Page 25 - Indiginous Australians

Mary Alp
consensus document asks Australians to change the constitution to give Indigenous Australians a say in the laws & policies that affect them’ – to end ‘the
108 Government level. Covid 19 is the focus.
torment of our powerlessness’.
This request is stalling somewhat at 109
As with Land claims, when we look at Indigenous/human rights we see that much has been achieved - Indigenous Australians received equal pay & welfare benefits. They also succeeded in undoing the legal fiction of terra nullius, were counted in the census, got the right to vote federally, & an apology for the stolen
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generation. But if we take the definition Human Rights as -‘a class of rights that
protect individuals freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, & private individuals, & that they ensure one’s entitlement to participate in the civil & political life of the society & state without discrimination or repression111- we then see that there is still a long way to go for many Indigenous Australians. If we expand the the definition of human rights to include rights - ‘based on principles of dignity, equality & mutual respect, which are
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shared across cultures, religions & philosophies , then we certainly fail again.
This is despite Australia being a signatory of the United Nations.
The result of this long history of Australia’s treatment of Indigenous people was summed up by two damning international reports - one by the United Nations Human Rights Council & the other by Oxfam. Both these 2017 reports are scathing assessments of the current Federal Government’s governance where - ‘ among other things – rates of Indigenous child removal, incarceration, the lack of government commitment to self-determination, health, education & employment still exists’. The UN Human Rights Committee report went as far as challenging the
108 The Sydney Moring Herald ,Nov. 2019, ‘Rachael Perkins calls of Australia to settle unfinished business’; ‘Wikipedia, Uluru Statement from the Heart’p2; Creative Spirits,’ The 2016 Redfern Statement’.
109 The Guardian,May 2020, ‘Ken Wyatt concedes referendum on Indigenous recognition unlikely before election’. 110 Education.abc.net ‘history of indigenous rights in Asutralia’.
111 Wikipedia, ‘Civil & political rights’.
112 Australian Human Rights Commission, ‘What are human rights?’
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Conclusion Human Rights