YouDecide2007 - Brough's attacks show government as authoritarian and paternalistic

Home

Brough's attacks show government as authoritarian and paternalistic

By Tracee McPate,

Democrats Indigenous Affairs Spokesperson, Senator Andrew Bartlett has criticised Minister Mal Brough’s excessively aggressive approach towards critics of the federal government's intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

The Minister has even made the absurd call for the Territory Families Minister, Marion Scrymgour, to resign for daring to raise concerns about the effectiveness of the intervention.

"Mr Brough seems to believe that everybody except himself is out of touch with what is happening on the ground, even Aboriginal people who have lived in the Territory their whole lives,” Senator Bartlett said.

"No one doubts Mr Brough's concern for the wellbeing of children, but he must balance his passion with some reason, and recognise the fact that people other than him also have expertise as well as passion.

"The fact that Mr Brough so viciously attacks anyone daring to question any aspect of the government's intervention is just another example that this government has stopped listening to anyone, especially since they gained control of the Senate.

“We have had this bully boy tactic for months now - anyone who disagrees even in part with what the government is doing is smeared as aiding and abetting paedophiles.

"It is completely offensive and is an example of the culture of extremism that has permeated the Howard government since seizing control of the Senate. The Prime Minister should show leadership on this issue since he is reaching out to Indigenous people and pull his Minister into line.

"This is precisely why we need to return to an independent, common sense approach in the Senate - to guard against extremist, blinkered attitudes, and to force proper scrutiny of the facts, rather than resorting to intimidation and brute force of numbers to push through actions without proper planning and examination.

"While the Democrats support some intervention measures, we remain concerned that inadequate resourcing and planning risks creating a wasted opportunity. The latest reports show a new surge in the number of children attending school in the NT, but schools are not equipped with adequate classrooms, proper equipment and teacher numbers to handle this influx.

“The Democrats made recommendations during the Senate inquiry into the intervention bill recommending urgent funding for the building of community infrastructure in order to adequately deal with the measures in the legislation in the long term. This has not been done. There cannot be meaningful and sustainable change if you do not first provide the necessities,” Senator Bartlett concluded.

Users' Comments

Display 5 of 6 comments

Mal Brough's concern

By: Ideflitch (Registered ) on 25-10-2007 00:02

While Senator Andrew Bartlett doesn't doubt Mal Brough's concern for Aboriginal children, I certainly have my doubts.
I would like to quote an article written by Dr. Alison Bronwoski to show why I doubt his good intentions.
"In late June and early July, just as the Howard Government was dispatching the

army to Aboriginal communities to deal

with sexual abuse, the U.S. military was involved

for two weeks in northern Australia in

the biggest ever joint exercise, Talisman Sabre.

Most Australians saw no connection.

Military training areas, uranium mines, sites

for future nuclear waste dumps and now Aboriginal

land seized by the Commonwealth are

dots across the Australian map.

Several of them are connected by the

Adelaide-Darwin railway. Having been many

times promised, the $1.3 billion link from Alice

Springs to Darwin was surprisingly found viable

in 1999. By January, 2004, the train was

running. The only tenderer, according to research

at University of Technology Sydney, was

the FreightLink consortium led by Halliburton

(then headed by US vice-president Dick

Cheney), with state, territory and federal contributions.

FreightLink owns the railway and

can operate it for 50 years. It has contracted

UK firm Serco, to staff and service the train.

Serco, which manages British nuclear power

plants, gained a reputation in 2000 for sacking

workers without AWAs at Australian naval

bases in Jervis Bay.

In November, 2006, FreightLink was reported

to be facing its third annual loss in a row. It

tried to sell a majority stake in the railway for

$360 million, without success. The owners

promised to invest an additional $14 million

over three years, presumably betting on the

line's long-term profitability.

It must expect - or have been promised - the

railway will serve the potentially lucrative

nuclear and defence industries.

Between 2004 and 2006, the Australian and

U.S. governments announced more collaboration

between American forces and the ADF,

including missile defence (Star Wars) training,

and interoperability. Several defence facilities

in northern Australia have been built or expanded:

at Bradshaw and Delamere in the

Northern Territory, Shoalwater Bay in Queensland,

and Yampi Sound and Geraldton in

Western Australia. The railway pas

» Report this comment to administrator

2nd half of comment

By: Ideflitch (Registered ) on 25-10-2007 00:04

The railway would take uranium

ore to Darwin for export, enrichment and

fabrication, and bring it back to Port Augusta

as nuclear fuel for the reactor. The spent fuel

would then go back by rail to Darwin for export,

or return to the NT for disposal at a waste site.

The only "suitable" sites for disposal of

nuclear waste under federal government control

are in the NT. If the Commonwealth takes

control of as many as 80 Aboriginal communities

through five-year leases in the name of

protecting children, it will put vast land areas

at the Federal Government's discretion.

The Government has begun to repeal parts

of its 1999 legislation prohibiting nuclear activities.

But it is unlikely before the 2007

election to say where or how Australian nuclear

waste will be stored.

The U.S., meanwhile, has more than 47,000

tonnes of high-level nuclear waste to get rid

of, because its new site at Yucca Mountain,

Nevada, does not meet safety requirements.

The controlling American interest in the railway

indicates Australia will store American

waste too.

It takes more than the Ghan railway to

connect the dots in an election year. A lot more

is happening than Australians are being told.

Dr Alison Broinowski is a former Australian diplomat

and is now a visiting fellow at the Australian National

University's Faculty of Asian Studies. Her latest book

is Allied and Addicted.

» Report this comment to administrator

left with only disgust...

By: anne_elk (Registered ) on 25-10-2007 01:08

Thank you Ideflitch

Your comment gives me cold shivers.
I am disgusted.
I have put it on the front page of my website.
I hope this article is seen by EVERY AUSTRALIAN.

» Report this comment to administrator

Amended second comment.

By: Ideflitch (Registered ) on 25-10-2007 01:37

I'm afraid I left out some of the article in my second comment. Here is the amended version.
Sorry about that.

"The railway passes near

several bases, the biggest uranium deposits in

the world and the mines at Olympic Dam

(Roxby Downs), Beverley, Ranger and Honeymoon.

Freightlink's main business now is

transporting iron ore, manganese and uranium

to Darwin for export.

In June, 2006, just before Prime Minster John

Howard set up a nuclear power inquiry,

businessmen Hugh Morgan, Robert Champion

de Crespigny and Ron Walker registered Australian

Nuclear Energy.

It later emerged they had discussed with Mr

Howard a plan to build a nuclear plant near

Port Augusta. The railway would take uranium

ore to Darwin for export, enrichment and

fabrication, and bring it back to Port Augusta

as nuclear fuel for the reactor. The spent fuel

would then go back by rail to Darwin for export,

or return to the NT for disposal at a waste site.

The only "suitable" sites for disposal of

nuclear waste under federal government control

are in the NT. If the Commonwealth takes

control of as many as 80 Aboriginal communities

through five-year leases in the name of

protecting children, it will put vast land areas

at the Federal Government's discretion.

The Government has begun to repeal parts

of its 1999 legislation prohibiting nuclear activities.

But it is unlikely before the 2007

election to say where or how Australian nuclear

waste will be stored.

The U.S., meanwhile, has more than 47,000

tonnes of high-level nuclear waste to get rid

of, because its new site at Yucca Mountain,

Nevada, does not meet safety requirements.

The controlling American interest in the railway

indicates Australia will store American

waste too.

It takes more than the Ghan railway to

connect the dots in an election year. A lot more

is happening than Australians are being told."

Dr Alison Broinowski is a former Australian diplomat

and is now a visiting fellow at the Australian National

University's Faculty of Asian Studies. Her latest book

is Allied and Addicted.