Thorpe 'wrong about racial takeover'

[Hannah Bell]

July 30, 2009
Article from: Australian Associated Press

IAN Thorpe should stick to swimming. That's the advice Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson had for the Olympian, who has attacked both the NT and Federal Governments over their handling of indigenous affairs.

Together with Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson and other prominent Australians, Thorpe has accused Labor of racial discrimination over its negotiations on the future of the troubled town camps of Alice Springs.

In a full page ad in a national newspaper, the group today said Aborigines had been bullied into handing over their land in exchange for essential services.

The ad ran a day after Tangentyere Council signed a 40-year lease worth $100 million in an 11th-hour move to avoid a Commonwealth takeover of the notorious hotspots for crime, violence and substance abuse.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25858063-5006790,00.html



Stay granted on Alice town camp leases

July 30, 2009

A Federal Court judge has granted a temporary stay on new sub-leases over Aboriginal town camps in Alice Springs.

The Federal Government wants housing administrators to sign 40-year sub-leases on the camps and has threatened them with compulsory acquisition.

Lawyer Jonathan Beach, QC, told the court the sub-leases were disadvantageous for those living in the town camps and for the housing associations that run them. He said that under the proposed agreements, the rent money from the camps that now goes to the housing associations would instead be given to the Federal Government.

But a Government lawyer argued any delay would affect the $100 million the Government had promised to spend on improving housing.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/30/2641422.htm?section=australia



Abbott 'derelict in his duty': Brough
July 24, 2009

The former Indigenous affairs minister, Mal Brough, has criticised fellow Liberal Tony Abbott for refusing to comment on a controversial Aboriginal housing scheme because of a book deal.

The Government has allocated $672 million to build hundreds of houses in remote Indigenous communities under the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program .

But the Government has been under fire after it emerged that the program, which has been underway for more than a year, has yet to result in the construction of a single house.

The ABC this week revealed a secret 2008 memo from Labor Senator Ursula Stephens to the Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, warning that the program would not result in any houses being built before 2011.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/24/2635147.htm?section=justin



Minister may quit over NT housing

July 24, 2009


NORTHERN Territory Aboriginal Affairs Minister Alison Anerson has threatened to quit the Labor party in protest over the Rudd government's "appalling" handling of a $700 million remote housing package that she labelled a "big farce".

"It was quite openly told to us that there will be 15 per cent administrative costs going to government, 40 per cent for the alliance (building) partners, and another 15 per cent for indirect costs, whatever that is," Ms Anderson told The Australian yesterday. "That leaves 30 per cent that will hit the ground.

"I was absolutely appalled. I said, 'Here we go again'. We talk about closing the gap in indigenous inequality and indigenous housing, and here we are creaming off so much money in administrative costs. I will not take that and I am prepared to walk on that issue." ...Ms Anderson -- who was central to negotiations to forcibly acquire the camps -- said that not one new house would be built at a town camp under the funding package. "I'm not prepared to stand by anybody compulsorily acquiring land just for repairs and maintenance," Ms Anderson said.

In the Territory, Labor last month lost its majority in the parliament when former deputy chief minister Marion Scrymgour quit the party in protest over outstations policy. If Ms Anderson also quits, it could result in a change of government...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25826888-601,00.html



NT pedophile ring claims unfounded
July 5, 2009

AN INVESTIGATION by Australia's main crime-fighting agency has found no evidence of organised pedophilia in Northern Territory indigenous communities.

The finding by the Australian Crime Commission demolishes one of the central claims used by the Howard government to support its controversial NT intervention.

In the now-discredited claims that underlined his push for the 2007 intervention, then-indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough, along with some commentators, claimed there were "pedophile rings" in the Northern Territory.

But in an interview with The Sunday Age, crime commission chief John Lawler said his agency's 18-month multimillion-dollar investigation had determined there was "not organised pedophilia in indigenous communities".

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/nt-pedophile-ring-claims-unfounded-20090705-d8nb.html

[murielm99]

1. Interesting.

I wonder what this will do to Thorpe's reputation.

My SIL married an Aussie. She has lived there for upward of thirty-five years. I know the aborigines are always a hot topic.

Thank you for keeping us informed about something that most Americans would never have known about.

[Karenina]

2. There's uranium in them thar hills...