A Must Read: Ramsey’s Got it Right
This morning Jangari linked to Alan Ramsey’s incredible response to Howard’s “emergency.” Ramsey ’s article in the Sydney Morning Herald is one of the best that I have read in terms of detailing the audacity of Howard’s claims to a “national emergency” and his government’s bravery and toughness in this time of need. Ramsey details past reports and speeches etc., that for the last TEN YEARS have been saying essentially the same thing as the latest report that finally –in this election year–got Howard’s attention. But he also shows how calculated Howard’s response was in terms of timing–just “45 minutes before the House resumed for the last parliamentary question time for six weeks,” even though he had the report well prior to that. Clearly Howard did not want debate. He did not want anyone stealing his thunder. I watched the video of that news conference yesterday (you can watch it here, on the PM’s website). What got me, again, was his cavalier attitude towards Aboriginal rights (as well, of course as a complete lack of understanding of Aboriginal history). He ends the news conference foreshadowing his intentions behind this “law and order” emergency.
“These announcements will involve amendments to the Northern Territory land rights legislation and also amendments to the Territory self government legislation. They do represent very dramatic and significant Commonwealth intervention.”
This is HUGE. Howard has made no secret of his contempt for land rights–his government made it a significant priority in his first term to amend the Native Title Act–and he has been on about the permit system recently. This emergency now gives him, in his mind, just cause to alter thirty-some years of land rights victories under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Northern Territory). David Ross, Director of the Central Land Council (who I am sure is very busy with lawyers and others trying to contain this move) reacted quickly after Howard’s response saying:
“Under the smokescreen of helping children, the federal government is taking the opportunity to impose its ideological agenda in relation to Aboriginal land. The proposals seem to be a grab-bag of unrelated strategies aimed at a quick fix in a pre-election period.”
Unfortunately, I am sure the CLC and other indigenous representatives are now having to add this ideological fight to the forefront of their agenda instead of actually being able to work with people to move towards effective solutions to these on-going issues.
About The Author
Kim Christen
I am an Assistant Professor at Washington State University. I use this blog to keep myself writing. I blog about Australian Aboriginal politics, Indigenous issues, Indigenous new media, cultural politics, and other issues that come up. I made the icon above at Portrait Icon Maker
Other posts byKim Christen
Author his web sitehttp://www.kimberlychristen.com
Hello Dr. Christen,
News of these events has finally reached British Columbia in Maclean’s most recent (July 9) issue. It cannot compare with Mr. Ramsey’s article, but I thought I’d contribute it anyway:
“Scaring the daylights’ out of Aborigines”
By Kate Lunau
Aboriginal leaders are threatening to ban tourists from climbing Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock), Australia’s most famous natural landmark, to protest a government plan that aims to curb child abuse in their community. The challenge was issued from Mutitjulu, a settlement near the massive red monolith in central Australia that’s visited by half a million people each year. Mutitjulu is to be among the first townships targeted by controversial new measures that apply to indigenous areas of the Northern Territory. They include a six-month ban on pornography and alcohol, as well as compulsory medical exams for indigenous children. Moreover, all publicly funded computers will be searched for pornographic images.
Those steps were taken after a report found evidence of rampant child abuse in the territory’s native communities – a situation Prime Minister John Howard called a “national emergency.” Extra police and troops were dispatched to several communities to restore order. But that has caused indigenous communities to flee into the bush in terror that their children will be taken away, Mutitjulu leaders said last Tuesday.
For some, the crackdown has rekindled memories of Australia’s Stolen Generations – indigenous children who were forcibly removed from their homes as part of an assimilation policy that lasted for decades before ending in the 1960s. Now, in their effort to implement the new measures, authorities are “scaring the living daylights out of the kids and women,” said Mutitjulu resident Mario Giuseppe. Many are also concerned about the federal government’s plan to take over administration of indigenous communities for the next five years to make sure the new laws are strictly enforced. “We believe that this government is using child sexual abuse as the Trojan Horse to resume total control of our lands,” spokesperson Pat Turner told reporters. But Howard has defended his government’s plan. “Exceptional measures are required to deal with an exceptionally tragic situation,” he said.
I would have hyperlinked the article had I found it online, but it’s not on Maclean’s website.
11 years? Prime Minister Howard sure has taken an exceptionally long time to respond to this ‘exceptionally tragic situation.’
Prime Minister Howard sure has taken an exceptionally long time to respond to this ‘exceptionally tragic situation.’
Indeed, Christopher. And something that makes it all the more apparent is the fact that this report really contains nothing ‘new’ as such, all the information has been presented in the past, to the same government, denumerable times by various people. The difference here is that it is an election year and the government are behind in the polls and have decreasingly many issues in which they dominate over the opposition. They need an issue that’s controversial enough to use for wedge politics.