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Abbott rejects compliance with international law and rebuts the UN's standing

Clearly Tony Abbott has been fully briefed on a Queensland Supreme court decision Ngurampaa v Balonne Shire Council where the judge agreed with the Balonne Shire Council submission that Australia is not bound to the UN Charter. The most recent media comments by [Australian Prime Minister] Tony Abbott, self-styled 'Prime Minister for Indigenous Australia' demonstrate the voice and opinion of a tyrant, dressed up in a liberal suit. The racist comments by PM Abbott in response to Aboriginal opposition to being forcibly removed form their lands resonates in the most negative of ways. As the ABC reported: "Yesterday, Mr Abbott backed a plan in Western Australia to close more than 100 remote communities and move more than 12,000 people, saying "what we can't do is endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices".

We all know that the Western Australian government and Tony Abbott seek to clear the interior land mass of any and every resisting Aboriginal person, so they don't have to deal with Land Rights issues, water rights issues and environmental issues. Those of us in the East know full well what is yet to come for the Peoples of northwest South Australia, Central and Western Deserts, Pilbara, Kimberley and the Northern Territory. Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have already had these experiences. Letting people die as a consequence of being removed from Country is a continuation of the old colonial regimes.

These actions by PM Abbott and WA Premier Barnett are in breach of international law:

...forced evictions are ... incompatible with the requirements of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and could only be justified in the most exceptional circumstances....

UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, General Comment No.4, (1991)

Pope Francis affirmed in December 2013:

… severing the ties of Aboriginal people from their land and thus their culture, spirituality and very foundation of their being, is unethical, immoral, un-Christian and heartless.

The 'Beneficial impact of the Homelands Movement on health outcomes in central Australian Aborigines' has been well researched by Robyn McDermott's team. They conclude:

Aboriginal people who live in homelands communities appear to have more favourable health outcomes with respect to mortality, hospitalisation, hypertension, diabetes and injury, than those living in more centralised settlements in Central Australia. These effects are most

marked among younger adults.

[Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol. 22,  6, pp. 653658, October 1998.]

As we review Australia's historical records, we of the Sovereign Union, become extremely concerned and alarmed when we are reminded of former Liberal PM Sir Robert Menzies's attitude in 1938 when he returned to Australia from Germany and was in support of David Lloyd George MP in England and that he:

…was not afraid of Hitler; he admired him. This was one of the reasons why Menzies found him [Hitler] intriguing. He had once said that Hitler was a ‘great leader’ and he shared the view that Menzies himself had formed on his visit to Germany in 1938. ¹

The policy of the Protectors of Aboriginal people in Australia resonates with part of the Nuremberg Trial evidence used to convict Himmler as a war criminal who stated:

Either we win over any good blood that we can use for ourselves and give it a place in our people or, gentlemen - you may call this cruel but nature is cruel, - we destroy this blood.²

Australia failed with their 1937 Final Solution to the 'Aboriginal Problem', but now Tony Abbott is very obviously resurrecting the policy of the Final Solution.

[See minutes of 1937 “Aboriginal Welfare” conference of Australian governments and “the real nature of the contemporary Australian assimilation policies”.]

Removing our Peoples from the Homelands does and will have serious mental and spiritual ramifications and this is well known within political circles. Two examples can be used to best describe that governments are well aware of the effects that forced removal will have on First Nations Peoples.

As late as 1943 the New South Wales Government knew of the damage that was being done to Aboriginal Peoples under their statutory authoritarian ‘protectionist’ regimes. Lt. Colonel Bruxner argued that:

The greatest difficulty, of course, is that the very primitive people are tremendously susceptible to spiritual influence. When they come into contact with white people a problem that a large number of us do not understand is immediately created.³

Bruxner continued:

The Honourable member for Parramatta (Mr Gollan MP) truly said that when an Aborigine is moved from his own locality he immediately gets among unfriendly spirits. The spirit world is a tremendous force with these people. I have seen Aborigines who have been up almost half the night because of bad dreams; they have been outside their own area in an unfriendly place. One of the greatest problems confronting the department is the settlement of Aborigines where they belong. These people are frequently moved from one district to another so as to give them better conditions, and when we take them away from the place where they were born and reared, and where they expect to be buried, we do them incalculable harm.

Pursuing these policies of forced removals is an international crime, called genocide. Two elements of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide are:

• (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its

physical destruction in whole or in part;

This cannot be tolerated in any way, shape or form. Aboriginal people must increasingly resist and launch national and international campaigns against the tyranny of this Abbott-led dictatorship.

Non-Aboriginal people in this country fail to see what is going on right before their eyes, in respect to the abolition of Human Rights in the name of protectionism against 'terrorism', but the governments seek to protect white Australia from the horrors and threat of terrorism, but are actively pursuing a terrorist campaign in its most horrid form against our peoples across Australia.

Part of this campaign is 'instilling terror' into the hearts and minds of our people and echoes Governor Phillip's instructions to ‘infuse an universal terror’⁴ when he commanded that severed heads of the Aboriginal people of the Botany Bay and Part Jackson area be placed on stakes in full view amongst Aboriginal people in the newly imposed colony.

This can be best illustrated by the high incarceration rates, the condemning of Aboriginal men with the stigma of being sexual predators within their own communities, which is now leading to the removal of children en masse, which our communities are now calling 'commodity and equity exchange' in the world of commerce because Aboriginal children being placed in white/non-Aboriginal foster care puts many thousands of dollars into white homes. The consequences for the Aboriginal children are dire. In that they are removed form their cultural background and natural environment. It is not for Tony Abbott to decide what he considers to 'be in the best interest', especially given the fact that there is now an extension of a Royal Commission into child abuse in foster homes and other out of home care.

Then, on the other hand, deaths in custody and suicides are resulting in our people having to live on the streets when they are forcibly removed from their homes, for the sake of free access for mining and mineral exploration.

This government is completely ignoring the legal rights established in the Mabo (No. 2) High Court decision, as they refuse to tell the public that the High Court of Australia has made it very clear that when Britain laid claim to this continent from the time of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770 they NEVER gained 'beneficial radical title to the land:

1.  
   1. ...It is not surprising that the fiction that land granted by the Crown had been beneficially owned by the Crown was translated to the colonies and that Crown grants should be seen as the foundation of the doctrine of tenure which is an essential principle of our land law. It is far too late in the day to contemplate an allodial or other system of land ownership. Land in Australia which has been granted by the Crown is held on a tenure of some kind and the titles acquired under the accepted land law cannot be disturbed.

[Mabo v Queensland (No 2) [1992] HCA 23; (1992) 175 CLR 1 (3 June 1992)]

Complicating this for the governments, the High Court also ruled in Mabo (No. 2) at paragraph 54 that in view of this Aboriginal/Native title burdens Crown title.

54. Once it is accepted that indigenous inhabitants in occupation of a territory when sovereignty is acquired by the Crown are capable of enjoying - whether in community, as a group or as individuals - proprietary interests in land, the rights and interests in the land which they had theretofore enjoyed under the customs of their community are seen to be a burden on the radical title which the Crown acquires.

This Abbott government and, no doubt any future Labor government, will continue to perpetrate the lies and deceits that they currently promote. Even the Recognise campaign is a major deceitful method of creating spin to hide the truth and lure our people into the Australian Constitution, something they do not fully understand in terms of the political and legal ramifications associated with being included in a colonial Constitution, which is still about a White Australia, a non-Aboriginal Australia.

Contact:

Ghillar Michael Anderson

Convenor and Joint Spokesperson of Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia and Head of State of the Euahlayi Peoples Republic

ghillar29@gmail.com 0427 292 492 www.sovereignunion.mobi

Background:

'Beneficial impact of the Homelands Movement on health outcomes in central Australian Aborigines' Robyn McDermott et al. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol. 22,  6, pp. 653658, October 1998.

Abstract

Objective: This study compares prevalence of obesity, hypertension and diabetes in two groups of Aboriginal adults: those living in homelands versus centralised communities in central Australia. It also compares weight gain, incidence of diabetes, mortality and hospitalisation rates between the groups over a seven-year period.

Methods: Baseline survey of 826 Aboriginal adults in rural central Australian communities in 1987-88 with a follow-up survey of 416 (56% response rate, excluding deaths). Each time, they had a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and blood pressure and anthropometry measurement. Deaths and hospitalisations for all of the original cohort were recorded for the seven-year period.

Results: Homelands residents had a lower baseline prevalence of diabetes (risk ratio [RR]=0.77, 0.59–1.00), hypertension (RR=0.66, 0.54–0.80) and overweight/ obesity (RR=0.70, 0.59–0.83). The incidence of diabetes was lower among homelands residents (RR=0.70, 0.46–1.06). They were less likely to die than those living in centralised communities (RR=0.56, 0.37–0.85) and less likely to be hospitalised for any cause (RR=0.79, 0.71–0.87), particularly infections (RR=0.70, 0.61–0.80), injury involving alcohol (RR=0.61, 0.47–0.79) and other injury (RR=0.75, 0.60–0.93). Mean age at death was 58 and 48 years for residents of homelands and centralised communities respectively.

Conclusion: Aboriginal people who live in homelands communities appear to have more favourable health outcomes with respect to mortality, hospitalisation, hypertension, diabetes and injury, than those living in more centralised settlements in Central Australia. These effects are most marked among younger adults.

Ghillar Michael Anderson

Convenor of the Sovereign Union, Head of State of the Euahlayi Republic and co-founder of the 1972 Aboriginal Embassy 

Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia

Asserting Australia's First Nations Sovereignty into Governance

www.sovereignunion.mobi

Noel Pearson slams Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott » Indigenous Australians »

Outcry as Australia PM calls Aboriginal communities 'lifestyle choice'

View from the Street: PM reminds First Australians where they stand

Apologise over Indigenous comment: Shorten

Remote communities a lifestyle choice: Tony Abbott

1 Williamson, K. 1984, The Last Bastion, Lansdowne, Sydney, p. 86.

2 International Military Tribunal, 1947, Trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal, 14 November 1945 – 1 October 1946, Nuremberg, Germany, p. 138.

3 Lt. Colonel Bruxner. M.P. New South Legislative Assembly debates, "Aboriginal Protection: Amendment Bill". Parliamentary Votes and Proceedings. 4 May 1943, p. 2833.

4 Tench, Watkin, 1790, A Complete Account of the Settlement of Port Jackson, Ch XII, [Kindle eBook]

More coverage:

'concerned Australians': Remote homelands and Outstations in WA: Will You Help to Prevent a Crisis?
Respect and Listen: http://www.respectandlisten.org/uploads/downloads/Misc/Outstation-closures-Letter-requesting-help.pdf
Respect and Listen: http://www.respectandlisten.org/landrights.html
SU: http://sovereignunion.mobi/content/remote-homelands-and-outstation-wa-will-you-help-prevent-crisis
SU: http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/remote-homelands-and-outstation-wa-will-you-help-prevent-crisis
10 Mar 15: "The Commonwealth’s commitment to Homelands and Outstations was surely sealed by the 1967 Referendum. How can it be then that the federal government can consider abandoning their long-held responsibilities by cutting essential funding to these especially vulnerable areas? ... We strongly believe that the Federal funding decision should be reversed. For this we need your urgent help. Can you either send letters or telephone Tony Abbott and Nigel Scullion and tell them that it would be totally unacceptable for funding to Remote Communities to be cut."



CAAMA Radio: Aboriginals becoming refugees, following WA community closures
http://caama.com.au/aboriginals-becoming-refugees-following-wa-community-closures
10 Mar 15: "Aboriginal rights campaigners who have set up a camp for displaced people in Western Australia say they feel like refugees in their own country following the removal of essential services in many remote communities across the state. Nicole Culbong from the Nyoongar Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Perth says her people are being denied essential human rights and are still in the dark about the future of their remote communities. Calling the removal of essential services another form of ‘genocide’,  ... "



The Stringer facebook: Jennifer Kaeshagen
[scroll down page] https://www.facebook.com/TheStringerNews
11 Mar 15: "Anyone free around midday tomorrow, you may wish to consider coming down to Matargarup, to bear compassionate, responsible witness to wholesale disregard of the urgent concerns of First Nations people of this continent.
Residents of the Matargarup First Nations refugee camp have been warned that they must move on by midday tomorrow ... of course meaning - or else ..

The more witnesses the less the likelihood that campers will be hurt, in any of the many ways that people can be. Please come. With respect, Jennifer Kaeshagen. [phone number supplied]"


New Matilda: Tony Abbott's Australia: From 'Nothing But Bush' to 'Brimming With Choices'
https://newmatilda.com/2015/03/11/tony-abbotts-australia-nothing-bush-brimming-choices
11 Mar 15: "If you 'choose' to live on the lands that hold your stories, and which sustained your ancestors for 60,000 years, then you're on your own. Amy McQuire weighs in.
If Tony Abbott’s claim that he is a friend of black Australia wasn’t already dead, it’s now well and truly not only cremated and buried, but the gravestone has gone up  and the flowers are wilting. The obituary of ‘the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs’ follows his comments yesterday that taxpayers shouldn’t be expected to fund the “lifestyle choices” of Aboriginal people living in remote regions. ... " By Amy McQuire, a Darumbul woman from central Queensland, the former editor of the National Indigenous Times and Tracker magazine


The Wire: 'Lifestyle choice' or connection to country?
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=12498
http://www.thewire.org.au/audio/homelands.mp3
11 Mar 15: "The Prime Minister has inflamed indigenous Australia and come up against his own chief indigenous adviser after saying that remote outstations were a 'lifestyle choice' that could no longer be supported by Australian taxpayers. His critics point out that the rights of indigenous people to occupy their lands are part of international agreements to which Australia is signatory. Research into the Homelands Movement which began with a change in government policy in the late 1970s have showed measurable increases in health and well being."
Produced by Annie Hastwell and Bonnie Parker
"Featured in story:
* Rodney Dillon, Amnesty International Indigenous Rights Campaigner
* Jon Altman, emeritus professor, Australian National University"




Senator Rachel Siewert: Greens: Remote indigenous communities are not a 'lifestyle choice' and should not be treated as such
http://rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/greens-remote-indigenous-communities-are-not-%E2%80%98lifestyle-choice%E2%80%99-and-should-no
10 Mar 15: "Greens Senator Rachel Siewert has slammed comments by Tony Abbott referring to remote indigenous communities in Western Australia as a ‘lifestyle choice’, referring to the comments as ‘unbelievably racist and completely out of touch with reality’. "The comments were made whilst commenting on the WA State Government’s proposed closure of remote communities, which stand as a cheap, racist and unethical budgetary measure",
said Greens Senator Rachel Siewert, spokesperson on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Issues. "This is just another example of gross deep-seated racism by the Prime Minister, who is completely out of touch with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in both Western Australia and nationally.

"The cultures that exist within these communities are thousands of years old and stretch far beyond the Prime Ministers bizarre idea of a ‘lifestyle choice’.

"There are massive social and economic costs in closing communities.

"We don't go around closing small rural towns half the size of many of these communities, this short term cut and will have huge short and long term consequences. ... "

"I urge the Prime Minister to apologise and retract his unthoughtful comments which downplay cultures that have stood the test of time. We should be working with communities rather than smashing through them". ... "




SBS News: Labor slams PM over 'highly offensive' remote communities comments
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/03/10/labor-slams-pm-over-highly-offensive-remote-communities-comments
11 Mar 15: "Labor is demanding Prime Minister Tony Abbott apologise for telling indigenous Australians in remote communities taxpayers shouldn't fund their 'lifestyle choices'. ... Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Shayne Neumann demanded a public apology to all Australians for the "deeply disturbing and highly offensive" comments.

"This is a prime minister who doesn't understand the importance of these people to their connectivity to their land," he told AAP. ... " Source: AAP




New Matilda: Barnett Plays 'Abuse Card' To Defend Closure Of Remote West Australian Communities
https://newmatilda.com//2015/03/10/barnett-plays-abuse-card-defend-closure-remote-west-australian-communities
10 Mar 15: "The West Australian Premier was arguing 'money' was the reason for closing remote Aboriginal communities. Now he says it's 'abuse'. Amy McQuire reports. Just months after using the tragic suicide of a 12-year-old Aboriginal boy as justification for moving people off their homelands,
WA Premier Colin Barnett has tried to justify his government’s plans to close down up to 150 remote communities by claiming a review will uncover cases of child abuse and domestic violence. ... "
By Amy McQuire, a senior reporter with New Matilda



Sovereign Union: Djurin Nyoongar Swan River Treaty
SU: http://sovereignunion.mobi/content/djurin-nyoongar-swan-river-treaty
Eleanor Gilbert, Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/121815708
Bruce Skewes, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba3-jyRqIK4&feature=youtu.be
11 Mar 15: "At Matargarup (Heirisson Island) in the Swan River adjacent to Perth City various groups of the Djurin Republic and Nyoongar Nation came together to sign the Swan River Treaty on 1 March 2015. ... "




WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/08/background-plans-to-close-aboriginal-homelands-remote-communities-in-wa-and-sa
(last updated: 11 March 2015)