Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective protest

8.7.09

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Melbourne Aboriginal Rights activists will, this week, protest the
acquisition of Alice Springs town camps and closure of outstations

The protest will be outside Jenny Macklin's office at 149 Burgundy Street.
Heidelberg on Wednesday July 8th at 12 midday, please bring banners, music
instruments, etc.

Jenny Macklin announced that in October the Racial Discrimination Act will
be reinstated in the NT and the Intervention will be renamed "Close the Gap
NT". this is a cynical window dressing in the face of the continuation of
Intervention policies on the ground.

Welfare quarantining has been the most hated and disruptive of the
Intervention measures. Again and again Aboriginal people have spoken out
against the injustice of the BasicCard which allows the Government to decide
where people are able to shop and what they buy. Trying to access welfare
entitlement has become a new battle that has led many to go hungry and has
forced unprecedented numbers off homelands and into towns that have
Centrelink offices.

Aboriginal people are being forced to line up in separate queues to
negotiate the "BasicCard" in Centrelink and in shops. Responding to the
recent budget, Barbara Shaw from Mt Nancy town camp said, "We are being
forced to scrounge around for food, being pushed further below the poverty
line. Jenny Macklin has no compassion about our poverty. How will they close
the gap when our children are starving because of this system?"

Come and show your solidarity with the Indigenous people of the Northern
Territory in their struggle to hold onto their "Land and Basic Human
Rights."

More information please contact Marisol on behalf of Melbourne Anti-
Intervention Collective e-mail:
melbourne-anti-intervention-collective@googlegroups.com
Media contacts: Cheryl & Keith 0401806331

(2) NAIDOC March, 10 am, Friday 10 July

Rally outside the Aboriginal Health Service in Nicholson Street.



Cheers,



Marisol Salinas, Latin American Liaison Officer
Friends of the Earth
marisol.salinas@foe.org.au

Friends of the Earth
Melbourne - Australia
312 Smith St / PO Box 222
Fitzroy 3065
melbourne.foe.org.au

Ph: +61 3 9419 8700
Fax: +61 3 9416 2081
Office Hours: Mon-Tue-Wed-Fri 10am-4pm
0413 597 315

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Labels: Australia, Human rights, Indigenous Australians, Indigenous People, Northern Territory