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november 17 2006
{November 17, 2006} ELLIOT_K NOW USING BLOGGER…
Tuesday 15th August 2006: Eight unidentified people – believed to be Burmese and discovered on Ashmore Reef of WA’s coast on Sunday night – are to be taken by naval vessel to Christmas Island. Because they did not reach the Australian mainland, they will be sent to Nauru for processing.
The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, says she has been told that the eight people found on Ashmore Reef at the weekend are all men. Defence say yesterday tah the refugees are Burmese…
Vanstone announced the group’s arrival yesterday, shortly after the Howard Governments’ failure to force harsh migration law ammendments through the Senate. Vanstone said offshore processing and indefinite incarceration of innocent people has somehow stemmed the flow of boats. However, she failed to explain how this may be the case.
Vanstone says the group of eight are being shipped to Christmas Island for medical checks before being processed on Nauru as part of Australia’s Pacific Solution – which sees asylum-seekers arriving by sea forced offshore, to remote islands for indefinite detention.
Senator Vanstone explained that the group were dumped on Ashmore by “people smugglers.” Senator Vanstone said she had few details of the eight and was not yet sure where they were from. “We know there’s eight of them,” she told ABC Radio.
“The information I’ve got at the moment is that they’re all adult males, but it is very difficult getting information from a boat that’s now travelling from Ashmore Reef to Christmas Island.” She said the men were speaking broken English to the Australian officials.
The Australian Greens say the eight people should be brought to the mainland for processing.
Ashmore Reef, north-west of WA, is outside Australia’s migration zone. Australia’s offshore islands were excised from the migration zone last year and Senator Vanstone said further changes, such as those in the new Bill, would have somehow helped keep refugees from trying to reach Australia.
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has questioned the timing of the decision so soon after the Government scrapped its plan to expand offshore processing to include unauthorised boat arrivals who reach the mainland. “We’ve not seen anyone taken to Nauru by the Australian Government for over five years now,” she said.
“So I think it’s just too cute by half to have these asylum seekers being taken over to Nauru and it certainly looks to be a cynical and a cruel political move by the Government.”
{August 10, 2006} “Racist” Howard refuses to meet Perth’s Women In Black
August 9 2005 – The glorious “Women In Black” peace group have arrived in Canberra after a month-long journey from Western Australia. The ladies, who left Perth on July 11, have walked across the Nullarbor Plain to highlight the plight of Indigenous Australians.
Their aim: to try to change people’s attitudes about Aboriginal people.
The women, Pam Morris, 74, Jane Paterson, 70, and Kathryn Newmar, 62, are members of the international peace network “Women in Black”. They urge the Government to “curb entrenched racism in Australian society” and move towards reconciliation with Aboriginal people…
| The Women In Black, well-known for their weekly peace vigil outside Perth’s Wesley Church, have been meeting since the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Jane Paterson told a media conference the attitude of the nation was guided by Mr Howard. When asked if Mr Howard was racist, she said: “Yes… very racist.” Mr Howard and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough have both refused to meet the women. Before the group left, Pam Morris said the journey was not on behalf of Aboriginal people, but as a “representation of white people who recognise that most of the dire circumstances of Australian Indigenous people can only be understood by opening up to the context of the white invasion, and the attitude of the invasion of Indigenous culture by white people.” The group feel so strongly about the effects of white racism in Australia on Indigenous Australians that they walked the Nullarbor plain to take their message to Federal Politicians. During the trip they talked to local people about racism, asking them to sign a petition they will deliver to the Federal Government. Signatures were gathered for a letter to the Prime Minister and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough, which they still hope to be able to present later this week. The women said it was “devastating” to hear on arrival in Canberra, of the proposed amendments to the Land Rights Act which will further damage Indigenous rights in the Northern Territory for the next hundred years.” “This is a further example of white racism in action,” said the statement. The trio aim to urge the Government to “curb entrenched racism in Australian society” and move towards reconciliation with Aboriginal people. Ms Morris, a retired nurse, said she was concerned the Federal Government was not doing enough to help Aboriginal people, despite details of shocking abuse in some Aboriginal communities. “I personally feel that the Government doesn’t really have the will to deal with this in an appropriate way… I don’t think they approach it with any sort of compassion or understanding,” she says. In a statement before they left, the women said: “There is a wound in the spirit of this lovely country, and it cannot be healed until we White Australians face the reality that WE are the cause of much of the despair and misery which is the life-long sentence of many Aboriginal Australians today. The cause of this wound is racism – the culture of white arrogance that assumes our innate superiority over indigenous people.” In Canberra, National senator Barnaby Joyce met the women, along with Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Chris Evans. South Australian Liberal member for the outback seat of Grey, Barry Wakelin, will also meet the women – despite being snubbed by the PM. Mrs Paterson and Mrs Morris are still hopeful of presenting a petition declaring the existence of “widespread racism in present day Australian culture” to Mr Howard and Mr Brough later in the week. “Racism is an insidious evil, sneaking its way into our daily lives in ways we often don’t recognise. We have to be taught – our awareness must be raised – before we can acknowledge that what we may have thought were kindly attitudes are revealed as patronising, and that feeling “sorry for” Indigenous people is often demeaning,” say the women. “It is not enough to care – we must also learn to understand…” The Petition to John Howard and Mal Brough: ———— Read more about these beautiful ladies at Project Safecom: More sources below. |
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| Sunday Times Scoop NIT Project Safecom News Ltd |
