesia quake

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‘Every death at Gallipoli was like a sapling torn out of the earth,’ Albanese says in first dawn service address as PM. Follow the day’s news live

Symbolic sea burial held at Gold Coast dawn service

At the Anzac Day dawn service at Currumbin on the Gold Coast, the local surf life-saving club held a symbolic burial at sea.

Our two countries already work closely together. William has had a long association with Australia. He’s the chair of our naval expert advisory panel that’s already providing advice on our naval acquisitions, and even when he was a serving officer in the US navy, he provided a critical role, he played a critical role in supporting our efforts, for example, he was instrumental in improving the Collins Class submarine to make it the best diesel-powered submarine in the world.

…We do have Australians involved with that review. It will be a short, sharp review, just to check that we got the right structure of our surface fleet to complement the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines.

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Lidia Thorpe’s cousins pursuing contentious Victorian treaty negotiations model

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Head of traditional owner corporations says Indigenous elders had long fought for current ‘representative structures’

Two cousins of federal senator Lidia Thorpe are pursuing a contentious model of representation for Victoria’s landmark treaty negotiations as they seek to be elected to the state’s First People’s Assembly.

Voting for the second term of the assembly will commence next month after nominations for the 32-seat Indigenous body closed on Monday, ahead of a treaty negotiations due to begin this year.

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Australia news live: defence strategic review ‘a cannibalisation of army mobility’, Hastie says; Victorian jockey dies after race fall

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Review calls for ADF to develop ability to precisely strike targets at longer range and to develop stronger network. Follow the day’s news live

Plibersek v Joyce on Newspoll

In their regular spot on Sunrise, environment minister Tanya Plibersek and Coalition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce weighed in on those Newspoll results.

They’re very strong support numbers, and I tell you the reason is not based on polling but what people tell me when I’m out around the country.

People tell me that they’re pleased to see a government that is just getting on with the job, doing what we promised and they’re impressed that the prime minister is just sticking with what he said he’d do.

We don’t have an election tomorrow and that’s a good thing.

A lot of people are starting to focus now on issues such as the voice and saying, “I don’t feel comfortable with this.”

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Former president of Kiribati backs legal case against Australia over inaction on climate crisis

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Anote Tong says that Australia needs to take responsibility for emissions caused by the export of its fossil fuels

A former Pacific Island president has backed a Torres-Strait Islander-led legal case to hold the Australian government accountable for climate crisis inaction.

On Monday, Anote Tong, the former president of Kiribati, signed a statement of solidarity with Paul Kabai and Pabai Pabai, who have taken the government to court, demanding further emissions reductions in line with science.

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Youpla profits surged after it was approved for federal government’s automatic payments system

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New data reveals the scale of how many Indigenous people were impacted by the disgraced funeral fund

New data has revealed disgraced funeral fund ACBF-Youpla’s profits skyrocketed by tens of millions of dollars after the company was approved for the federal government’s automatic payments system Centrepay.

ACBF-Youpla collapsed in March 2022 leaving thousands of Aboriginal people, some of them elderly and in palliative care, without the means to pay for funerals. Families resorted to crowdfunding and some were forced to leave their loved ones’ bodies in the morgue while they raised the funds.

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Indigenous voice: Coalition digs in on ‘lack of transparency’ claim despite Labor releasing legal advice

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Advice from solicitor general rebuffs no campaign’s central claim that the voice would clog up the courts

The Coalition is still accusing the Albanese government of a “lack of transparency” on the Indigenous voice referendum, despite the release of advice from the nation’s top legal adviser.

The government released a legal opinion on Friday from solicitor general Stephen Donaghue, saying that the voice wouldn’t clog up the courts or slow down government decision making – rebuffing a central claim of critics and the Coalition.

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ACTU will not push for spot on RBA board as review released – as it happened

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Bandt: if budget can afford stage-three tax cuts it can afford to lift Australians out of poverty.

Bandt is also highly critical of the government as it appears set to reject a call from its very own expert advisory panel to raise the jobseeker rate. He says if the budget can afford to keep stage-three tax cuts, it can afford to lift Australians out of poverty:

Everyday people are not causing inflation. They are the victims of inflation. Now, Labor has found over a quarter of a trillion dollars for tax cuts for billionaires and politicians that can’t lift people out of poverty.

Labor’s not making hard choices in this budget, they’re making everyone else make hard choices, like whether to pay for the rent or whether to put food on the table.

We’ll have a look at all of the recommendations of the review, and the government’s response when it’s released fully but a major party stitch up isn’t going to fix the inflation problem.

We need more than just outsourcing the issue of tackling inflation to the RBA, which is what Liberal and Labor want to do. We know that it is excessive profiteering that is driving higher prices and inflation in this country. It’s not the everyday people.

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Lidia Thorpe says mental health speculation is ‘racist and misogynistic’ attempt to discredit her

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Senator says she was provoked and stood up for herself after video showed expletive-laden row outside Melbourne strip club

The independent senator Lidia Thorpe says speculation about her mental health is a “racist and misogynistic narrative” used to discredit outspoken women and claims political opponents including Anthony Albanese are trying to “drag” her down.

After video emerged showing the Victorian senator engaged in an expletive-laden argument outside a Melbourne strip club on the weekend, the prime minister suggested health issues could be behind the incident and said he hoped she “gets some support”.

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Australia news live: Andrew Hastie fires back after Mark McGowan ‘cold war pills’ comment caught on camera

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Coalition’s defence spokesperson calls WA premier ‘a prison guard looking for work’. Follow live

Voice committee heads north to hear traditional owners

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has defended the wording of the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament, dismissing fears of possible high court challenges, AAP reports.

This is a legally sound proposition. It makes it very clear that parliament is in charge.

There’s no obligation and there’s certainly not an obligation on the government to agree to the voice. There is the provision for the voice to be heard, for at least the views to be put.

That will be up to the government as a whole. I don’t know.

The reality is that we know that people are doing it tough, absolutely doing it tough. And what we want to do is where it’s responsible that we can – and affordable – that we can support people doing it tough.

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Australia news live: Labor will not lift jobseeker despite recommendation for ‘substantial increase’ to base rate

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Joyce describes Indigenous voice as ‘a consultative power by selected group’

Joyce says the voice will affect all Australians, not just Indigenous Australians, because a selected rather than elected body will move away from the democratic process.

It is a massive change to how democracy works because we’re now dealing with a consultative power by selected group, not an elected group … and that move away from the democratic process.

What I’m asking you is that you say on one hand that there’s no legislation … But you also make a claim about a model which doesn’t exist, you can’t have it both ways.

In all the narrative from Mr Pearson, to his Ms Langton, to the Calma Langton report, they talk about selection, not election.

So then you do think you’ve got a model?

Then let us see the legislation.

I just don’t believe that we should be inserting a racial clause into our constitution in 2023.

Tick the box that you believe in racial differentiation. You’ve just ticked the box that you believe in racial differentiation.

It’s the form that it comes in. I’ve got no problems with the statement of fact that Indigenous Australians were the first people in Australia.

I’ve got no problems with the constitutional recognition referendum on the premise that we see the details first … I’m talking to about a more proper and pertinent alternative approach, which means that we get all the details not some of the details, we see the legislation before we vote, we don’t get a blank check. And we also make sure that we see the proper legal opinion before we vote not someone’s opinion of the opinion, which is what Mr Albanese is going to give us.

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