Stuck on Manus Island

Isolated and desperate, refugees tell their stories.

US Gun Control

Jim Jefferies - Full show

Indigenous Australians

Well into the 20th century, Indigenous Australians were – both in Australia itself and in many other countries – the subject of widespread crude racist stereotyping. For example, the American birth control campaigner Margaret Sanger could write casually: "The aboriginal Australian, the lowest known species of the human family, just a step higher than the chimpanzee in brain development, has so little sexual control that police authority alone prevents him from obtaining sexual satisfaction on the streets" (What Every Girl Should Know, 1920).

By the end of World War II, many Indigenous men had served in the military. They were among the few Indigenous Australians to have been granted citizenship; even those that had were obliged to carry papers, known in the vernacular as a "dog licence", with them to prove it. However, Aboriginal pastoral workers in northern Australia remained unfree labourers, paid only small amounts of cash, in addition to rations, and severely restricted in their movements by regulations and/or police action. On 1 May 1946, Aboriginal station workers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia initiated the 1946 Pilbara strike and never returned to work. Mass layoffs across northern Australia followed the Federal Pastoral Industry Award of 1968, which required the payment of a minimum wage to Aboriginal station workers, as they were not paid by the Pastoralist discretion, many however were not and those who were had their money held by the government. Many of the workers and their families became refugees or fringe dwellers, living in camps on the outskirts of towns and cities.

In 1984, a group of Pintupi people who were living a traditional hunter-gatherer desert-dwelling life were tracked down in the Gibson Desert in Western Australia and brought into a settlement. They are believed to have been the last uncontacted tribe in Australia.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and more on Wikipedia

Thousands drawn to Australia-wide protests against government policies

Thousands of Australians have taken to the streets this weekend to protest against a range of Federal Government policies. The March in March protests started in regional centres yesterday and stepped up in major capital cities today.

Protesters say they are non-partisan, but united in frustration with the Abbott Government's approach on numerous policy issues. Demonstrators waving placards have today voiced anger on issues including climate change, the treatment of asylum seekers, marriage equality, the tax system and media ownership. Coordinators gave massive estimates of crowds in Melbourne and Hobart, and Sydney police say about 10,000 braved the rain in the city.

More on Yahoo!7

Riot at Australian Papua New Guinea detention centre leaves asylum seeker dead

An asylum seeker has been killed and at least 77 injured in the second riot this week at a detention centre in Papua New Guinea used to process asylum seekers, Australia's Immigration Minister said.

One person was in critical condition with a head injury and another sustained gunshot wounds during the clashes on a small island in impoverished Papua New Guinea.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the riot began when detainees forced their way out of the centre, but refugee advocates insist it was sparked when Manus Island residents and police stormed the facility, attacking the asylum seekers.

The facility is part of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's tough stance against asylum seekers but it has come under fire over human rights concerns.

The Independent

How Corporations Are Cashing In On The Worldwide Immigration Crackdown

Nearly a decade ago, Australian authorities discovered major problems inside detention centers run by a private, for-profit company entrusted with immigrants locked up for entering the country illegally.

The company, Global Solutions Ltd. -- now owned by the British corporation G4S, the world's largest security firm -- was failing to administer care to detainees with serious health problems, according to a government investigation. A separate inquiry found that guards transporting detainees on a seven-hour drive had denied them food, water and access to bathrooms, ignoring pleas for help.

Amid public outcry over the investigation and protests by detainees who set fires and rioted at a detention center, the Australian government gradually phased out its contracts with the company. But as it now intensifies a crackdown on undocumented immigrants entering its waters, yielding growing numbers of detainees, the government has again turned to G4S to manage the flow.

More on The World Post

Australian billionaire calls for sterilization of the poor

Conservative billionaire Gina Rinehart called for the sterilization of the poor today, arguing that the only way to alleviate poverty is to stop the "underclasses" from multiplying. In a video uploaded to her official YouTube account, the Australian mining heiress said that income inequality is caused by differences in intelligence, and eugenics is the only answer.

"Our nation faces a grave economic crisis as the combination of a strong Australian dollar and falling commodity prices sap our ability to compete globally," she explained, "the only logical solution to this crisis is to strengthen the quality of our most precious resource: human capital.

"I believe that any couple making less than $100,000 a year should be forcibly sterilized through a vasectomy or fallopian tubal ligation. Those earning more than $100,000 a year should be encouraged to have as many as 10 or 12 children.

Rinehart is the richest person in Australia and ranks as one of the wealthiest women in the world. Most of her fortune comes from a mining company she inherited from her father and later built into a leading exporter of iron ore.

The Daily Currant

Secrets and lies – the double life of Prisoner X

He was "a double agent working for Iran"; he was "responsible for the botched operation in a Dubai hotel in 2010" in which Mossad agents killed a senior Hamas commander; he was "just a loud mouth who couldn't keep quiet" about being a member of Israel's secret service. These are some of the many theories about why Ben Zygier, or "Prisoner X" as he was known until last week, was held in Israel's most secure prison for a few months before apparently killing himself in December 2010. His detention was kept so secret that even his guards didn't know his name; his presumed crime so grave that even his family haven't gone public about his case.

More on The Independent

ASIO has been blamed as having a part hand in the death of Australian "prisoner X" Ben Zygier after allegedly leaking information of his work as a Mossad agent to the press.

Israel today sought to defend its jailing of Australian "prisoner X" Ben Zygier by declaring it a case of pikuach nefesh - the Jewish imperative to save lives at all cost. Vice Premier and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon said today Israel’s "unique" security situation sometimes called for "extreme measures" and that the secret jailing of alleged Mossad agent Zygier was critical.

news.com.au

Melbourne bus racist abuse video puts Australian attitudes on trial

Police in the Australian city of Melbourne are investigating the racist abuse of a French-speaking woman travelling on a bus in which she was told by a man to "speak English or die". The verbal abuse, captured on video by another passenger, shows a second man threatening to cut the woman with a knife.

"I'll fucking boxcutter you right now, you bitch, if you talk to my missus like that," said the male passenger, who was pushing a baby buggy, during the footage, which sparked national discussion on the level of racism in Australia. To varying degrees all Australian states and territories have laws against racial vilification.

Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, has large migrant communities and the spread of the video is a setback for the image it cultivates of being Australia's most culturally sophisticated metropolitan centre. Media outlets described the incident as "shocking" and an ugly racist attack. One columnist described the perpetrators of the abuse as idiots who were being "caught on camera to their shame, and to our international embarrassment".

The Guardian

Friends of Israel — Enemies Inside the Gates

Recently, political pressure has been brought to bear against a trades unionist for attempting to express his views about the events of 9/11, on Australia's publicly funded broadcaster, the ABC. This video redresses the balance, and makes it clear that Australia's prime minister is either ignorant, beyond belief, or she is putting the interests of nuclear, Apartheid Israel ahead of Australia's.

YouTube

Australian Now Spies on Its Citizens More than the US Does

The Australian Government has now been labelled as the most intrusive government in the Western world.
It has been revealed that on a per-capita basis, the Australian government spies on its citizens more than any other Western government.

In 2010-2011, more than 3,400 Australians had been spied on by more than 17 government law enforcement agencies. This includes state and federal police agencies, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and Medicare.
The shocking truth is that these government agencies can access telephone and Internet data records without a warrant from a judge.
On a per capita basis, the Australian government is 18 times more likely to intercept telephone calls than the United States government (Source: Sydney Morning Herald).
Even more disturbing, these government agencies accessed telephone and Internet data records an astonishingly 250,000 times without even recording why and when these intercepts had taken place.

Activist Post

“Trespassing” on Australian Civil Liberties

Following the police crack down on a BDS protest in Australia last year, a court has found pro-Palestinian activists innocent of a series of charges laid against them, including “trespass in a public place.”

The Real News – Max Brenner on Wikipedia - Golani Brigade

Calls to end detention of children in Australia

To mark 20 years of mandatory detention for asylum seekers in Australia, an international campaign has been launched to end the imprisonment of children. Australia is the only first world country with a policy of mandatory indefinite detention for asylum seekers who arrive by boat. Up to 4,000 people are held under this policy. Campaigners say locking children up in prison is unnecessary, unethical and harmful.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas reports from Melbourne.

 

Al Jazeera English

Australian PM dragged away after being trapped by protesters

The Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, had to be extracted from a restaurant near Parliament House as angry protesters banged on the glass.

Supporters of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra picketed the Lobby restaurant over comments by Mr Abbott this morning that the tent embassy should close. As many as 200 gathered in front of the restaurant, banging on its glass walls and yelling "shame" and "racist".

The Age

Closer US-Australia security ties irk China

China has reacted angrily to remarks by Barack Obama signalling a significant shift in US policy vis-a-vis Asia.

The US president has pledged not to let his country's budget crisis compromise its strategic vision and military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
His commitment came a day after the US said it would deploy up to 2,500 troops to northern Australia and strengthen air force co-operation, causing a strong reaction from China, whose rapid rise is reorienting Asia's strategic balance.
In a message aimed both at a region he sees as vital to the US economic future and politicians at home, Obama told the Australian parliament on Thursday the Asia-Pacific was too vital to fall prey to US penny-pinching.
"As the United States puts our fiscal house in order, we are reducing our spending," Obama said, cautioning that reductions in funding for the US military machine were inevitable after years of huge spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Here is what this region must know. As we end today's wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia-Pacific a top priority.

Al Jazeera English

Occupy Melbourne calls for inquiry into police violence

Occupy Melbourne released the statement below on October 21 following a brutal police attack on protesters earlier that day.

Occupy Melbourne have called for a full inquiry into unlawful police behaviour amid scenes of police violence on the streets of Melbourne today. The call comes after riot police disrupted a peaceful demonstration in Melbourne’s CBD.

“We call on Premier Ted Ballieu and Lord Mayor Robert Doyle to back a full and independent investigation into the use of unlawful and excessive force by Victoria Police and the Melbourne City Council,” said Occupy Melbourne spokesperson Erin Buckley.

Green Left Weekly

Australian Aboriginals suffer from NTI

Australian Aboriginal peoples are still suffering from the ongoing Northern Territory Intervention (NTI), an indigenous policy by the government which has been heavily criticized by the UN.

The NTI is a package of legislation, targeted directly at Aboriginal peoples but passed without adequate consultation with those people. The legislation restricts and removes a range of human rights with the purported aims of improving development outcomes and protecting children from abuse. It has a broad discriminatory impact on affected Aboriginal people, limiting their rights to property, social security, adequate standards of living, health and education, self-determination, work, child rights and remedies. (PressTV)

More on Australian Aboriginal People’s Health Crisis on Mijiza’s Blog

Australian carbon tax

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned not every Australian will be better off financially from compensation measures to offset the impact of the federal government's carbon tax.

Ms Gillard said while most funds to be raised by the impost will be used for income tax cuts, pension increases and higher family payments, the government still had to balance its budget. 'Not everyone will be financially better off - there is no money tree,' she said in an address to the nation broadcast on the country's major television networks on Sunday evening.

The government on Sunday announced details of the tax, which will make about 500 big polluters pay an initial $23 for every tonne of carbon they put into the atmosphere. The tax, due to start on July 1, 2012, will rise by 2.5 per cent a year until the pricing mechanism shifts to a market-based emissions trading scheme three years later.

Also see the More Stories on Sky News - People's revolt looms on Australian carbon tax (The Australian)

Carbon taxes around the world

Australia halts cattle exports to Indonesia

The Australian government says it has suspended all cattle exports to neighbouring Indonesia after an outcry over alleged abusive treatment of livestock in the country.
Joe Ludwig, Australia's agriculture minister, said on Wednesday that the suspension would remain until Indonesia establishes new regulations to protect livestock from mistreatment.
"Last night I ordered the complete suspension of all livestock exports to Indonesia for the purposes of slaughter, until new safeguards are established for the trade," he said.

Al Jazeera English

2020

Jim Jefferies shares his vision of the world in 2020 with his imaginary grandson..