ANTaR News
Tasmania Votes
On 1 May 2021, Tasmanians will head to the polls to decide which party will hold state government for the next four years. The State Liberal Premier, Peter Gutwein, has called the election a year early to try and take advantage of the apparent electoral benefit for incumbent governments handling the crisis of Covid-19. While there has been limited polling in the State over the last 12 months, there has been a significant tightening of the polls since the last poll in February this year… the outcome is much harder to predict now (and every vote counts).
Paul Wright and Ashleigh Jordan
Not criminals or passive victims: reframing the media’s representation
Cultural warning: This article contains names and images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
This month marks 30 years since the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The report consists of five volumes, several regional reports and 339 recommendations. It included 99 individual death reports of Aboriginal deaths in custody that occurred between 1 January, 1980 and 31 May, 1989.
Amanda Porter and Eddie Cubillo
Nationhood, Recognition and the deadly incarceration pandemic
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Australia in 2021 is a Dickensian periodical morphing into a ‘choose your own adventure’ where the state of things is entirely open to your worldview.
Paul Wright
Cashless Debit Card extended despite limited evidence of effectiveness
When late in 2020, the Government introduced legislation to extend the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) in all existing sites and provide for the transition of income management participants across the Northern Territory and Cape York region to the CDC, it became known that an evaluation of the Program had been completed but was not being made public.
The biggest step in Truth Telling about Australia’s colonisation history
Focus has rightly been on the very serious issues of sexual violence that have been raised regarding the Federal Parliament and historically with the Attorney-General, Christian Porter.
However, there is already a risk that the profound importance of what has been announced in Victoria this week by the First Peoples Assembly and the State government – the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission – which will be the most comprehensive Truth Telling process in Australia since colonisation began in 1788, might be missed.
Paul Wright
Protecting Country
While the current media and political discourse surrounding climate change has been dominated by focus on its environmental and economic impacts, significantly less attention has been paid to the ways in which environmental damage is also inextricably linked to the destruction of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ cultural heritage and identity.
Moving from Safe to Brave – Release of the 2021 State of Reconciliation Report
Reconciliation cannot just be about awareness raising and knowledge. The skills and understanding gained should motivate us into ‘braver’ action. This is what the State of Reconciliation Report released last week challenges the nation to do.
Karen Mundine, CEO Reconciliation Australia
A Rightful Place
In the lead up to Survival Day this year, three key reports have been released, the interim Report to the Australian Government by the Indigenous Co-Design team on the Voice; the Human Rights Watch World Report for 2021; and, the 2021 State of Reconciliation in Australia Report released last week by Reconciliation Australia.
Paul Wright
Let’s right the wrongs for our children and young people to keep them connected to family and culture
In 2019, the UN Committee on the Right of the Child handed down its Concluding Observations in response to Australia’s 5th and 6th periodic reports. These contained many recommendations on the protection of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and identified discrimination, exclusion and the failure to provide services and resources as major problems.
Sadly, these rights of our children and young people continue to be violated. Our kids deserve to live happy and healthy lives, with equal access to education and support services, with strengthened connection to identity and culture.
Sue-Anne Hunter, Family Matters Chair and SNAICC Sector Development Manager
Is the Darwin Dan Murphy’s Woolworths a Juukan Gorge moment?
As time has passed, opposition to Woolworths’ plans for a massive alcohol store near three dry Indigenous communities in Darwin has strengthened and become more vociferous. Even with the assistance of a pliant Northern Territory Government, approval of this shocking plan remains in doubt.
Michael Thorn