AUSTRALIA CHILD PROTECTION MARTIAL LAW

sockmonkey wrote
Hi greg, thought you'd disappeared,
Firemonkey

Kane wrote
Well, he just posted the other day that one can download software to
post anonymously, so maybe we were getting a warning, eh?

Why wouldn't I post this story under my name?
Is there some reason I wouldn't be proud to post this story?
What about this story would have made me afraid
to post it under my name?

Could we get off this petty bickering and discuss the story now?

Will the USA end up this way, Inch by Inch?



On Jun 23, 6:32 pm, "0:-]" wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:55:53 -0700, firemonkey
wrote:

On Jun 23, 2:41 pm, Chas wrote:
OMG this is HUGE ----

At Thursday's media conference, Howard declared that "constitutional
niceties" had to be cast aside for "the care and protection of young
children".

=========================
Australian government imposes military-police regime on Aborigines
By the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)
23 June 2007

Under the cynical guise of protecting indigenous children from sexual
abuse, the Howard government announced on Thursday a "national
emergency" plan to take control of dozens of Aboriginal communities
throughout the Northern Territory and impose virtual martial law
conditions. Over coming weeks, police and troops will flood into as many
as 60 towns and camps to enforce a series of draconian measures.

Welfare and family payments will be halved, with the seized portions
transferred to food and clothing vouchers. All payments will be cut off
if children fail to attend school, or are considered "at risk". Forced
labour will be imposed, via "work for the dole" programs, to "clean up"
communities.

In "prescribed" zones across the Northern Territory, all children under
the age of 16 will be subjected to compulsory medical checks for sexual
abuse. Alcohol and X-rated pornography will be banned, with individuals
as well as suppliers facing imprisonment.

At the same time, the existing permit system, which allows indigenous
communities to restrict access to their lands, will be scrapped.
Business managers-so-called "tsars"-will take charge of all public
housing and government enterprises. These people will function as
modern-day versions of the "administrators" and "protectors" who
exercised complete authority over Aboriginal reservations in the 19th
and early 20th centuries.

Federal parliament will be recalled for a special mid-winter session to
pass extraordinary, yet-to-be-seen legislation to authorise the
takeover. The proposal was immediately endorsed by the Labor Party,
whose leader Kevin Rudd pledged to give Prime Minister John Howard
whatever support he needed.

Howard insisted that the catalyst for his government's "hardline
approach" was a recently released Northern Territory government inquiry
report, "Little Children are Sacred," which found that child sexual
abuse was serious, widespread and often unreported. But Howard and
Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough have brushed aside the
report's findings and recommendations, which called for better education
and family support services, together with empowerment of Aboriginal
communities.

The report concluded that "most Aboriginal people are willing and
committed to solving problems and helping their children". Aboriginal
people were "not the only perpetrators of sexual abuse"-it existed
throughout Australia and internationally. In indigenous communities, the
roots lay in social problems that had developed over many decades: "the
combined effects of poor health, alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment,
gambling, pornography, poor education and housing, and a general loss of
identity and control". Above all, "Improvements in health and social
services are desperately needed."

On the contrary, Howard's package includes not a single cent for health
care, education, housing or social services. Such is the acute shortage
of medical staff throughout indigenous communities, the government is
asking doctors to donate their services to implement the mandatory
medical checks. While the myth is routinely peddled that millions of
dollars have already been "squandered" on Aboriginal welfare, every
available statistic points to decades of chronic under-funding.

Less than three months ago, Oxfam Australia condemned Australia's
"health gap"-the fact that the federal government spent approximately 70
cents per person on the health of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders
for every $1 spent on the rest of the population. The "Close the Gap"
report ranked Australia as the worst among wealthy nations at improving
the health of indigenous people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
still died nearly 20 years younger than other Australians, and infant
mortality was three times higher.

Dr Paul Bauert, head of pediatrics at Royal Darwin Hospital, denounced
the government for ignoring the huge medical challenge produced by
poverty-related illnesses. The indigenous children he had seen suffered
"pus coming out of their ears, rheumatic heart disease, pus in their
lungs [because] they're living in a house with 20 other people, with
three bedrooms and one bathroom and one toilet". He said existing
resources were "minimal," with the Northern Territory having only a
quarter of the doctors needed to conduct regular visits to remote townships.

Far from addressing this social catastrophe, Howard's measures will
deepen it.

What will happen to the families whose welfare payments are cut off?
What will be done with those children who fail the medical checks? How
many more Aboriginal men will be jailed, when the indigenous
imprisonment rate is already 30 times the national average?

According to Aboriginal health specialist, Dr Ben Bartlett, conducting
forced medical examinations would be traumatic and could, in itself,
constitute sexual abuse. Another expert insisted that the inevitable
result of the government's "knee-jerk ... military response" would be
increased suicide and violence. "There will be greater feelings of
despair," said Southern Cross University professor Judy Atkinson, the
author of three previous reports on child sexual abuse in indigenous
communities.

Child welfare workers are warning of a new "Stolen Generation" of
children placed in institutions or foster homes. Already, figures
released this month by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
show that the number of children aged between 12 and 17 removed from
their family in 2006 rose to 9,276, up one-third since 1998. Of these
children, 1,170, or about 13 percent, were indigenous, although
indigenous people make up just 2 percent of the population.

Howard's political agenda

At Thursday's media conference, Howard declared that "constitutional
niceties" had to be cast aside for "the care and protection of young
children". In the first instance, the new regime will be imposed in the
Northern Territory, which operates under a different legal framework
than the states. But Howard has called for urgent meetings with the six
state Labor governments to adopt similar blueprints.

The prime minister claimed he detected a new "mood" among "average
Australians" who felt shame and anger about the sexual abuse of
indigenous children, and expected governments to respond. With the
enthusiastic assistance of the media, he is seeking to divert legitimate
public outrage at the terrible conditions in remote Aboriginal townships
away from those responsible-successive federal, territory and state
governments.

Howard's claim to be concerned for the plight of poor indigenous
children is contemptible. In reality, he is using the social distress
caused by decades of official neglect and deprivation, on top of two
centuries of massacres, dispossession and forced separation of children,
as the pretext for a new form of state repression. Alcohol and substance
abuse, domestic violence and sexual abuse are symptoms of deep and
longstanding social problems: poverty, deprivation and denial of
essential infrastructure and services, including health care and schools.

The government's turn-with full bipartisan support-to punitive
police-state measures against the most disadvantaged layers of the
Australian population has far-reaching implications for the lives,
social conditions and basic democratic rights of all working people.
During his media conference, Howard revealed that federal cabinet is
drawing up similar measures for all welfare recipients. Precedents are
being established, using the most vulnerable members of society, that
will be extended throughout the country.

At the centre of the new scheme is a massive land grab. The Howard
government will override the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act and the 1976
Land Rights Act-which granted land tenure to Aboriginal communities in
the Northern Territory-in order to take over land, initially through
five-year leases. No compensation will be paid to the current
landholders, despite a constitutional requirement to do so. Instead,
they will be paid "in kind"-through government services-a proposal
reminiscent of the days when cattle station owners gave Aboriginal
workers rations of tea, sugar and flour in lieu of wages.

To enforce these deeply anti-democratic measures, police will be
mobilised from across the country, backed by military units. According
to Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough, a former army officer, the
police will arrive in military vehicles and the army will provide
logistical backup for frontline policing.

Brough likened the situation to a community being struck by a cyclone or
flood. "Certain things have to be put aside. Certain normalities have to
be discarded." But the epidemic of ill-health and abuse among indigenous
children is not a natural disaster-nor has it emerged overnight. It is a
social disaster, which is now being exploited to radically extend the
domestic role of the armed forces.

While Labor is marching lockstep with Howard, and a whole layer of
privileged Aboriginal leaders is collaborating with the government,
significant voices of opposition have already emerged among health
professionals, scholars, lawyers and local Aboriginal leaders. Among
them is the winner of the 2007 Miles Franklin literary award, indigenous
writer Alexis Wright. She accused the government of "riding roughshod
yet again, trampling heavily, bringing down the sledgehammer approach".
This opposition will grow and broaden as the true character of the
government's takeover becomes clearer.

As numbers of commentators have observed, there is an element of
desperate election politics in Howard's announcement. Facing the
prospect of defeat at this year's election, according to opinion polls,
Howard is anxiously seeking another reactionary diversion, like the 2001
"children overboard" refugee accusations or the 2003 "weapons of mass
destruction" fabrications.

But the plan is part of a wider agenda. Throughout his political career,
Howard has made a point of whitewashing the genocidal policies carried
out during the past 200 years against Australia's indigenous population.
His government has dismantled representative Aboriginal bodies, such as
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and
consistently blamed Aboriginal people for their own plight. He has also
sought to abolish native and communal title. Under the Northern
Territory takeover, entire communities are likely to be dispersed and
their land cleared for unfettered exploitation by mining companies and
pastoralists.

Virtually every media outlet, including the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation, has adopted the government's line. The Murdoch media, in
particular, has hailed Howard's announcement. According to Nicolas
Rothwell's "analysis" on the Australian's front page, Howard moved with
"rapier speed and devastating force" to sweep away "a generation's worth
of political assumptions" and impose a "completely new pattern of
surveillance and control" on indigenous people.

While this assault has a distinctly racist component, it is directed
against the entire working class. As the social polarization produced by
more than two decades of "free market" policies intensifies, the Howard
government is erecting the scaffolding for a police state. At the same
time as it turns to militarism abroad-in Iraq, East Timor and the South
Pacific-to realize its economic and strategic agenda, the Australian
ruling elite is trampling over basic civil liberties and democratic
rights at home.

The Socialist Equality Party calls on the working class as a
whole-indigenous and non-indigenous alike-to oppose Howard's deeply
reactionary plan and make a political break with the entire official
political apparatus, including the Labor party. What is required is the
unification of the working class on the basis of a socialist program to
completely reorganise economic and social life to meet human need, not
corporate profit. Such a program must include the allocation of billions
of dollars in resources to overcome the social disadvantage suffered by
Australia's indigenous population, and to rectify the historic crimes
perpetrated against it.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

Hi greg, thought you'd disappeared,
Firemonkey

Well, he just posted the other day that one can download software to
post anonymously, so maybe we were getting a warning, eh?

0:]