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World spotlight on our 'dirty secret'

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 02 Mei 2013 | 00.04

Minutes from the mining boom: South Hedland, WA's indigenous community still waiitng for housing Source: The Australian

A 20-MINUTE drive from where real estate agents are touting a "new breed of luxury modernist apartments" to cashed-up employees of Port Hedland's mining boom, members of Joanne Polly's indigenous community sleep in the fields.

In South Hedland, as the Sunday Times recently discovered on a tour of the region, residents are dying of kidney and liver failure, and their children are inhaling petrol and aerosols.

While boomtown Port Hedland boasts $1 million bungalows and apartment blocks with "green credentials" and "specially designed to best capture solar access", communities like South Hedland have all the solar access they want.

They have been waiting for up to a decade for public housing.

Living in squalor on the doorstep of Western Australia's multi-billion-dollar resources rush where "fly-in fly-out" workers earn six-figure salaries is nothing new for these fringe dwellers.

What's new is their lives are under the spotlight in a film, Utopia, due for international release by controversial expatriate Australian John Pilger.

Pilger, an award-winning television journalist who has lived in Britain since 1962, is a long time critic of Australia's "racist" treatment of the Aboriginal population.

In this latest film Pilger says that "more than any other colonial society, Australia consigns its dirtiest secrets, past and present, to willful ignorance or indifference".

While acknowledging that Australia "has changed" since he left the country, 73-year-old Pilger quotes from a history text he studied at school which described Aborigines as  "completely amoral" and which said "we are civilised  and they are not".

To film Utopia he flew to Western Australia to compare the living conditions of Aboriginal communities with the riches of the mining boom, commenting that "barely a fraction of mining, oil and gas revenue has benefited Aboriginal communities, whose poverty is an enduring shock".

Pilger says mining companies waged a propaganda campaign in cahoots with media "mates" to defeat former prime minister Kevin Rudd's mining tax, and he ridicules claims that the boom has benefited black Australians.

Accompanied by elders of Perth's Nyoongar community, he travelled to Rottnest Island, WA's "premier tourist destination" where the "first Australians" endured "starving, torture, humiliation and murder".

Rottnest was an Aboriginal prison between 1838 and 1931, but Pilger insists "Rotto is not the past" and quotes recent incarceration rates of indigenous children in WA.

Pilger's spotlight on our international "shame" over Aboriginal welfare coincides with controversy in Western Australia over indigenous incarceration.

Last week, WA's corrective services commissioner, Ian Johnson, resigned in the wake of a decision to place 140 children in an adult prison, following a riot in the young inmates' juvenile detention centre in January.

On Friday, the Perth Supreme Court will hand down a decision over a legal challenge to the children's transfer to the Hakea facility, made by Sydney human rights lawyer, George Newhouse.

In a piece written for The Guardian Pilger quotes a former prisons official's claim that Australia is "racking and stacking" black Australians, whose incarceration rate is "five times that of black people in apartheid South Africa".

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), "indigenous young people aged 10-17 years old  were 31 times more likely than non-Indigenous young people to be in detention, up from 27 times since June 2008".

AIHW Child Welfare and Prisoner Health Unit executive, Tim Beard, said that while the rate was stable, it "is extremely high and the message is that the over-representation of indigenous incarceration is consistent across every state and territory in Australia".

Statistically in WA, one in every 14 indigenous men will spend tonight in police or prison custody.

In NSW, according to Attorney General, Greg Smith, indigenous male offenders currently account for 23 per cent of male inmates, while Aboriginal women make up 29 per cent of the female population in custody.

In juvenile detention, 48 per cent of young people in detention in NSW are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people comprise around 2.2 per cent of the total NSW population.

Pilger also claims poor indigenous health care is turning children blind and deaf.

Australia is also the only remaining first world country where the eye disease trachoma - easily preventable with access to clean running water - still exists. It does so in remote Aboriginal communities.

The ear disease otitis media is also a risk factor in indigenous communities, particularly in Western Australia.

In the Pilbara community, local Smith Family counsellor, Nia Hadenfeldt, who sleeps in her office because rents are too high, said she wanted a youth curfew because alcohol, drugs and aerosol sniffing were "destroying" Hedland's youth, according to the article in the Sunday Times.

Western Pilbara Mobile Children's Services supervisor, Sharon Thompson, also told the Sunday Times that scabies, school sores and gum disease were rife among Aboriginal children.

Bob Neville, chairman of the Pilbara Association of Non-Government Organisations, said in the article WA was "in the middle of the biggest resources boom we've ever seen, and locals have nothing to show for it".

He called for an inquiry, saying, "every night they're sleeping in the dirt on Gina Rinehart's doorstep. They're dying from alcohol, drugs, poor nutrition and suicide".


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Labor Medicare levy hike biggest ever

The Gillard government has confirmed workers will face a tax increase through the Medicare levy to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme

The Gillard Government's proposed levy hike will generate $3 billion per annum needed to boost the NDIS war chest ahead of its full introduction in 2018-19. Source: Supplied

THE proposed introducing by the Gillard government of an additional 0.5 per cent levy to Medicare to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be the single biggest increase since it was introduced in 1984.

It will lift the levy from 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent in a bid to generate the $3 billion per annum needed to boost the NDIS war chest ahead of its full introduction in 2018-19.

The levy was originally set at 1 per cent of taxable income by the Hawke government in the biggest change to the nation's health system - before being lifted to 1.25 per cent two years later.

In the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Prime Minister John Howard put an 0.2 per cent surcharge on the Medicare levy to fund the gun buyback scheme.

Jessica Irvine and Tory Maguire discuss the levy to fund the disability scheme

The following year, the Coalition introduced an additional levy of 1 per cent - the Medicare Levy Surcharge - for high income earners with an annual income of over $100,000 who do not have adequate levels of private hospital coverage.

This was followed in 1999 by an uncapped private health insurance rebate to encourage families to take-up private health insurance.

And in early 2000, the Howard government proposed a further Medicare levy increase to help fund Australia's role in East Timor - but this was later withdrawn in the lead up to the budget.

The Medicare system currently provides free hospital services for public patients in public hospitals and subsidies around 75 per cent of private patients' scheduled fees.

And it also covers around 85 per cent of scheduled fees for out of hospital services such as GPs and specialists.


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Navy sick of Abbott's 'drunken sailors'

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber, Parliament House in Canberra. Source: The Daily Telegraph

SOBER sailors have finally had enough of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's repeated use of the insulting phrase "spending like drunken sailors".

Royal Australian Navy staff from Admirals in the corridors of power in Canberra to seamen on mess decks around the nation are sick and tired of Mr Abbott repeatedly comparing Labor's fiscal policy to a "drunken sailor''.

"It is not reflective of where the Navy is today,'' one source said.

The days of sailors coming ashore to spend their money in bars and bordellos have long since past according to modern day seamen and women.

The phrase is one of the Opposition Leader's favourites and an analysis of his media interviews during the past two years reveals a pattern of regular use across the nation.

Senior Navy officers have urged Tony Abbott not to use the phrase "drunken sailors" as it doesn't fit with the image they are trying to portray of the modern-day professional. Picture: Braden Fastier

It is an image that he must thinks resonates with voters feeling the financial pinch.

According to Urban Dictionary, it means to spend a lot of money at one time and its taken from the fact that sailors, while on shore leave, used to spend all of their money on "whores and alcoholic beverages''.

Senior Navy officers have implored Mr Abbott to tone it down because it doesn't fit with the image they are trying to portray of the modern-day Navy professional as a sensitive, well-behaved individual.

"We are not like that any more,'' a Navy source said.

"It is not an image that is reflective of the current force or ideals.''

Former Chief of the Navy, retired Vice-Admiral David Shackleton, said he could understand that the Navy would not be happy with Mr Abbott's use of the "drunken sailor'' analogy, but he said history could not be changed.

"Sailors in the past were known for going ashore and getting drunk and partying,'' he said.

"History tarred the navy with that term and you can't re-write history, but eventually they might think of something else.

"Maybe he [Abbott] is talking about the Royal Navy.''

Despite occasional hiccups, such as the HMAS Success ship of shame when drunken sailors had sex and wrecked bars in Asia, the modern-day Navy is, according to senior officers at least, a fairly sober workplace.

"You always find the occasional idiot, but generally speaking sailors do not behave like that,'' a source said.

The perceived insult came to a head last week when The Australian newspaper published a cartoon portraying Treasurer Wayne Swan as a drunken sailor withdrawing cash from at ATM.

It is understood that Mr Abbott will be asked informally to find another phrase to use when he is attacking government spending.

TONY ABBOTT AND DRUNKEN SAILORS

"Because the current federal Labor Government has been spending like a drunken sailor.'' Doorstop interview Townsville August 2, 2010

"They started spending like drunken sailors.''  ABC 7.30 Report, August 10, 2010 

"When the Government is spending like a drunken sailor they've got to get the money from somewhere.'' Radio 4RO Rockhampton, August 18, 2010

"When you've got a Government which is spending like a drunken sailor.'' Radio 5AA, November 3, 2010

"It spends money like a drunken sailor but it doesn't fix problems.'' Doorstop interviews Manly West, December 4, 2010 

"The Howard Government wasn't spending money like drunken sailors.''  Interview Radio MTR, January 31, 2011

"Everyone knows that this is a government which has been spending like a drunken sailor.'' Doorstop interview Salt Creek, SA,  April 29, 2013


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Mystery of the first Aboriginal flag

Harold Thomas carries the Aboriginal flag during a parade to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its creation. Picture: Mike Burton Source: adelaidenow

THE designer of the Aboriginal flag, flown for the first time at a demonstration in Adelaide's Victoria Square in 1971, has called for help to find his original item.

As the square's upgrade continues, artist and activist Harold Thomas says if the original flag exists, it should be handed to the National Museum of Australia.

Thomas was a young artist working at the SA Museum when, in 1971, he made his great mark on Australian history by designing the Aboriginal flag and flying it in Victoria Square.

While the flag has become one of our most powerful national symbols, the whereabouts of the original - a national treasure if it still exists - remains a mystery.

Mr Thomas and his friend and fellow activist Gary Foley first unveiled the flag at a land-rights rally in Victoria Square on National Aborigines Day, July 12, 1971.

He remembers feeling "apprehension" as authorities might have viewed it as "an act of treason".

He says Mr Foley took the original flag to the eastern states - Mr Foley is less certain about this - where the design became the emblem of the Aboriginal tent embassy at Parliament House in 1972.

But Mr Thomas, now 66 and still working as an artist near Darwin, does not know what happened to it next.

"At the time when Aborigines would see flags like this, people would take it (home) as a trophy from a demonstration," he says, adding that it might be stowed away in the home of someone who has no idea of its significance.

The SA Museum has fragments of the cloth from which the flag was cut but, sadly, never found the flag itself.

Senior curator in anthropology Dr Philip Jones said the museum tried unsuccessfully to track down the original "years ago".


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Australian faces Saudi terror trial

An Australian man faces terror charges in Saudi Arabia. Picture: Thinkstock

AUSTRALIA must do all it can to help two West Australian brothers in Saudi Arabia, one behind bars and the other in hiding and facing arrest, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says.

Senator Ludlam says he understands Shayden Thorne, 25, is in custody facing allegations of terrorism.

His brother Junaid, 23, is wanted by authorities after having previously been detained for taking part in a protest against the Saudi government's treatment of political prisoners.

"Saudi Arabia is not renowned for due process, rule of law or fair treatment of suspects. It is essential that the federal government makes the maximum effort to protect the human rights of Junaid and Shayden Thorne," Senator Ludlum said in a statement on Wednesday night.

He said Shayden Thorne had allegedly been tortured.

"The Australian government must investigate these claims as vigorously as possible. It is essential that Foreign Minister (Bob) Carr does all he can to ensure the fair treatment of these two Australians."

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman confirmed a 25-year-old West Australian man was on trial for alleged terrorism-related offences and was being detained in a prison outside the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

"Consular officials from the Australian Embassy in Riyadh have been providing consular assistance to the man since his arrest in November 2011. Consular staff in Canberra are in regular contact with the man's family in Australia," he said.

The spokesman said the embassy was also assisting a 23-year-old WA man whose Australian passport was currently held by Saudi authorities.

"The man is not detained. Efforts are under way to clarify his legal situation," he said.

Junaid Thorne said his brother, Shayden, had not told him whether authorities had beaten him.

"I have seen a few bruises on his body, but he never wanted to tell me that he was being tortured," Junaid told ABC Television on Wednesday.

"When he managed to see his lawyer he told him he had been beaten very bad, lashed with cables."

Junaid said he had been in hiding for two months.

"So I have been unable to visit or speak to him," he said.

He said the terrorism charges against his brother had no basis.

"My lawyer has attended two of his trials in Riyadh and they have not provided any proof whatsoever," Junaid said.

The 23-year-old said he would leave Saudi Arabia "tomorrow" if he had the opportunity.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says the 25-year-old man from Perth was arrested in November 2011.

A spokesman said he was on trial for alleged terrorism-related offences and was detained in a prison outside the Saudi capital Riyadh.

''Consular officials from the Australian Embassy in Riyadh have been providing consular assistance to the man since his arrest in November 2011,'' he said.

''Consular staff in Canberra are in regular contact with the man's family in Australia.''

The spokesman said the Australian embassy in Riyadh was also assisting a 23-year-old man from Western Australia whose Australian passport was being held by Saudi authorities. He said this man was not being detained and efforts were under way to clarify his legal situation.

Consular staff in Canberra are in regular contact with the man's family in Australia.


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UK cops came to Australia over Harris

UK police came to Australia to inquire about sex abuse claims against Rolf Harris. Source: News Limited

SCOTLAND Yard detectives have conducted inquiries in Australia in relation to sex abuse allegations against entertainer Rolf Harris.

At least two detectives travelled to Australia in late March as part of their investigation into claims made about Harris, according to the Seven Network tonight.

It was not clear whether any formal interviews were conducted during the visit.

Scotland Yard would not comment on the investigation but the visit to Australia by those detectives was reportedly made two weeks before Harris's identity was made public by a London newspaper.

The 83-year-old, who has not been charged, has strenuously denied allegations.

He was arrested in March, but released on bail to face investigators again this month.


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Hicks to appeal terror verdict

David Hicks will appeal against his conviction for supporting terrorism next month. Source: adelaidenow

FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks will appeal against his conviction for supporting terrorism next month, his lawyer says.

Hicks' Australian lawyer Stephen Kenny said documents were being prepared for the appeal, which he anticipated would be launched in the US next month.

"We expect it to take up to one year to reach resolution," Mr Kenny said.

Hicks, 37, spent more than five years in Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to South Australia's Yatala Labour Prison in 2007. He was released in December that year.

The move comes amid renewed pressure to close the controversial military jail, with President Barack Obama and former Guantanamo Bay chief prosecutor Colonel Morris Davis - the man who charged Hicks - calling for its closure.

The South Australian admitted providing material support to terrorists as part of a plea deal which facilitated his transfer to Australia.

His bid to overturn the conviction comes after a US court last year quashed a similar charge of material support for terrorism relating to Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver.

Hamdan had his conviction thrown out after the US appeals court ruled in October 2012 that the charge was unlawfully applied retrospectively.

Mr Kenny said Hicks continued to struggle with the impact of his detention.

"I think he still struggles with the impact of solitary confinement but he's doing the best he can," he said.

President Barack Obama today renewed his bid to close Guantanamo Bay, saying that it was damaging US interests.


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