Showing posts with label cape-york. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cape-york. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Rau ordeal a raw deal

Rau ordeal prompts call for separate Qld inquiry but the community calls for a public inquiry!

The Queensland Government has been urged to hold its own inquiry into mental health and corrective services in light of the Cornelia Rau case.

The Queensland Alliance, which represents mental health and prisoner groups, says Ms Rau's treatment after she was picked up by police on Cape York Peninsula exposes significant systematic failings.

Ms Rau spent time in a Queensland prison and a hospital before being handed to immigration authorities who kept her in detention for another four months.

Alliance executive director Jeff Cheverton says mental health sufferers are being abused in Queensland and it is time to find out why.

"There needs to be a thorough ongoing investigation," he said.

"I don't think there's been an inquiry into mental health in Queensland since the 1970s and the latest inquiry was the Burdekin inquiry in 1993, which found enormous human rights abuses.

"Clearly the Government isn't giving mental health the priority that we believe it deserves."

The Federal Fascist Government has appointed a former Federal Police commissioner to look into the case? Police investigating themselves!

What will we get from this fascist governments private police enquiry? A whitewash, new draconian legislation (that oppresses the community further), certainly not the truth, or even a better policy that ensures that this doesn't happen again. Not even those responsible taken to task. Argue for reverse surveillance! We want a public inquiry!

By Public Inquiry 9 February 05

Australian held in Baxter detention centre
It has been revealed an Australian resident has been locked up in Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia for the past four months. Authorities had been unable to establish her identity since she was found wandering in far north Queensland last September.

Lawyers want Baxter detainee released for treatment !
Lawyers acting for a hunger-striking detainee inside South Australia's Baxter detention centre have asked the Federal Court to order a psychiatric assessment for the man, saying he needs to be in mental health care, not detention.

Baxter protesters 'being denied water, sleep'?
One of the three Iranian men has been on the roof of the gymnasium since Sunday last week, with two others joining him on Tuesday.

Detainees urged to abandon rooftop protest!
Kathy Verran from Rural Australians for Refugees, says one of the men has since come down and has been taken into the management unit. [solitary confinement for Xmas?]

Advocates warn of detention centre riot risk
A prominent refugee advocate warns South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre is on the brink of a major riot. A protest involving about 25 male detainees broke out at the centre on Tuesday, over a new system which is delaying the process of dispensing medication to detainees.

Villawood detainees go on hunger strike
A refugee advocacy group says up to 200 detainees at the Villawood Detention Centre, in Sydney, have begun a hunger strike to draw attention to their situation ahead of the federal election.

Afghan children lose High Court battle against detention
Lawyers have lost their constitutional challenge to the detention of four children at a South Australian immigration centre. Four siblings from Afghanistan, aged between seven and 15, have been in detention since they arrived in Australia in 2001.

Australia's "GITMO" System
Australia's "GITMO" System In June 2002 on the PM program on ABC radio, PHILIP RUDDOCK is quoted as saying: "Well, let me just say, detention centres are not prisons. They are administrative detention.

Senior cleric damns Baxter as 'disgraceful'
A senior world religious figure has called on the Federal Government to scrap its mandatory detention policy after visiting the Baxter detention centre in South Australia's north.

Detention centre media ban criticised
The Howard Government has been criticised in a report by media freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders for stopping journalists covering the conditions in refugee detention centres.

Baxter detainee continues hunger strike
A detainee at the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta in South Australia has been on a hunger strike for a week. Sri Lankan Zeldon Daggie, 23, says he has been detained since arriving in Australia four years ago.

Democrats to keep up pressure over asylum seekers
The Australian Democrats will maintain their pressure on the next federal government over Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, if the party can retain its strength in the Senate.

Friday, December 3, 2004

Second autopsy to delay Palm Island funeral

A spokesman for the Palm Island community in north Queensland says the funeral for a man who died in police custody may be another two weeks away.

Cameron Doomadgee died in the police watch-house on Palm Island two weeks ago.

The results of a post mortem examination led to riots on the island.

Community spokesman Brad Foster says lawyers for Mr Doomadgee's family are still waiting for the results of a second autopsy.

"They received a letter from the coroner saying that the pathologist is actually going through all the information making sure it's all tested properly," he said.

"It's looking at probably taking four or five days to a week before they come to a conclusion and then they release the report.

"It's actually looking more like two weeks away at this stage."

Meanwhile, a Cape York Aboriginal leader says the recent violent clashes between police and Palm Islanders should not spoil Indigenous relations with police in other communities.

Mapoon Aboriginal Community chairman Peter Guivarra says police work is appreciated and supported in most communities.

He is calling on those communities to resist violence.

"I know all Aboriginal people and all Palm Island people would not condone that and they would probably be led by a few," he said.

"It'd be just totally disastrous if that sort of thing happened again."


By Sorry 3 December 04

Related:

Riot not planned: Palm Is leaders
Community leaders on Palm Island off north Queensland have rejected suggestions that Friday's riot was premeditated.

Palm Island crisis easing
Indigenous community residents took to the streets after the release of an autopsy conducted on a man who died in police custody.

Hundreds riot over death
THE police station on Queensland's Palm Island has been burnt to the ground and other buildings damaged during a riot by up to 300 residents angry over a death in custody.

Whitewash over Hickey's death
The New South Wales coroner has cleared police of any responsibility for the death of Aboriginal teenager Thomas 'TJ' Hickey.

Related Police Corruption Links:

Police probe fatal Sydney shooting?
They shot him twice in the legs but he still kept coming. So they killed him? 7 Sunrise interview witness at the scene. The New South Wales Police Minister, John Watkins, says an independent investigation will be held into a fatal shooting by police in south-western Sydney last night. [?]

Corrupt NSW police officer sacked
New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has sacked an officer who confessed to being involved in corrupt activities over the past eight years.

 A corrupt way to treat the community?
I seen the police bleeding on Nine's Sunday program arguing that promotion should depend on how many crimes police have solved and not how many brains they have and that was coming from police commissioner Ken Moroney and Police Minister John Watkins?

Deaths in Custody, Police Powers and Mental Illness
The NSW Police Force should not have a role in the psychiatric diagnosis and medication of the public. Police are not medically trained in this speciality. Frontline police are not qualified in medical injection or in the dosage of any formulation of pharmaceutical. The administration of medication by unqualified personnel would lead to medical emergencies, injury and death.

Judges Blood Sample: After the fact of the fact of a hangover?
Lawyers say New South Wales Supreme Court judge Jeff Shaw should not give police his own sample of blood taken after he crashed his car near his Sydney home last month.

Police to uphold law not decide mental health
A diagnosis of mental illness could be made over the phone instead of in person, and involuntary psychiatric patients could lose the right to have their case reviewed by a magistrate, under proposed changes to NSW mental health laws.

ASIO, AFP, NSW POLICE, HRMU: THREAT!
COMMUNITY URGED TO RAISE THEIR THREAT LEVELS TO HIGH ALERT! ASIO, AFP, NSW POLICE, HRMU: TERROR CELLS LINKED! LET YOU BE THE JUDGE!

BREAK AND ENTER: NSW POLICE
Police will be able to break into your home without your knowledge and no less than a common criminal not tell their victims that they are doing it.

AFP: The unlikely CRIMINAL
It was born of a bombing and it made its name after a far more devastating act of terrorism. But for most of the 25 years in between, little was known about the Australian Federal Police force or the work it did.

Police offer protection to family following gang rape allegations
The parents of a 14-year-old girl claim their daughter was gang-raped in Sydney earlier this year, and have raised concerns about corrupt policeman Detective Sergeant Christopher Laycock's review of the case.

Officer planned to kidnap alleged criminals
A senior Sydney police officer who has admitted taking money for tipping off a child porn suspect had also been planning to kidnap criminals and extort money from them, the Police Integrity Commission heard yesterday.

Policeman draws blank on fake raids
A suspended Sydney policeman has told an inquiry that he has "little recollection" of the details of fake police raids he set up.

NSW police prosecutor charged with child porn possession
A New South Wales police prosecutor has been charged with the possession of child pornography. Police spokesman Sergeant Dave Rose says that in mid-August officers were called to an Internet cafe in the Sydney central business district after a man was alleged to have downloaded child pornography.

Rockspiders: Police, Teachers, Childcare Owners, and Uncle Pervy!
Police have indicated there will be hundreds more arrests as part of Australia's largest ever crackdown on child pornography even though it is some of the police themselves? Authorities have so far charged more than 190 people with a total of 2000 offences and seized more than two million pornographic images.

Police, teachers charged in child porn bust
One-hundred-and-fifty people, including police officers and teachers, have been arrested in what the Federal Police (AFP) describe as Australia's biggest Internet child pornography bust.

Whitewash over Hickey's death
The New South Wales coroner has cleared police of any responsibility for the death of Aboriginal teenager Thomas 'TJ' Hickey. State coroner John Abernethy has dismissed claims that police were chasing or pursuing TJ Hickey when he crashed his bike and became impaled on a fence.

Redfern police need education not weapons
NSW police want new offensive equipment including long-range capsicum spray guns and modified armoured vehicles capable of spraying tear gas following a damning report on the Redfern riots in Sydney earlier this year.

Fremantle police at centre of missing cannabis claims
Western Australian Police Minister Michelle Roberts says cleaning up the Fremantle Police Station will be a big test for new Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan.

Micklebergs sue senior police officer for defamation
The Mickelberg brothers are suing a senior policeman over comments he made after their convictions for the Perth Mint swindle were quashed.

Mickelbergs win 20-year fight to clear their names
A legal battle spanning more than two decades ended today when two brothers accused of stealing more than $650,000 in gold bullion from the Perth Mint had their convictions quashed.

The filthy NSW Police Integrity Commission!
Ten years after a royal commission exposed the corruption extending to the heart of the NSW Police there has been no change in police culture, and any change would be difficult to bring about because the government is the problem.

Funding undermining witness protection: Vic police?
Hodson's security camera almost certainly recorded the approach of their killer or killers, but homicide detectives could not find the camera's VHS tape. Hodson's home security system had been reviewed by the Ethical Standards Department's technical support unit.

Anti-crime watchdog needed in Victoria: Opposition
Victorian Opposition leader Robert Doyle says the latest claims of police corruption need to be investigated by an independent crime and anti-corruption commission.

Victorians want corruption commission, poll finds
Warning: This poll does not reflect Victorians who have been directly affected by police corruption and therefore it cannot be said that Victorians believe corruption in Victoria is "limited to a few bad apples". The same as the propaganda on Four Corners [Walls?] The only bad apples handpicked and dropped on Chris Masters desk. Corruption Inc...

The words out! The government is the problem
The Federal Government says it wants to establish an independent national anti-corruption body to improve accountability in organisations like the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission because they're corrupt. The body would have royal commission powers and be permitted to intercept phone calls.

Gangland target? Or police decoy? Refuses protection
Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Crime Simon Overland says the man who was the target of an alleged planned gangland killing has refused police protection.

Vic police chief moves to sack officers
The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Christine Nixon, has moved to dismiss two police officers as part of a crackdown on corruption and says up to 20 more dismissals could follow.

Vic prosecutors to drop corruption case
The Office of Public Prosecutions in Victoria will drop drug-related charges against a suspended police officer tomorrow after an informer due to testify in the case was murdered last month.

Vic flop cop warns there's more corruption
Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon, says Victorians should brace themselves for more evidence of police corruption.

Vic police corruption report tabled in Parliament
The Victorian Ombudsman's report on the Ceja Taskforce and drug related corruption in Victoria police has been tabled in State Parliament.

GIVE A DOG A BONE?
When the Ombudsman investigates police in most States and Territories of Australia they set about asking the police to investigate themselves to see if there is any validity to a complaint.

Victorian Ombudsman's power boosted
The Victorian Government has reacted strongly to continuing allegations of police corruption, with the Premier announcing a big boost to the State Ombudsman's power and resources.

Police silent on witness protection breach claim
Victorian police have been forced to defended the Witness Protection Program again, after an alleged incident involving a police informer.

Former Vic drug squad head working for NSW
It has been revealed that the former head of the disgraced Victorian drug squad is now a senior investigator at the New South Wales Police Integrity Commission (PIC).

Penalty given to police officer in corruption case under fire
The Victorian Opposition has criticised the penalty handed down to a Victorian police officer who tried to find the home address of an officer investigating corruption.

Bracks crime team 'not up to job'
Steve Bracks was "fiddling while Melbourne burns", a respected senior crimefighter said yesterday, as the state Ombudsman was attacked for being ill-equipped to tackle entrenched police corruption.

Vic corruption fighter tells of intimidation
A senior Victorian police corruption investigator says fellow officers have intimidated and threatened him.

Vic police corruption 'worst ever', former judge says
A former Federal Court judge last night described corruption in the Victoria police force as the worst ever.

Bullet threat won't stop corruption probe, police say
The Victorian police force says threats against internal investigators will not stop it from weeding out corrupt police and bringing them to justice.

Police corruption linked to underworld slayings
The chairman of Victoria's Ceja police internal corruption task force has admitted there is a link between police corruption and Melbourne's gangland killings.

Redfern drug dealers: Who is Mr Big?
A senior Redfern police officer says a flourishing illegal drug trade is the main cause of problems in Redfern's Aboriginal community, known as The Block. But just like Kings Cross it doesn't get cleaned up and the Mr Big's are living like pigs. Ha ha. That's right someone supplies and someone accumulates large sums of money and someone has targeted Redfern and allows it to flourish there.

Victoria's top cop needs a watchdog?
The Bracks Government is expected to announce new powers of investigation for the Victorian Ombudsman today. So what are they trying to say? The dog never had the power?

Bulldogs simply not the best!
SIMPLY NOT THE BEST AND DEFINITELY NOT BETTER THAN ANYONE, ANYONE I'VE MET.

Why the Bulldogs rape case failed?
AFTER two months of turmoil, the rape case against six Bulldogs rugby league players has collapsed, with police saying there was insufficient evidence to press charges. IT is the moment any investigator dreads. [Just plain rubbish and a cover-up.]

NSW Police seizing assets to bolster budgets?
Seized assets to bolster police budgets is going to place crime solving into the corporate arena. Why should they go after a common criminal who is poor? Instead they'll be searching for assets and then solving crime. After all, police budgets will depend on it.

Court accuses police of planting evidence
A magistrate in the south-western New South Wales city of Wagga Wagga says police there nearly beat a man to death, fabricated evidence about him, and later lied in court about the incident.

NSW ex-Inspector Gadget claims credibility again
Just how credible is this former cop? Small's claim on Four Corners [Walls, a government propaganda machine], tonight, [that], the Government warned about Redfern problems before the riot. Like he's Mr squeaky-clean? Bad news more like it, Small was the say anything, do anything, ex-cop from hell for Bob Carr and his cronies.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..
The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Cops Leak: Bulldogs accused of rape at Coffs Harbour
Police are warning media outlets they may face criminal charges if they release confidential information about investigations. The call comes after the details of an assault on a woman at Coffs Harbour were read on a commercial radio station in Sydney yesterday morning.

Capsicum spray killed Brisbane man
Remember one "Flick" and they're gone. A 26-year-old man has died in Brisbane after a scuffle with police in the inner-city suburb of Highgate Hill. Police say they went to a unit complex just after midnight to speak to the man. Inspector Ian Robinson says police used capsicum spray and the man collapsed and died.

Clive Small, NSW Inspector Gadget
NSW Police has revived controversial plans for a specialist discriminative squad to tackle the wave of violent crime that has plagued Sydney's south-west for more than a decade.

Man wrongly imprisoned awarded $1m
A Sydney man who was acquitted of murder has won more than $1 million in damages for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. The New South Wales Supreme Court has agreed with Garry Raymond Nye's said that the charge was maliciously laid. Acting on a tip-off, [?], police arrested and charged the 51-year-old with the shooting murder of Roy Thurgar at Randwick in Sydney's east in 1991. He spent 16 months in custody before he was acquitted by a jury.

NSW Police Force: Bent cop Cribb should be treated no different
34-year-old police inspector Shane Cribb, who shot a man shouldn't be treated differently than any other person charged with the same offence. The Daily Telegraph this morning is calling for special consideration for the cop.

One arrested in random raids: Police
NSW Police said more than 200 officers raided homes in the largest operation ever conducted by Task Force Gain, set up to investigate gun crime in Sydney's south-west.

Random police raid terrorised residents
A police task Force randomly targeting gang warfare [and criminals green lighted by police themselves], is investigating nine murders and one disappearance, including a shooting death that sparked a dramatic random dawn raid in south-western Sydney yesterday.

Drive-by shootings: test your political IQ?
What if since the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption the drugs moved from Kings Cross to Cabramatta. Then since the the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Cabramatta the drugs moved to Bankstown/Greenacre. Giving police more power might just be more fuel on the fire.

NSW drug wars: family feud not responsible for shootings
New South Wales Shadow Police Minister Peter Debnam says he does not believe recent shootings in Sydney's south-west are the result of a family feud. And he's not on his own.

Police WarLords set to take over Sydney again
Police warlords are set to take over Sydney's suburbs because police are not being supervised properly.

Jailed man's conviction to be reviewed
The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal will today review the conviction of a man, after claims in the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) last year that police planted weapons and faked suspects' confessions.

Who is bad?
Super Rat? M5? M11? K8? N2? So I trust that some people who, with the photos and guns guessed that a jury would quickly establish a case against a profiled person whom, you just had a picture and a history of. Common knowledge? The government knew their victims would take the blame. Not just chess in court, 'moving around the pieces', but 'putting false evidence, or not enough evidence before the jury."

2,500, crooked detectives? Or a corrupt Government?
The Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. Where did the police learn their trade skills? Led by example perhaps?

How to become corruption resistant in NSW
Don't trust those who cannot prove themselves with the little amounts of trust you give them. Just because they have a letter of perceived trust doesn't mean they can be trusted.

This is not how you eat 'antisocial behaviour'
Process corruption, perjury, planting of evidence, verbals, fabricated confessions, denial of suspects rights, a solicitor to induce confessions, tampering with electronic recording equipment, framing. Generally green lighting crime, and I say Murder, including the kids who overdosed on heroin. No doubt.

Black Knight - Long way to go home
In line with the current climate of police corruption and the demise of the reform unit set up by Wood, these facts ought to have been a good reason to leave Moroney out of the package as Commissioner.

Bob down and sniff my arse
These are serious invasions of privacy and draconian laws? Where are our democratic soldiers, the lawyers and the barristers who need to take on the government in the courts? Are they plastic? Or to busy feathering their nests? Or have they been cleverly purchased by this black government. Drug test police and politicians, and have the tests independently accessed.

Come in spinner? Or Come in sinner?
"You don't have, in my view very vigilant processes. I suppose it's akin to the problem of corruption within the police," he told the ABC radio. " People say there's corruption with the police (but) do you get the police to investigate problems within their own ranks?

Deeds
I am disturbed by Governments 'actions' in relation to shuffling the police service. Clive Small seconded into Parliament like a cocky in a perch. A breach of the fundamental Separation of Powers Doctrine does not in my view allow the thought of intervening, planning, or shuffling to stack the deck of our police service. The one that suppose to be autonomous according to Lord Denning. Where the Parliamentary Secretary can ask the commissioner of police to 'report' then sack him if he is not satisfied with such report.

Truth
Who is telling the truth? Well I guess Dr. Ed. Chadbourne or Mr. Peter Ryan may have the answer to that. Dr. Chadbourne sacked by Peter Ryan and more specifically in my view because he elected deputy commissioners Dave Madden and Andrew Scipione as the best men in the service in relation to his qualifications to make a recommendation in his capacity as human resources.That is if you believe that a Dr. can be corrupted.

Honesty
What is happening between the Police Service and politics is quite extraordinary at the moment. If stand over tactics don't work tell half the truth honestly and follow the example of sheep. Another word for it is sleaze, yeah. Another word for it is workplace harassment. Another word for it is bribing a Police Officer. Another word for it is misleading Parliament.

Tele Tales
Most people I know don't buy the Daily Telegraph. Why? Because of the lies and propaganda purported by them.

2,500, crooked detectives? Or a corrupt Government?
The Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. Where did the police learn their trade skills? Led by example perhaps?
 
Lord Denning
Interesting how a member of the Police Board Mr. Tim Priest would hold grave fears for his safety from dangerous senior police but fails to name them or have them sacked. Rather Priest resigns as if he had no powers. Could that mean what he was saying is that the Governments are also corrupt?

Corrosive
Clive Small is Bob Carr's choice for the new Police Commissioner. It could only be the case considering his, Small's special appointment into Parliament House. Small who suffers from the little person syndrome is the ideal bend over boy who gets shuffled through his corrupt actions. Rolling the legal system for him after the fact, just like his predecessor Roger the dodger Rogerson.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Same boat
The Premier, Bob Carr, relies on a militia. A gang of bikies and our Police Service, to show all of us he is no murderer. He should be taken to the task along with his partners in crime like Clive Small to account for those people who like my self have been maliciously assaulted and who have complained, without any service and those who cannot speak for themselves who were murdered, like Terry Falconer. Terry murdered in custody.

Good Cop
Why have our democratic institutions broken down? It's not just the criminal justice system. The Anti-Corruption Network webmaster@anti-corruption-network.org exposes the same issues. A group of white-collar workers who say they have suffered as follows:

Dangerous
I refer to the Daily Telegraph article 22 March 2002 under the heading Priest quits advisory job.

Partners in crime - history!
Roger Rogerson, the old hero, who never faced a result in the Lanfranchi, or Huckstepp murders, was let off in my opinion when the New South Wales Government rolled the legal system (deciding what evidence to give the police prosecutor) to have the jury believe the illusion they (the Government wanted to create).Similarly, Peter Ryan facing the Police Integrity Commission for questions about his involvement in the demise of the dysfunctional reform unit. Chess in the court (rolling the legal system).

Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994. 1994 May Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC').

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Native title recognised for Wik people in Cape York

After 10 years of negotiation, the Wik Aboriginal people of western Cape York finally have native title recognised over the majority of their traditional lands, at Aurukun, the Federal Court has handed down two native title determinations covering more than 12,000 square kilometres of land.

The Wik and Wikway people's 1994 native title claim formed the basis for the High Court's historic Wik decision in 1996 that native title could co-exist with pastoral leases. Today at a specially convened meeting in Aurukun, Federal Court judge Richard Cooper handed down the first two native title determinations to cover pastoral leases In Queensland.

The determination was reached through negotiations with pastoralists, state and federal governments and other interest groups. Cape York pastoralists, say they are happy to have reached the agreement with the Wik people.

D'Arcy Byrnes from Holroyd Station says today's decision will not change the way he manages his business.

"Life won't change on our property, we'll just keep carrying on what we're doing," he said.

"If the traditional owners want to come in and go hunting or fishing they're welcome, so long as they don't go where we're working."


By Sorry 13 October 04

Related:

Poverty cycle must be addressed: Ridgeway
The Democrats' Aden Ridgeway says Prime Minister John Howard should stop beating up on people who are on welfare, and focus on solving the national Indigenous unemployment rate.

The congress has declared Townsville racist..
The Mayor of Townsville, in north Queensland, has dismissed accusations the city is racist. The National Indigenous Human Rights Congress says Townsville authorities are condoning racial hatred.

"MESSAGE STICK" NEWSLETTER:
"Message Stick": the newsletter of Senator Aden Ridgeway, Australian Democrats Senator for NSW.

AMA calls for extra health funding for Aborigines
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is asking for an extra $450 million a year to be spent on the health needs of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders.

Whitewash over Hickey's death
The New South Wales coroner has cleared police of any responsibility for the death of Aboriginal teenager Thomas 'TJ' Hickey.

Governments urged to change race hate laws
The Ethnic Communities Council of Australia is calling on the state and federal governments to amend racial vilification laws in response to a reported race hate campaign at Newcastle University.

Prisoner's right to vote attacked again!
Prisoner's right to vote attacked again! Tell Labor not to support the bill!

Labor to request Senate inquiry into ATSIC's future
The Federal Opposition has announced it will call for a Senate inquiry into the Government's plan to abolish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).

Forum on refugee and indigenous human rights
The long-term mandatory detention of asylum seekers not only breaches multiple UN treaties to which Australia is a signatory, it goes against the principals of any decent and humane society.

The Young Man From Kamilaroi
On Monday, 5 July 2004, the Hickey Family and their supporters will come together in the Glebe Coroners Court with the Redfern Police, the same police, specifically unknown at this time, who pursued the Young Man to his death by impalement.

Reconciliation dreaming
Djerrkura had witnessed the collapse of ATSIC, which he led from 1996 to 1999, with sadness. Despite the peak indigenous organisation's flaws, which he did not deny, its abolition, he said, had been done in "the classic imperial fashion, without negotiation, without understanding and with little empathy". He noted that as early as December 2001 he had called on his successor Geoff Clark to resign for the good of the organisation. But he reserved his harshest words for John Howard.

Amnesty sees lack of progress on reconciliation
Amnesty International says the Federal Government must be held accountable for its commitments to Indigenous services.

The bone has been pointed at Howard
A Queensland Indigenous leader says an ancient Aboriginal curse placed on Prime Minister John Howard is no laughing matter and could even have deadly consequences.

Australian Govt human rights record 'worsening'
Community groups have given the Federal Government five out of ten for its record on human rights this year. Mr Purcell said the Government was also marked down because of the policy of holding children in immigration detention centres.