Aboriginal Catholic Ministry welcomes U.N. probe into Northern Territory Intervention
On her arrival in Darwin, Ms Pillay was handed a petition signed by 6500 Australians calling for her support in restoring the rights of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory….Ms Pillay also said the Aborigines told her they were under pressure from the Govern-ment to sign 99-year leases over their land which they saw as “a land grab”…….The enabling legislation for the intervention expires in June next year.
UN NT probe, The Catholic Leader, 29 May 2011, By: Paul Dobbyn A TOP United Nations official’s Australian visit to investigate the Federal Government’s Northern Territory Intervention has been welcomed by the head of a ministry to Aboriginal Catholics.
Sydney archdiocese’s Aboriginal Catholic Ministry executive officer Graeme Mundine said the visit by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was “a good thing” and he hoped representatives of other similar groups such as Amnesty International would do the same.
Mr Mundine said it was also time for the Gillard Labor Government to own the intervention which it had “maintained and even expanded” after inheriting the policy from the Howard Government.
Ms Pillay, a former High Court judge in South Africa, was visiting to assess whether Australia is complying with its international obligations.
…….On her arrival in Darwin, Ms Pillay was handed a petition signed by 6500 Australians calling for her support in restoring the rights of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. Northern Territory Aboriginal leaders were also reported to have told Ms Pillay that things had worsened under the intervention imposed by the Government in 2007.”First, they said there’s been an intervention and it started off badly without (indigenous people) being consulted, and secondly, there is insufficient respect for their land,” she was reported to have said. Ms Pillay also said the Aborigines told her they were under pressure from the Govern-ment to sign 99-year leases over their land which they saw as “a land grab”…….
The enabling legislation for the intervention expires in June next year.
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