A withering Ombudsman’s report tabled in the NT Parliament is scathing about the recent failures of the Child Protection Agency and its master department to protect the Territory’s vulnerable children. The report calls into question whether the NT publi…
Before the next election, Australians are meant to vote in a referendum to recognise Indigenous people in a preamble to the Constitution. But more than that needs to be done, former High Court judge Michael Kirby says, to rid Australia’s founding docume…
‘Twenty years on, not enough has changed,’ says Eddie Cubillo,delivering the Elliott Johnston tribute lecture for 2011 in Adelaide. An Aboriginal man and the NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Cubillo describes the impact on his son as they return to…
The Chief Justice of the NT, Trevor Riley, has told a high-powered audience at the ceremonial 100th opening of the NT Supreme Court that Aborigines are discriminated against in Commonwealth law. This statement directly contradicts what the Australia…
Social injustice, persistent disadvantage and racism are causing serious mental health problems for Indigenous people, Dr Maria Tomasic says in the lead-up to the annual conference of A-NZ psychiatrists. Dr Tomasic, president of their college (and also…
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has called for politicians to abandon short term political goals and treat asylum seekers and Indigenous disadvantage through a human rights-based approach. After a six-day visit here, she is also…
The Editor, The Age: ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremonies on public occasions in Victoria and nationally are a respectful gesture to the Aboriginal people, as they acknowledge past custodianship of the land.
No-one in the Queensland Police made any mistake whatsover in connection with the death in a cell on Palm Island of Mulrunji Doomadgee, or in the years of investigations and coronial inquests and court cases which followed. Oh to be a Queensland police…
Restorative justice aims to help victims of crime, turn prisoners into contributors, make prisons better for everyone, and send convicted criminals back into the community to NOT re-offend. Why isn’t it in use everywhere? Brian Steels explains how it wo…
If you can’t hear properly, communication is inevitably confused. New research indicates that very large numbers of Indigenous prisoners in Australia may not be able to properly hear what police officers and other authority figures say to them.