Comments on: A Grave Mistake – Debate on NT Intervention laws draws to a close

By: togret

togret — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:20:04 +0000

I think it was Bob Brown (forgive me if not) who said that it was important that it be in the Hansard of hte Senate that the government were warned, tha we as a nation did know, or shoudl have known, what was happening. Will we be asked by our children or grandchildren how we could have let this happen, as the “good Germans” were?

A very sad day … my only hope is that Rudd intends to reverse it … but I don’t know why Labor could not have been ready – being caught flat-footed on Tampa I can understand slightly, but for God’s sake how many more voices did they need to have telling them that there are serious problems in SOME aboriginal communities and so plan ahead to have a decent policy – well advised, well consulted upon etc. It says to me that they don’t care.

By: Where to now in the Northern Territory » The Bartlett Diaries

Where to now in the Northern Territory » The Bartlett Diaries — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:19:59 +0000

[...] The Northern Territory government has now produced its response to the Little Children are Sacred report, responding to each recommendation as well as addressing some additional areas. Of course, the federal government used the failure of the NT government to respond quickly enough to this report as its justification for intervening in the Territory and giving themselves a whole lot of extra powers (and taking a lot of power away from Aboriginal people and organisations in the process). Now that the federal government has stated that the recommendations of the report were “just more of the same” and “are now behind us”, they’ll probably also criticise the NT for responding positively to the recommendations too! Seeing the federal government has basically dismissed them all, one could hardly have blamed the NT government for doing the same. [...]

By: Bob Brown: the Rudd scandal in perspective and in a nutshell at Hoyden About Town

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:30:56 +0000

[...] ADDIT: Outfox pointed out in comments on the last Rudd scandal thread that it’s important not to allow the timing of this news to distract us from the appalling steamrollering of the Senate with respect to the NT Emergency Legislation, and that Labor has been shamefully silent on the whole regarding this legislation. It’s worth riding my Balance The Senate hobbyhorse again, with links to some policy statements from the Australian Democrats and Australian Greens regarding the NT legislation, and particularly Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett’s own blogging on the issue. [...]

By: Dave Bath

Dave Bath — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:05:52 +0000

Thanks Senator Bartlett for your dissenting opinion inside the report. You were spot on about the “verballing” of those who advocated consultation and avoiding dangerous preciptous reactions

I thought the majority parts of the report (Key Issuess and Committee View) disgusting in that they did not mention the CONTENTS of the “Little Children Are Sacred Report” (one had a passing reference inside a quote from a submission, and the other merely noted it as the instigator of the response), and thought they misrepresented the majority of submissions. Yes, the overwhelming majority of the submissions did “support the intent” of the bills, but then to say “some were strongly supportive of the package itself” rather than “most thought the package was a crock and criticized the bills for doing nothing in line with the Anderson-Wild report”.

I’ve never seen such strong opinion evidenced by more than 150 submissions in under 24 hours, and to misrepresent the overwhelming thrust of such strong opinion (by highlighting the few supporting the bills rather than the many against) is pretty close to lying.

By: Max Baumann

Max Baumann — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:49:04 +0000

Black Friday for Democracy as two important bills forced through the Senate…

Yesterday will be known as Black Friday, the day marked by the passage of the NT Indigenous intervention laws and Water Takeover bills both passed with support from the weak ALP who now can not be trusted to act any different from the Coalition with po…

By: Max Baumann

Max Baumann — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:49:03 +0000

Black Friday for Democracy as two important bills forced through the Senate…

By: philip travers

philip travers — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:11:09 +0000

All Aboriginal persons in the Northern Territory need now Industrial type Safety Helmets.Christian manna is about to fall Brough style.What you cannot duck..you have to wear.We are all awaiting the symbolic truth that isnt attached to reality to guide the manna down.Take heart,in the fact, no sense of humour will help you,levity has been replaced on Earth by the brands of Christianity from the wide body of John Howard s Church.You will see the Governmental Billy Graham… Geo W.Bush landing in other parts of Australia soon, our Australian goannas cannot be challenged by his presence..they are Johnny come latelies.