Past Programs
Aboriginal - 2008
Report Card on progress in Indigenous Affairs
12/11/2008
The Rudd government came to power almost a year ago with high expectations for change and engagement with Indigenous Australia.
Tonight in Adelaide the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, will deliver his report on the government's progress. It's a mixed bag, ranging from 'some terrific initiatives and hefty commitments' to 'inaction, lack of thought and serious and worrying contradictions.' In addition, constitutional change, compensation for the Stolen Generations and a national Indigenous representative body, a new ATSIC, are all seen as crucial to real and lasting progress in Indigenous Affairs.
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Aboriginal groups in the Pilbara calling for greater share in iron ore
31/10/2008
Fortescue Metal's Andrew Forest has now launched his plan for corporate Australia to employ 50,000 Aboriginal people over two years. But Aboriginal people in the Pilbara say in their part of the world a job is not always the answer. They also argue they should have a greater share of the enormous profits from the iron ore mining in the region.
Compulsory income management to continue in NT intervention
24/10/2008
Compulsory income management will continue under the Northern Territory intervention, despite a recent review team recommendation to the federal government that it be made voluntary.
The Indigenous Affairs minister, Jenny Macklin, says the scheme will remain in place while a new program is developed over the next year. Until now, the income program has been able to operate because the Racial Discrimination Act has been suspended. Ms Macklin says the plan is for a program that would be allowable under the Act.
Calls to apply income management to all government payment recipients
30/09/2008
Dr Bill Glasson, the former Australian Medical Association president and member of the Northern Territory Intervention Taskforce, says income management has been so successful it should be applied across the board. Dr Glasson is delivering a speech tonight at the Brisbane Institute. But he has dismissed the government's plan to link school attendance to welfare payments saying that won't work, and more positive incentives are needed.
Indigenous Governance Awards
29/08/2008
Among the bad news headlines we see too often, there is good news in Indigenous Australia; strong leadership, effective partnerships and brave, creative thinking. Today in Melbourne, that excellence will be recognised. Eight Indigenous organisations from around Australia will be battling it out as finalists in the Indigenous Governance Awards. One of the finalists is the South-West Aboriginal Medical Service in Bunbury, Western Australia.
Sea claim win clashes with the NT election
31/07/2008
The High Court's decision to grant exclusive control over water in the intertidal zone to land rights claimants in Arnhem Land has thrown a spanner in the works as the Northern Territory heads to the polls next month.
Anniversary of Northern Territory intervention
20/06/2008
This time last year debate was raging across the country after the release of the Little Children are Sacred report, which revealed harrowing details of child sexual abuse in Northern Territory Aboriginal Communities. Almost overnight the federal government launched the Northern Territory Emergency Response, sending in the army and doctors to carry out mass health checks in 73 communities. But report co-author Rex Wild says not all has been well with the intervention.
$19m federal response to SA Indigenous abuse report
07/05/2008
Extra police, child protection workers, and decent housing -- that's the $19 million federal response to yet another distressing report on Indigenous child sexual abuse -- but this time from South Australia. Former Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan's 266-page report found 'widespread' abuse going back to the 1980s on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjtjatjara (APY) lands in the remote north-west of South Australia. Tabled in State Parliament yesterday, the report made 46 recommendations to break what Commissioner Mullighan described as a culture of fear and violence. Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin joins us from her home in Melbourne.
