(from spiritof1848 list)

Apartheid to be enforced on Aborigines

From: Fran Baum <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Aug 7, 2007 8:48 AM

The Australian Government government is introducing legislation 
in to our Federal Government which will make welfare payments 
for Aboriginal people dependent on their behavior and roll back 
years of land rights. I got an op ed in the Melbourne paper 'The 
Age'
(http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/apartheid-to-be-enforced-on-aborigines/2007/08/06/1186252625016.html?page=2)

PLs send emails to our Prime Minister John Howard 
(http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm) and the Leader of the 
Labor Opposition ([log in to unmask] ) (who may vote FOR 
the legislation) would be great to tell them that this move is 
right out of step with UN human rights and that internationally 
people are watching Australia.
Fran

-- Fran Baum is professor of public health at Flinders University.
------------------------------

Apartheid to be enforced on Aborigines
Fran Baum
August 7, 2007

THIS will be a week of shame for all non-indigenous Australians 
if the legislation planned by the Howard Government is passed by 
Parliament. This legislation, among other things, will make the 
welfare system an apartheid one with different rules for 
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and make payments depend on 
government-dictated behaviour. It will also take control away 
from Aboriginal people over who goes on their land.
Ironically, this intervention is part of the Government's 
response to the Little Children are Sacred report by Pat 
Anderson and Rex Wild, QC. Anderson's and Wild's report is 
nuanced, wise and demonstrates deep understanding of the 
complexity of abuse in communities that have suffered long and 
hard from the processes of colonisation - processes such as land 
grabs, stolen children and fundamental lack of respect and 
racism from the dominant white culture.

Their report called not for the declaration of war, with its 
echoes of domination and crisis, but for a thoughtful 
consultative process that stands some chance of achieving 
meaningful change.

It recognised that there has to be change but that this was 
likely only if Aboriginal people are listened to and respected - 
the basis of any functional relationship. Instead, the 
Government is sending in the army, boots and all.

I write this while attending the Garma Festival, which is 
organised by the Yothu Yindi Foundation and held at Gulkula on 
the Gove Peninsula, in East Arnhem Land. The festival is a 
celebration of the art, culture and ceremony of the Yolngu 
people who are the traditional owners of this land.

We are in the heart of one of the oldest living cultures on 
earth, one that stretches back thousands of years and 
reverberates through the heart and spirit of this festival and 
the land on which it is held.

It is such a privilege for me, a non-indigenous Australian, to 
experience this. The theme for discussion at this year's 
festival is "Indigenous health: real solutions for a chronic 
problem".

The forum was designed a year ago to be a celebration of some of 
the positive processes in indigenous health: the success of 
Aboriginal Community Controlled Health services in Central 
Australia at increasing the birth weight of Aboriginal babies to 
the national average, for example; or the health services in 
Katherine that are as well thought out as any mainstream 
services in Australia.

Yet instead of this anticipated celebration, the overwhelming 
feeling is now despair and anger. Despair that a report that 
bravely named and respectfully described the problem of child 
sexual abuse is being used by the Government for an assault on 
fragile Aboriginal communities. Anger at the damage the 
intervention and associated legislation are likely to do.

One Aboriginal leader said the past month had been one "of the 
most destructive times in our history".

People are speculating on why this is happening. Is it a bid for 
the swinging votes in the marginal seats? Is it an attempt to 
wedge Kevin Rudd as the federal election looms large? Is it a 
cover for long-held desires to force an assimilationist agenda?

Is it a Trojan horse by which to undo hard-won land rights? Is 
it because Clare Martin's Northern Territory Government created 
a vacuum, offering no strong response to the Anderson and Wild 
report?

It could be all or none of these, but one thing I'm sure about - 
based on my knowledge of public health - is that the 
intervention stands a very good chance of being detrimental to 
the health of Aboriginal people and their communities.

For the past two years I have been serving on the Commission on 
the Social Determinants of Health, which was established by the 
World Health Organisation and has gathered evidence from around 
the world about the underlying causes of disease and illness.

A consistent message from the evidence is that when you rob 
people of control over their lives, it is uniformly bad for 
their health, whether they be British civil servants or Indian 
women living in slums.

The commission's interim statement, to be published soon, will 
stress the importance to health of people having control over 
their lives and meaningful participation in decision-making 
processes.

I assume that John Howard and Mal Brough would justify their 
tactics as a means to the end of providing safety for children. 
But what evidence is there that these and the removal of control 
will make children safer?

The Anderson and Wild report offered a gentler way with 97 
recommendations designed to invest in communities, build trust 
by involving people in the solutions and ensuring that the 
healing necessary in damaged communities could happen.

Their recommendations should form the basis of some kind of 
accord across state and federal governments and with a 
bipartisan approach about long-term, sustainable action plans 
that are developed through real and meaningful partnerships that 
ensure control remains with Aboriginal people.

Child abuse is wrong and abhorrent. On that we all agree. But 
the legislation that is going to be forced through our Federal 
Parliament this week is equally wrong. It robs Aboriginal people 
of their rights and respect. It will undermine trust that is so 
essential to good policymaking. It assumes that Aboriginal 
people are the problem rather than the solution. It ignores the 
evidence on the central importance of control to individual and 
community wellbeing.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/apartheid-to-be-enforced-on-aborignes/2007/08/06/1186252625016.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1