Aboriginal Issues
Australia: Labor to extend NT “intervention” for a decade
By Susan Allan, December 12, 2011
Labor’s new legislation for the Northern Territory is part of a dramatic escalation of the assault on the social conditions and basic rights of all sections of the working class.
Australian government deepens Northern Territory “intervention”
By Susan Allan, July 21, 2011
The Labor government has launched a “second stage” of the intervention, which has become a key testing ground for a continuous assault on welfare recipients, indigenous and non-indigenous alike.
Aboriginal boxer Lionel Rose dies, aged 62
By Richard Phillips, May 27, 2011
Lionel Rose will be remembered long after the well-heeled politicians “paying their respects” have left the scene.
Labor government extends welfare quarantine powers across Australia
By Alex Messenger, June 28, 2010
Labor’s punitive new regime of “income management” comes into force this week, extending powers first applied to Aboriginal communities in 2007.
Cover-up of Palm Island Aboriginal death continues
By Mike Head, June 24, 2010
The whitewashes and legal manoeuvres are a damning indictment of the judicial system and the Queensland state Labor government, which has backed the police from the outset.
Australian government sets new precedent in Aboriginal land grab
By Robert Morgan, February 23, 2010
On February 1, the Labor government compulsorily acquired the land of the Ilpeye Ilpeye town camp, establishing a new benchmark in opening up areas presently controlled by Aboriginal communities for unrestrained capitalist exploitation.
Australian Labor government extends Aboriginal intervention, ignoring widespread opposition
By Susan Allan, December 24, 2009
Despite clear evidence that its policies are producing a social and economic disaster, the Rudd Labor government has introduced legislation to strengthen and extend the Northern Territory intervention first imposed on indigenous townships more than two years ago.
Australia: UN envoy denounced after he describes Northern Territory “intervention” as racist
By Richard Phillips, September 16, 2009
All factions of the political elite came together last month to denounce the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights after he criticised the federal Labor government’s policies towards Aborigines.
Australia: Aboriginal residents of Ampilatwatja walk out over housing conditions
By Susan Allan, August 21, 2009
Residents of the remote Aboriginal community of Ampilatwatja walked out of their settlement last month. The WSWS interviewed a spokesperson.
Gurrumul: an evocative and unique musical contribution
By Tony Cornwell, August 7, 2009
The most remarkable feature of Gurrumul, the recent first album by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, is this blind Australian indigenous singer’s extraordinary voice.
Australia: Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe speaks out against Aboriginal “intervention”
By Richard Phillips, July 29, 2009
Powerful criticism of decades of deliberate government neglect of Australia’s poverty-stricken indigenous communities by former swimming star Ian Thorpe has been subjected to a virtual media black out.
Australia: Aboriginal disadvantage widens under Rudd government
By Susan Allan, July 24, 2009
According to the Productivity Commission’s latest report, the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians is either static or widening across 80 percent of social statistics.
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