Cultural imperialism jailed Indonesian children in Australian adult prisons - and the prime minister's deaf ears

Mon 21 May 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos
Ali Jasmin was 13 years old when the Commonwealth of Australia locked him up in an adult prison for being a deckhand on a boat of Asylum Seekers, and hence for assisting people in the safe passage of Asylum to our shores. International maritime laws and the various United Conventions and protocols asserting the rights of those seeking Asylum would cast this young boy as a hero, and rightfully so however not the Australian government and its institutions.

The Kimberley's homelessness rates the worst in the nation - nothing in the budgets to help them

Thu 17 May 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos
The Kimberley has the highest rate of homelessness in Australia, and just about all of this homelessness is Aboriginal folk. The homelessness tragedy of the Kimberley is a scandal that has for far too long been neglected by all governments, state and federal, and with both state and federal budgets recently tabled Aboriginal homelessness continues to be neglected.

The Kimberley's homelessness is officially nearly 700 per 10,000 and nowhere else in Australia comes half as close. It is one of the world's worst homelessness rates.

Poverty is increasing, life is getting harder say The Salvos, Shelters for the Needy, Renters Alliance, Human Rights Alliance

Wed 16 May 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos
The Salvation Army says life is getting bleaker for our poorest, and that the numbers of poor are increasing.

The Salvation Army's annual survey drew responses from more than 1700 folk and is backed by Shelters for the Needy spokesperson Lea Keenan who said that the nation's poor have grown and that more Australians are homeless than ever before.

Police amassing at James Price Point (Monday May 14) - after yesterday's 600 people power peaceful protest at Broome Police Station

Mon 14 May 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos - INDYMEDIA first with this story - Australia needs Indymedia.
Today, Monday May 14, after yesterday's peaceful protest by 600 folk outside Broome Police Station, police are amassing in large numbers at Blacktank camp access route - to ensure Woodside Petroleum geophysical site work for the proposed gas hub precinct at James Price Point. Police are reportedly expected at Manari Road access (near Walmandan Tent Embassy), and Cape Leveque after between 140 to 250 police officers with riot gear arrived in Broome in the last several days.

Two sides to the debate on logging forests and the issues that concern us all

Thu 10 May 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

What are the issues affecting forestry, timber harvesting, the loss of habitats? Environmental Scientist, Dr Beth Schulz says logging is a crime against nature. Forester and Chair of the WA division of Foresters of Australia, John Clarke says anti-logging protestors have got it wrong and that Western Australia's regrowth forests are thriving. Read the full article as the two sides of the forestry debate are presented

The Australian prison system has failed; warehouses of illness & death. Bring on Bastoy for starters

Tue 08 May 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos
If you want to know the hearts and minds of a nation, of its consciousness, of its legislators, then day and night look into our prisons.

The two century old modern day prison experiment is failing, that is if we look at the spiralling incarceration rates, adult and youth, and if we look at re-offending rates, the recidivism.

My PhD research argues that people who enter the prison experience, who are incarcerated for relatively short or long terms leave the prison experience worse than they came in.

Australia's South West forests dying - death of trees world-wide

Mon 07 May 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos
Disease and drought are threatening iconic South West forests, including Warrup, Yabberup, Arcadia, Kingston-Perup - in fact the whole region. Murdoch University researchers and international scientists are warning that thousands of Marri trees throughout the South West, including in the wineries regions, are dying or are already dead.

Professor Giles Hardy and Dr George Matusick from Murdoch University's Centre of Excellence for Climate Change Woodland and Forest Health said they are dying from the devastating from of tree cancer know as Marri canker.

Control bill pushed to target Aboriginal peoples and to erode civil liberties

Sun 06 May 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos
Australia-wide Aboriginal organisations, communities and rights advocates are more than just apprehensive of the consolidated push by State and Territory governments for the introduction of Criminal Association Control Bills better known as anti-association laws – in Western Australia, the Criminal Organisation Bill 2012 appears that it will be passed and within days.

Alongside the Yaburara and Won-gg-tt-oo, with lawmen Wilfred Hicks and Tim Douglas, stand up for Muruga's 50,000 years of history

Mon 23 Apr 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos
According to the National Trust of Australia (WA) Dampier Archipelago contains the largest concentration of rock art in the world, estimated at perhaps a million petroglyphs. The art is extraordinary in its range and diversity. Associated with the art is a rich archaeological record, including camp sites, quarries, shell middens and stone features. Many motifs and some stone features are connected to the beliefs and ceremonial practices of Aboriginal people in the Pilbara region today. The entire Archipelago is a continuous cultural landscape providing a detailed record of both sacred and secular life reaching from the present back into the past, perhaps to the first settlement of Australia.

Renters stress hits the Blackwood - time for a renters alliance Australia-wide

Sun 22 Apr 2012
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos
We have all heard about mortgage stress however renters' stress has received comparatively little mention according to Lea Keenan, coordinator of the WA Renters Alliance. Ms Keenan said that rising rents are not confined to Perth and the north west however "are just as out of control in the south west."

Bridgetown renter, Louise Fleay said that she relocated two years ago from Perth for the promise of less financial pressures in terms of cost of living including "cheaper and fairer rents". She was paying $350 in rent in Perth and two years ago was paying $220 in Bridgetown however this has risen to $270 per week.

perth