Indigenous Australians targeted by Immigrant Government in colonial policy enforcement

 

The immigrant government in Australia has ordered a police and military presence on the Indigenous settlements to enforce its social policies. Prime Minister John Howard was accused of racism for withholding the full payment of family benefits, halting the sale of pornographic videos and alcohol and imposing a five year governmental administration over the self-governing Indigenous communities. His actions were based on the findings of a report on child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities.

The Little Children are Sacred report pointed out that child abuse in all forty-five Indigenous communities in the Northern Territories were caused by unemployment, poverty, overcrowded housing, poor health, pornography, alcoholism and substance abuse. Using alcohol as a bartering tool, immigrant Australian miners and some Indigenous Australians paid to sexually abuse 12-16 year old Indigenous children. The report claimed that small children had been exposed to pornographic videos and adults having sex. Consultants on the report advised that the immigrant government work with the Indigenous Australians to help resolve these tragic problems. The report goes on to state examples of community programs that have empowered Indigenous Australians to successfully decrease alcohol and child abuse in their societies.

Indigenous communities have requested government assistance with overcrowding problems and a lack of medical services highlighted as issues but where ominously refused. Alcohol counsellors and street lights to help reduce crime at night have all been asked for but ignored by the colonialist government.

Unfortunately, no consultation to understand and find solutions with any Indigenous Australians was undertaken and instead the colonialist government went ahead with its own agenda. Immigrant Premier John Howard, made the selling of alcohol and pornography illegal in the Indigenous settlements for six months. The government also reduced benefit payments to Indigenous Australians to ensure that parents would clothe and feed their children. Indigenous Australian children would be given enforced regular anal and vaginal check ups. For the last decade, Indigenous communities have mostly been allowed to govern themselves using their own cultural laws. This would be abruptly ended as all self-governing rights would be appropriated from the Indigenous communities and placed into colonial hands for five years.

The continued physical, cultural and spiritual genocide by the immigrant Australian population has decimated generations of the Indigenous Australian people. Michael Mansell, an Aboriginal activist said; "He [Mr Howard] is directing his venom at one race and one race only. He inflames the belief that black communities cannot survive without harsh measures. This is a racist attack on the weak and an immoral abuse of power, amounting to nothing more than political vote scoring.”

"It's another knee-jerk reaction from our government to a very serious issue," scathed Indigenous Pastor Ray Minniecon, the director of the Crossroads Aboriginal Ministries in Sydney. "To ban alcohol in Aboriginal communities, where that ban has already been in place for the last twenty or thirty years by the Aboriginal people themselves, is a bit silly. [Howard] would have to ban that in the cities and towns where white people live with Aboriginal people in order to make it effective."

Patrick Green is an Indigenous business owner affected by the venomous colonial government attack on self-determined alcohol businesses. Banning alcohol will affect his profit as people will be forced to spend their money in immigrant Australian-owned businesses to purchase alcohol in the further regions. Green attacked the colonial government’s poor record of supplying employment for Indigenous Australians which then encouraged self-destructive acts like alcoholism. "Alcohol is one factor. If they've got things to do, maybe it's not a problem, but at this stage while they have free time on their hands, yes, alcohol is a problem."

When Indigenous Australians lost their jobs on cattle stations and moved into the colonial settlements in the 1970s, alcohol consumption increased. The ease of access to alcohol, powerlessness, peer pressure, fear, family break-up and unemployment worsened substance abuse amongst the Indigenous people. The problem of alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities was explained by Pastor Ray Minniecon. "To understand alcohol abuse, we need to look at the ways in which our people have been treated over the last 200 years. Most of this stuff is just a broken spirit of the Aboriginal people... and alcohol abuse becomes a substitute for the spirit that we'd like to have."

Opposition to Howard’s actions from immigrant Australians brought accusations of racism towards the Indigenous community. The colonial plans were described as, “selective, cynical and racist,” by Greens leader Bob Brown. “I think on any definition of racism, this is racist,” ACT chief minister Jon Stanhope added. “Give me an example of any racist action anywhere in the world that has ever successfully led to change.”

The Democrat leader, Lyn Allison, criticised the forced health checks, stating there is evidence this could wreak havoc on children. She said: “The Senate inquiry into institutional care showed the practice of forced vaginal and anal inspections of children in orphanages 40 years ago traumatised them for life.”

There was suspicion that Howard’s government would allow mining companies to exploit Indigenous Australian land for financial gain. As the plan to remove self-governing rights goes into action, there is the possibility that Indigenous people may be forced off their land, a devious colonial law could then keep them out of their homes permanently. According to this law, if Indigenous people leave their land, they surrender their right to have a say over mining on and desecration of their land. The current permit system stops mining companies that are trying to expand uranium mining on Indigenous land and the dumping of international nuclear waste. The removal of this permit system, which necessitates companies to get permission to search for potential dump sites, would allow the defilement of Indigenous land.

The Australian Burden of Disease website claims, “alcohol use is also a major cause of drug- or alcohol-related deaths in Australia. In 1998, around 2,000 deaths among persons aged 0-64 years were attributable to the use of alcohol, accounting for 28% of all drug- or alcohol-related deaths in this age group. The Australian Burden of Disease study estimated that almost 4.9% of the total burden of disease in Australia in 1996 was attributable to alcohol consumption.” Despite alcohol abuse being the second largest cause of death after tobacco in the immigrant Australian community, no similar governmental plans have been announced to freeze the selling of alcohol or tobacco to this particular ethnic population.

Despite the fact that Australia’s original inhabitants only make up two percent of a population of twenty-one million and are being driven to extinction by colonial forces, there is a powerful will to fight back and win their right to live using their own methods. Ray Minniecon proudly announced, "There's a strong capacity in our people to make sure we survive. We don't know how we're going to eradicate it (the abuse of alcohol) but we can heal ourselves through our own culture which makes our spirit strong."