Category Archives: Indigenous Australians

Parks Australia ordered to pay $200,000 fine for disturbing sacred site in Kakadu national park

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Judge finds ‘reliance of trust’ breached when Parks Australia built walkway near rock art without permission

A landmark case has resulted in Parks Australia having to pay more than $700,000 in fines and compensation after pleading guilty to disturbing a sacred site in Kakadu national park.

Sitting by Gunlom Falls on Wednesday, Judge Elizabeth Morris ordered Parks Australia to pay a $200,000 fine for building a walkway near rock art without permission from the sacred sites watchdog, the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority.

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Australian senator Lidia Thorpe confronted King Charles with a string of claims. How do they stack up?

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The Gurnai Gunditjmara and Djab-Wurrung woman accused the crown of a range of crimes against Indigenous people at Parliament House

Independent federal senator Lidia Thorpe’s forthright haranguing of King Charles during his visit to the Australian parliament has made global headlines.

Reactions have been mixed. Many have criticised Thorpe’s decision to disrupt the event, labelling the 51-year-old’s behaviour as “disrespectful” and “grandstanding”.

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Thousands greet royals at opera house – as it happened

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The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been speaking with ABC RN about a range of issues – including Lidia Thorpe’s actions at King Charles’ parliamentary reception yesterday.

Dutton argued that “sometimes people make it all about themselves, and I think that’s what yesterday was.” He said it “didn’t advance anyone’s cause” and “add[s] to the self promotion … that she seeks.”

The vast majority of people have been very welcoming the king’s visit, and I think it’s been an opportunity to underscore the stability in our democracy, our rule of law, separation of powers, all of those institutions that we inherited from our British heritage.

That’s part of the success story of our country, and it’s a good reminder during his visit [that] if we change it, I think we want to be very careful about the system we’re changing to and whether or not we would be a safer, more secure, community and environment for decades to come or not.

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Keir Starmer praises Charles after king was heckled in Australia

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UK PM says monarch is doing ‘a fantastic job’ after protest by senator in Australian parliament

King Charles is doing a “fantastic job”, particularly in the context of his “health challenges”, the prime minister has said after the royal was heckled by the Indigenous Australian senator Lidia Thorpe.

Charles had just finished addressing MPs and senators at Parliament House in Canberra, as part of his five-day tour of Australia with Camilla, when he was approached by Thorpe, who yelled: “This is not your country.”

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‘No settlement to the original grievance’: voice champions give rallying cry for unity in Australia

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‘Our mob across the country wanted structural reform', Pat Anderson told online audience; ‘that’s what we’re still fighting for,’ Prof Megan Davis said

A key proponent of the Indigenous Voice to parliament, rejected at a referendum a year ago, has challenged Australians to be “bigger and wider – to be grand” and to forge from that bruising experience “an authentic Australian nation”.

Pat Anderson’s rallying cry on the eve of the anniversary came at the close of an hour-long online event for key ‘Yes’ advocates to reflect, lament and commit to “stay true to Uluru”.

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Tanya Plibersek defends Aboriginal heritage order blocking ‘irreversible damage’ of goldmine tailings dam

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Financial impact on mining company does not outweigh ‘permanent loss’ to cultural sites, environment minister says

Tanya Plibersek has defended her decision to issue an Aboriginal heritage protection order for the site of a proposed goldmine near Blayney, saying the financial impact on the mining company does not outweigh “irreversible damage and permanent loss” to Aboriginal cultural heritage sites.

The environment minister made a partial declaration under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act in August, blocking a proposal by mining company Regis Resources to build a tailings dam for its $900m McPhillamys gold project in the headwaters of the Belubula River. The declaration did not cover the rest of the proposed mining area.

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NT government denies that planned crime reforms are form of ‘racial control’

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Former NT attorney general alleges Country Liberal party is planning law-and-order changes aimed at controlling Indigenous people

The former Northern Territory Labor attorney general Chansey Paech has accused the new Country Liberal party government of planning to introduce a set of tough law-and-order measures as a form of “racial control” aimed at Indigenous people.

Ahead of the first sitting of the reconfigured NT parliament since the election wiped out the Labor government, Paech has launched a broadside at the new government’s legislative agenda in an interview with Guardian Australia’s Australian Politics podcast.

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Canberra Liberal apologises for writing book that paints rosy colonisation picture and skips frontier wars

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One exercise in History of Australia, a student workbook and teaching manual, asks pupils to discuss how Aboriginal people were ‘blessed’ by the British coming

Peter Cain, the ACT’s shadow attorney general, has apologised “wholeheartedly” for a 2002 workbook he wrote which does not mention the frontier wars and paints a rosy picture of how Christian settlers helped First Nations peoples.

In History of Australia, a student workbook and teacher’s manual published by Light Educational Ministries, Cain wrote that when the British arrived, “some were afraid of the Aboriginals; some treated them badly”.

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Alpine dingoes at risk of extinction after Victorian government extends right to cull

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At least 468 shot by government controllers last year out of an estimated population of as few as 2,640 in the state’s east, advocates say

Traditional owners and dingo advocates say a Victorian government decision extending the right to kill dingoes on private and public land until 2028 could threaten local populations with extinction.

A government order, which took effect on Tuesday, declared dingoes were “unprotected wildlife” under the state’s Wildlife Act. The ruling means dingoes can be killed by trapping, poisoning or shooting across large parts of eastern Victoria, despite being listed as threatened under the state’s Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

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A police strip-search left Mysa feeling dehumanised. New data reveals the extent of the practice in NSW

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Exclusive: Figures made public for the first time expose ‘problem with police accountability’, lawyer says

Mysa Le felt “vulnerable and completely helpless” when she was ordered by police to undress in front of them so they could search her body for drugs.

Le was strip-searched at Sydney’s Midnight Mafia music festival in May 2018, where she said two female police officers took her into a booth and told her to take off her clothes without explaining what was happening.

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‘Dying for their story to be heard’: Queensland’s truth-telling inquiry begins amid questions over its future

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Historic moment celebrated despite LNP vow to abolish process should the party win government

Queensland’s historic Indigenous truth-telling and healing inquiry has commenced in Brisbane, nearly two centuries to the day after a penal colony was established in Queensland.

Counsel assisting Angus Scott said the first settlers landed at what was now known as Redcliffe on 12 September 1824. In 1825, they resettled in Meanjin – later named Brisbane, a few hundred metres from where the inquiry is being held.

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‘When they go low’: Clover Moore apologises as volunteer caught allegedly pulling down Indigenous rival’s corflutes

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Team Clover volunteer filmed allegedly removing campaign posters of Yvonne Weldon from outside National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in Redfern

The lord mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, has apologised to an Indigenous political opponent after a volunteer was accused of removing corflutes outside the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in Redfern.

Yvonne Weldon posted a video recorded by one of her team members of a man who had allegedly taken down the corflutes to make way for Moore’s banners.

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Jacinta Price alleges ‘opportunists’ claiming Indigenous heritage to block resources projects

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Shadow minister for Indigenous Australians says Albanese government ‘turning a blind eye’ to alleged ‘weaponisation’ of identity

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has claimed “opportunists” are making “false claims” to membership of Indigenous groups to scuttle resource projects seeking environmental approval.

The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians made the claim on Wednesday while defending a Coalition plan to designate which Indigenous groups would need to be consulted by project proponents, as revealed by the shadow resources minister, Susan McDonald, at a Minerals Week event.

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Helen Garner, Virginia Woolf and Max Porter headline Belvoir St theatre’s 2025 program

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‘Electrifying’ Judy Davis will star in adaptation of The Spare Room, with Colin Friels as King Lear later in the season

An adaptation of Helen Garner’s award-winning novel The Spare Room will debut at Sydney’s Belvoir St theatre in 2025, starring Judy Davis as a fictionalised version of the author in her first on stage role in almost 15 years.

The announcement caps a banner year for Garner’s work on stage, with an operatic adaptation of The Spare Room in development with the Melbourne company Monstrous Theatre, as well as a remount of the 2008 opera The Children’s Bach.

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Tanya Plibersek accuses Peter Dutton of intent to ignore Indigenous heritage for mining projects

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Environment minister lambasts opposition leader over vow to overturn her rejection of tailings dam at McPhillamys goldmine

Tanya Plibersek has accused Peter Dutton of planning to ignore evidence of historical Indigenous cultural practice and trash heritage protection laws to greenlight certain mining projects and companies based on “the vibe”.

The environment minister told Guardian Australia that Dutton’s vow to overturn her determination rejecting the proposed site of a tailings dam at the $900m McPhillamys goldmine development in central-western New South Wales showed he had no respect for research or official advice.

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Central Land Council CEO launches defamation case against Jacinta Price

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Lesley Turner says July media release from shadow minister for Indigenous Australians injured his ‘personal and professional reputation’

The chief executive officer of the Central Land Council has launched a federal case against Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price over allegations she defamed him in a media release in July.

The CEO, Lesley Turner, said the release, which has now been taken offline but was mentioned in two NT News articles, incorrectly reported that a no-confidence motion had been moved by members of the council against him.

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This article was amended on 7 September 2024 to correct the name of the land council staff member quoted by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in her press release.

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NT Labor makes history appointing Australia’s first Indigenous woman to lead a major political party

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Nunggubuyu woman Selena Uibo is NT Labor’s new leader, with an almost entirely Aboriginal caucus

After a crushing defeat, Territory Labor has appointed the first Aboriginal woman to lead a major party in the nation’s history.

The member for Arnhem, Nunggubuyu woman Selena Uibo, has taken up the top job alongside an almost entirely Aboriginal caucus.

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AGL breached rules 16,000 times in wrongly taking welfare money from hundreds of people, court rules

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Landmark federal court judgment could trigger proceedings against three other energy retailers

AGL breached Australian energy rules more than 16,000 times through its use of the government-run Centrepay system to wrongly take welfare money from almost 500 people years after they ceased being customers, a court has ruled.

The landmark federal court judgment could trigger proceedings against three other energy retailers, which were referred to the regulator following a Guardian investigation into failures of the Centrepay system.

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NSW inquiry into death of Indigenous man shot while fleeing custody calls for urgent review of gun laws

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Mother of Dwayne Johnstone urges government ministers to ‘take note’ of coroner’s recommendation ‘so no one else has to go through it’

The death of an unarmed Indigenous man who was shot while fleeing custody has prompted a coroner to recommend an urgent review of laws governing the use of firearms by correctional officers.

Dwayne Johnstone, a 43-year-old Wiradjuri man, was shot dead outside Lismore Base hospital as he ran in leg shackles and handcuffs from a prison van after receiving medical treatment on 15 March 2019.

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NT government missed opportunities to prevent ‘horrific deaths’ of four Indigenous women, inquest hears

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Some 30 recommendations were put before the NT coroner including overhauling prison programs to ‘end the violence’ against women and children

A coroner investigating the shocking deaths of four Northern Territory women has been urged to back sweeping changes to curb the scourge of domestic violence.

On Tuesday, counsel-assisting Peggy Dwyer SC released 30 proposed recommendations for the coroner, Elisabeth Armitage, to consider ahead of her findings.

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