South Africa, 20 years after Apartheid, doing better than Australia

Sat 11 May 2013
By Gerry Georgatos

by Gerry Georgatos - May 11th, 2013
Australia incarcerates its Aboriginal youth at the world’s highest rates, it imprisons one in 14 Western Australian Aboriginal adult males and it removes one in 14 children from Western Australian Aboriginal families into the care of the State, and for Aboriginal peoples the whole of the Northern Territory is a prison built brick by brick by the Commonwealth, and this prison is loosely known as the ‘Intervention’.

Since 1992, the rate of Aboriginal incarceration in Australia has grown 14 times faster than that of non-Aboriginal incarceration.

Fracking the Canning Basin

Thu 09 May 2013
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos - Western Australia’s Canning Basin (photo abc.net.au) will soon be talked about as the next resources mining frontier. The James Price Point $40 billion gas hub proposal for all intents and purposes has been dumped but the State’s Premier, Colin Barnett, will pitch the extraction of natural gas from the Canning Basin as the way to go in the pursuit of State revenue. Most of the gas will be exported.

The shale gas deposits of the Canning Basin are among the richest in the world.

Australia’s Aboriginal children detained at the world’s highest rates

Thu 02 May 2013
By Gerry Georgatos

By Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/

In the United States, the Annie Casey Foundation’s report ‘No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration,’ has an assembly of juvenile crime statistics that evidence why locking up children does not work. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rates of adults and children than any other nation.

First uranium mine in WA may mean 40 uranium mines by 2030

Thu 04 Apr 2013
By Gerry Georgatos

Courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/first-uranium-mine-in-wa-may-mean-40-uranium-m...
Western Australia will be exporting uranium within two years after the Federal Government granted environmental approval to Toro Energy’s Wiluna project – To many people this was unexpected, including to Wiluna’s Aboriginal peoples and to anti-uranium mining and anti-nuclear advocates nationwide.

Cuts to single parent payments lead to hardship

Tue 02 Apr 2013
By Gerry Georgatos

Courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/cuts-to-single-parent-payments-lead-to-hardshi...
Gerry Georgatos - There are 630,000 Australian lone parent families with dependents – 84 per cent are single mothers and 16 per cent are single fathers. 54 per cent of these single parents have a youngest child less than nine years of age. Of the parents with a child less than 9 years of age 59 per cent were in some form of employment end of June 2011 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011).

Call for an end to logging in the South West - tax payer charade - $106 million in losses

Wed 13 Feb 2013
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos - Western Australia could profit by over $400 million a year by the ending of logging in its native forests according to new research by the Australia Institute. The report confirmed logging is not only harmful to the environment, but also costs the State millions in potential profits.

Federal Court win by Yindjibarndi means Fortescue must negotiate with them

Wed 13 Feb 2013
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos - On Tuesday February 12, the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) won a huge outcome in the Federal Court with Justice Neil Kerracher stating that only the YAC are authorised to negotiate with mining companies over certain Yindjibarndi Country. The claim area includes the vacant Crown land where Fortescue Metals Group is developing the Firetail mine site.

Exclusive breaking news: Native title bombshell - racism at its worst

Thu 07 Feb 2013
By Anonymous

FMG’s Native Title “Racism” Unravels - Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation
6 February 2013
Gerry Georgatos of the National Indigenous Times writes “abuse and trampling of inalienable rights” in FMG’s native title dealings with the Yindjibarndi People is racist, and calls for a Royal Commission. This week he reports new evidence of intermeddling involving former FMG staffer, Michael Gallagher.

DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT Native Title bombshell – racism at its worst

Black control of black affairs - Wirlu-murra Yindjibarndi step up to the wajbala

Wed 30 Jan 2013
By Anonymous

JOURNALIST Gerry Georgatos continues to investigate the Native Title disaster in the Pilbara - The Wirlu-murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (WYMAC) is on the verge of Black control of Black affairs. Last Thursday a special Board meeting was convened to bring the senior most elder of the Wirlu-murra, Board chairman, Bruce Woodley, to account for going whistle-blower through the National Indigenous Times.

Goolarabooloo law bosses lift the ante in battle with Woodside over gas hub

Sun 20 Jan 2013
By Gerry Georgatos

Gerry Georgatos - Story
Damien Kelly - Photo - Goolarabooloo Law Bosses, Phillip Roe and Richard Hunter with Eric Hunter in traditional pelican head dress - the pelican is the head dress of their particular Goolarabooloo group and symbolic of Walmandan (James Price Point) country.

Traditional custodians, Goolarabooloo Law Bosses Phillip Roe and Richard Hunter have responded to State Government authorisation of sacred site trespass with anger and the will to fight them in the Courts and at Walmandan in standing their ground. Last week Department of Indigenous Affairs Chief Heritage Officer Aaron Raynor said that the State Minister for Indigenous Affairs Peter Collier authorised Woodside access and the right to commence work on sacred sites as part of its exploration and assessment at the controversial James Price Point proposed gas hub site.

Related: Save the Kimberley | Hands off country Blog | Goolarabooloo people | e-Petition Tony Burke: Protect sacred Aboriginal burial grounds in the Kimberley | Greenleft - PHOTOS: Protest Woodside drilling in the Kimberley | Peter Botsman on Beware the stingray: Indigenous heritage and WA's gas plans

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