Youth Affairs Network of Queensland (YANQ) director Siyavash Doostkhah slammed the Queensland Government for walking all over children's rights. The announcement today that the Queensland Government will continue to lock up children in adult prisons is simply unacceptable. Queensland children are the only children in Australia to be locked up in adult prisons.

This is YANQ's submission to the Department of Communities regarding their strategic plan for 2006-2010.

Download the submission:  sbmssn_-_doc_strategic_plan_2006-2010_0906 256.00 Kb

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) has provided a toolkit for young people to evaluate national youth policy.

On Thursday 20 September the Australian Government launched a web site that provides  information on mental health and wellbeing, including information on the Government's mental health programs, health and employment programs, funding opportunities, publications, and policies (e.g. the Personal Support Employment).

You can find the site is at http://www.mentalhealth.gov.au.

Earlier in August (2007) the Federal Government (with the Oppositions approval) passed the legislation that overrides the Racial Discrmination Act and allows Indigenous Land to be 'acquired', again.  Members of the Social Action Office were in Canberra at the time.  Here's their account:

Queensland Shelter convened a meeting shortly after the Queensland Affordable Housing Strategy was announced by the Queensland Government. The purpose of this meeting was to develop a preliminary sector response to the Strategy.

Download the response from: http://www.qshelter.asn.au/files/v2 response to qgov strategy on affordable housing.doc.

If you would like to take action related to the Federal Government's takeover of Indigenous Communities , consider the following sites:

• For information on the campaign to achieve comparable health outcomes for Indigenous Australians see the Close the Gap campaign by GetUp:  http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/CloseTheGap&id=28.  The campaign is based on a Policy Briefing Paper produced by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and Oxfam Australia.  (For a copy of the Paper see: http://www.oxfam.org.au/media/files/CTG.pdf).
• ACOSS has developed an email letter, loosely based on the Combined Aboriginal Organisations' response, which you can send to your local Federal MP and State/Territory Senators through http://www.acoss.org.au/Action.aspx
• SNAICC (the national peak body for Indigenous children) is asking people to write personal letters to key decision makers.  Their paper suggests some of the main points you might want to make!  See their paper on Developing a National Response to Child Abuse and Neglect (release 12 July 2007).
• Governments SAY they are committed to strengthening Aboriginal communities so they can live in peace and harmony ... but then take away their power when it comes to caring for their land. We can't have it both ways!  Supporting traditional owners' right to protect their land is inextricably linked to enabling communities to address issues such as child abuse.  Please think about signing, and circulating, this petition to help support Kokatha Traditional Owners in maintaining fresh water in the Artesian Basin.  To sign the petition: http://www.geocities.com/healthykokatha For mor information contact: healthykokotha@yahoo.com.au

Source: Suzi Quixley

Non-Aboriginal contractors at the Territory’s largest Aboriginal town, Yuendumu, three weeks ago bulldozed a corrugated iron shelter, home to a couple and their seven month old daughter. The object of the exercise? To build a residence for one of the federally-funded outside employees being parachuted into some 70-odd Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Read the rest of this article by Anna Lamboys at Crikey - http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20070926-Broughs-bulldozing-backyard-blitz.html.

In the last week of June 2007 the Commonwealth Government announced it was taking 'emergency measures' to overcome violence, child abuse and alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory.

For information on
Places to take action
click here.

The measures being taken were in response to the Northern Territory Government's report entitled Little children are sacred: Report of the NT Board of Inquiry into the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse.

The response to the Prime Minister's announcement has been mixed.  Below we include some of these responses.

During the last week of August (2007) a number of articles appeared on Crikey , claiming that as part of the Federal Takeover of Indigenous Communities in the Northern Territory, the Commonwealth Government plans to seize assets of Aboriginal organisations and rent those same assets back to them.  Crikey also reports that roughly 8,000 Indigenous workers employed under CDEP programs will be effectively fired, moved onto social security payments instead and new jobs founds for only 2000 of them.

Saving children's lives is a matter of long-term will

You can't protect children without supporting and involving their community, argues FIONA STANLEY, director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.

Read Fiona Stanley's full argument at http://www.apo.org.au/webboard/comment_results.chtml?filename_num=170255.

Suzi Quixley has worked in the Human Services industry for 30+ years.  On her website Suzi has compiled a range of responses to the Federal Takeover of Indigenous Communities and other relevant papers.

You can access Suzi's list at http://www.suziqconsulting.com.au/invasion_of_aboriginal_communities.htm.  The articles which Suzi has listed that are not included in YANQ's own collection of responses, are listed below (with Suzi's own words).

The Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the NT (CAO-NT) have responded to the Federal Government's interventions to address child abuse in the NT.

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission's (NATSIEC) position statement on Child abuse intervention by Federal Government.

NATSIEC completely supports action to end child abuse, wherever it is found. We have long been calling on the Government to hear the pleas of Aboriginal people and to take action to assist them in addressing the woeful conditions that plague their communities; to address issues of lack of health care, lack of proper education, lack of adequate housing and the high rate of violence, abuse and alcohol related issues. While it is tragic that these Aboriginal voices have been ignored for so long and are now being characterized as being part of the failure, we see this change of heart from the Federal Government as an opportunity to make a real and dramatic improvement to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Howard's New Tampa - Aboriginal Children Overboard

By Jennifer Martiniello.

Howard's new Tampa children overboard are our Aboriginal children. The Little Children are Sacred report does not advocate physically and psychologically invasive examinations of Aboriginal children, which could only be carried out anally and vaginally. It does not recommend scrapping the permit system to enter Aboriginal lands, nor does it recommend taking over Aboriginal 'towns' by enforced leases. These latter two points in the Howard scheme hide the true reason for the Federal Government's use of the latest report for blatant political opportunism.

Comparing the Recommendations to the Government's Response

IAN ANDERSON compares the federal government's response to the Little Children Are Sacred report with the authors' recommendations.

Media Release from the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Care (SNAICC)

Released 22 June 2007

SNAICC Chairperson Ms Muriel Bamblett has called for proper consultation by the federal government with Indigenous child and family services, expressing concerns that the policies the government will put in place are not the comprehensive child protection plan required to turn around abuse in remote communities.

Open letter to The Hon. Mal Brough MP

Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600 

Dear Minister Brough

The undersigned organisations write this joint and open letter in order to convey our views on action required to stop the abuse of children in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, and our concerns about aspects of the Australian Government's response to this problem as outlined in your statement of 21 June 2007.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Race Discrimination Commissioner Tom Calma

This statement was made on June 22, 2007.

I have been calling for governments to turn commitments into action so I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to tackle violence and child and alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. I, like all Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, want to see every Indigenous child enjoying the basic right to live free from violence in a safe and supportive home and community.

According to a recent report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Australian governments are failing their obligation to implement the right to adequate housing.

The report calls for immediate action to remedy a national housing crisis that is affecting not just the homeless and the poor, but also increasingly low and middle income households.