Pusey, Lisa --- "Recent Happenings" [2003] IndigLawB 33; (2003) 5(24) Indigenous Law Bulletin 24
Recent Happenings
by Lisa Pusey
1 April 2003
The Western Australian Government has said that they will grant freehold title over 50,000 hectares of Crown land in the East Kimberley, if the traditional Aboriginal owners agree to settle their native title claim over 6,000 square kilometers of land in northern Western Australian (‘WA’) and the Northern Territory. The Miriuwong-Gajerrong people lodged their claim nine years ago. It is still unresolved despite entering the Federal and High Courts.
1 April 2003
Executive officer of the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, Mr Paul Delphin, has called for an immediate inquiry into prison health and punishments after visiting Bandyup Women’s Prison in WA. Mr Delphin alleges that prisoners are denied medical treatment and the right to complain. He said ‘it appears that sections of the Prisons Act 1981 (WA) which refer to medical treatment are just ignored’.
9 April 2003
An Indigenous Land Use Agreement (‘ILUA’) was endorsed at the Northern Land Council’s 84th full Council meeting allowing the establishment of a women’s safe-house in Borroloola in the Northern Territories Gulf Country. This followed agreement between traditional owners and the Northern Territory Government. The ILUA will be between traditional owners and the Mabunji Aboriginal Resource Centre for 25 years, with native title rights retained as part of the deal.
11 April 2003
An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (‘ATSIC’) submission to the South Australian (‘SA’) Governments poverty inquiry has called for the abolishment of prison sentences of 6 months or less. ATSIC argues that the number of Aborigines jailed each year would drop by 40 per cent. Aboriginal people currently make up 25 per cent of all ‘prison receptions’ in SA despite accounting for only 2 per cent of the population. ATSIC argued that Aboriginal families experience ‘chronic financial burdens’ when family members are imprisoned. It estimated that 40 per cent of Aboriginal families live in poverty compared with 17 per cent of non-Aboriginal families.
11 April 2003
A 23-year-old Aboriginal man has died in New South Wales (‘NSW’) Police custody nearly three weeks after he should have been released. NSW Justice Minister John Hatzistergos stated that due to an administrative error made by the Parole Board Secretariat staff the balance of the inmate's sentence was miscalculated. The man was serving time for driving offences and theft offences at the John Morony Correctional Centre at Windsor. Mr Hatzistergos said that it is not known whether the man was aware of the miscalculation. A coronial enquiry will be held into the man’s death.
18 April 2003
From 1 July 2003 ATSIC’s elected members will no longer be able to allocate funds from its annual $1.1 billion budget, but will remain policy makers. Control of ATSIC finances will be passed to a new agency called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Service, formed from ATSIC’S existing bureaucracy, and headed by ATSIC chief executive Wayne Gibbons.
24 April 2003
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (‘UN’) has called for the word ‘Nigger’ to be removed from the name of a sports stand in Toowoomba. Mr Stephan Hagan, an Aboriginal man from Toowoomba, petitioned the UN following the dismissal of applications to the Federal and High Courts last year, which held the word did not breach the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth). Mr Hagan stated that his position has been vindicated by the UN’s recommendation that the name is racially offensive and should be removed.
28 April 2003
A 27-year-old man, from the Cape York Aboriginal community of Hopevale in Queensland, hung himself in the back of a police wagon after being arrested following a domestic dispute. The man was arrested by ‘community police officers’ from Cooktown police who were Aboriginal. Cooktown police said the man was placed by himself in the rear cabin of a police vehicle for the duration of the 35 minute journey to Cooktown police station. The man was found dead on arrival. Indigenous Social Justice Alliance President Ray Jackson said the circumstances surrounding the man’s death made it different from other deaths in custody because it was ‘his own mob carting him around’. Mr Jackson commented on the limited training of community police officers, stating that ‘as far as the recommendations of the [Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody] go, I don't think [the community police] would even know them’.
30 April 2003
A 7 year old boy in Taree in New South Wales (‘NSW) suffered from severe burns after setting himself on fire while sniffing petrol. Aboriginal social worker Wally Villaflorche said that ‘many of the kids who get into trouble here just don't have any direction
in their life’. He said ‘they are bored’ and they enter a ‘vicious cycle’ of ‘drinking, doing drugs and smoking marijuana’.
9 April 2003
The Carnarvon Shire Council in WA may restrict alcohol sales in Carnarvon in a move to address violence and anti-social behaviour. The restriction will be modelled on similar initiatives to those taken by Port Hedland, which will soon reduce the available hours for buying alcohol and restrict the volume and strength of liquor available per person.
13 April 2003
Indigenous Australians link to Namadgi National Park in the Australian Capital Territory (‘ACT’) will be given greater recognition under a new management direction being developed by Environment ACT. Executive Director Dr Maxine Cooper said an interim management board with five indigenous members had been established to help with the development of the management plan