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THERE are just over ten days left for people to nominate to attend the first annual meeting of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples (NCAFP). The three-day gathering of 120 delegates in Melbourne from 30 November will elect the rep body’s co-chairs and directors. Nominations to attend close on 13 September but nominees must first be Congress members. Interim co-chairs Kerry Arabena and Sam Jeffries encouraged people to sign up before the deadline.

THE Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the NT (AMSANT) has welcomed a proposed alcohol management plan (AMP) for Darwin and its satellite city of Palmerston. The NT Government plan encompasses banned drinker and mandatory alcohol treatment orders, a banned drinker register, more rehab services and other reforms. AMSANT spokesperson Donna Ah Chee said the proposed AMP included mechanisms to help people get treatment for major alcohol problems without criminalising them. 

ABORIGINAL men will march through the streets of Alice Springs tomorrow to launch a new campaign aimed at stamping out violence in Aboriginal communities. Convenor John Liddle says the 'Stop the Violence’ campaign calls on ‘all levels of government, the community, males and females, black and white, young and old’ to send a strong message to all community members to stop the violence.

THE Independent MPs currently negotiating with the Federal Government and the Coalition over who'll govern the country can stamp the future of Australia's race relations legacy, according to Aboriginal Legal Services throughout the country. The legal services have called upon Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter to make reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act and roll-back of the NT Intervention the deciding factors in their decision.

A REFERENDUM on Indigenous constitutional recognition would be held within three years if the Australian Labor Party (ALP) was returned to power. The Australian Greens yesterday extracted the promise and a range of others from the ALP, in return for their agreement to help deliver stability for a possible ALP government. The agreement also includes climate change, debate on Australia's involvement in Afghanistan, and dental health care.

RECONCILIATION Australia's new chief executive Leah Armstrong has welcomed Ken Wyatt's election to the House of Representatives as a great step forward for reconciliation. But Ms Armstrong said reports of racial intolerance in the wake of Mr Wyatt's election were concerning, and urged all Australians to work together to stamp out such behaviour. 'We can't be complacent," she said.

THE NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWAC) says it's no surprise that the first Aboriginal person elected to the House of Representatives has been subjected to racial abuse. Ken Wyatt has received racist taunts and hate mail since claiming the Perth seat of Hasluck for the Liberals. However, NSWALC chairperson Bev Manton said yesterday that most Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians would welcome Mr Wyatt's election, despite some racist elements in society.

 OFFICIALS of the 40th NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout carnival at Woy Woy next month are confident it will be the biggest yet. BAC Walgett spokesman Daniel Rose said he did not know how many teams would enter, but indications were that the tournament would attract more than the 44 teams at last year's carnival at Armidale. The Knockout will be held from Friday to Monday, 1-4 October, at the Woy Woy Sporting Complex in Oval Avenue.

THERE’S less than a week left to cast a vote in this year’s Deadly Awards. Online voting in the music, sport, entertainment and community awards ends on Monday, 6 September. The winners will be announced at a star-studded event at Sydney Opera House on Monday, 27 September, featuring performances by Dan Sultan, Archie Roach, Christine Anu, Frank Yamma, Alii Mills, Bangarra Dance Theatre and others.

THE Intervention Rollback Action Group (IRAG) says the discrimination highlighted in a recent UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) report is continuing under the NT Intervention. Spokesperson Barbara Shaw said ongoing and expanded income management would simply make more people suffer, and other measures that the Government insisted were ‘special measures’ under the Racial Discrimination Act were designed to dispossess and disempower Aboriginal people.

THE National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) has welcomed the post election examination of regional and local involvement in national politics. NACCHO chaiperson Justin Mohame said the organisation hoped the vision for Aboriginal health – including greater local control over services – would feature in briefings provided to independent MPs negotiating with the Government and the Coalition over who’ll lead the country. 

ADVOCACY body ANTar has called on the Australian Government to act on the findings and recommendations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). ANTaR President Janet Hunt said the committee's concerns required a serious response and the fact that aspects of the NT Intervention did not meet Australia's international human rights obligations was cause for national shame.

THE Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) has called on Indigenous Australians to unite behind the push for a treaty. The international Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) urged the Australian Government to negotiate a treaty with Indigenous Australians but FAIRA chairman Les Malezer says the Government has so far preferred to pursue a discredited policy of forced assimilation rather than recognise legitimate Indigenous rights and interests.

THE United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) gave a damning appraisal of Australia's human rights efforts at the weekend. While noting the national apology, support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and efforts to the close the gap as positive steps, the committee expressed disappointment at ongoing discrimination against Indigenous Australians, including under the NT Intervention, and disproportionate Indigenous incarceration rates.

A NORTHERN Territory community organisation providing services to 24 remote Aboriginal outstations and a Brisbane-based new media production company were the major winners in the 2010 Indigenous Governance Awards announced in Melbourne this afternoon. Laynhapuy Homelands Association won the category for Organisations Established Before 2000, while Carbon Media Events won the category for Organisations Established Since 2000. The awards identify, celebrate and promote good governance in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations. 

THE 2010 Indigenous Governance Awards will be announced in Melbourne on Friday. Eight organisations across a range of areas, from housing, education and health to media and the arts are vying for the awards, which Reconciliation Australia (RA) co-chair Professor Mick Dodson says help to challenge negative and damaging stereotypes that portray Indigenous Australians as failures.

NORTHEAST Arnhem Land's Garrangali Band is amongst the favourites for this year's Northern Territory Indigenous Music Awards, to be announced in Darwin on Saturday night. The 11-member outfit, which blends traditional Yolngu music with reggae beats, has been nominated for five out of the six award categories including emerging act of the year, album of the year, and song of the year. 

THE Aboriginal organisation overseeing the Alice Springs town camps has appointed the former head of Indigenous Business Australia (IBA) as its Chief Operations Officer. Tangentyere Council's president Walter Shaw said Ron Morony would work Tangentyere's executive director and board on developing a 'strategic focus' for the organisation. Mr Shaw said the Council wanted to move forward in 'true partnership' with Governments, resetting the relationship for a better future.

AN international women's conference in Darwin has heard that the national apology to the Stolen Generations changed nothing. Author and Stolen Generations member Barbara Cummings told the 9th World Indigenous Women and Wellness Conference that public servants were still deciding on the placement of Aboriginal children. And she said Stolen Generations members were being discriminated against in native title and land rights because their removal meant they did not have recognised identities.

THE Australian Greens’ say hostility towards the NT Intervention and planned nuclear projects helps to account for the party’s strong showing at several key polling booths. Labor incumbent Warren Snowdon was returned in the seat of Lingiari but with a much reduced margin. At last count, Greens candidate and vocal NT Intervention critic Barb Shaw had outpolled both Mr Snowdon and Country Liberal Party candidate Leo Abbott in several booths south of Tennant Creek. 

COUNTING is still underway in the electorate of Australia's would-be first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives. At about six o’clock tonight, Liberal candidate for the Perth metropolitan seat of Hasluck Ken Wyatt was ahead of Labor incumbent Sharryn Jackson by less than 600 votes, on a two-party preferred basis. The seat is considered crucial in determining the balance of power in the Lower House.

THE Acting Commonwealth Ombudsman has criticised Centrelink and the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) for ignoring systemic flaws that prevent people subjected to income management under the NT Intervention from seeking exemptions. The situation arose after the Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT) decided it had no jurisdiction to review the case of a remote NT Aboriginal couple who had their application for exemption rejected.

The Australian Rugby League Indigenous Council has appointed Laurie Daley as coach of the Indigenous All Stars for the 2011 Harvey Norman Rugby League All Stars. The former Australian and NSW captain will take over from Neil Henry, who coached the Indigenous All Stars to a 16-12 victory at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast in February. The Indigenous All Stars will face the NRL All Stars at the same venue on 12 February next year.

THE Australian Parliament looks set to welcome its first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives, with Liberal candidate Ken Wyatt poised to snatch victory in the Perth electorate of Hasluck. With nearly 75 per cent of the vote counted last night, the Noongar, Yamatji and Wongi man with a long career in education and health was just in front of Labor incumbent Sharryn Jackson on a two-party preferred basis.

NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) Chairwoman Bev Manton has urged Aboriginal people in NSW and throughout the country to vote in tomorrow's federal election. Ms Manton said voting would mean refusing to remain silent on important issues. She said the major parties had failed to come up with fresh policy proposals or establish a working dialogue with Aboriginal people, and urged support for the Australian Greens in both the lower and upper houses.

THIS year's NAIDOC Person of the Year says he hopes the victors in tomorrow's federal election will commit to true equity for all Australians. Dennis Eggington, also head of the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA, yesterday issued an open letter outlining his hopes for a government driven by rights rather than popularity, and a country where no Australian was denied food, shelter, safety, health, education or a future.

A FLEDGLING political force fielding more Aboriginal candidates than the major parties combined hopes its ecological, rights and social justice messages will get its representatives over the line in tomorrow's election. The First Nations Political Party (FNPP) and Ecological, Social Justice and Aboriginal Party (ESJAP) have joined forces to field eight independent candidates - six of them Aboriginal. They have five Senate candidates – FNPP founder Maurie Ryan in the NT and a WA group ticket comprising Gerry Georgatos, Dr Bill Hayward, Marianne McKay and Lara Menkens. Dot Henry and Geoffrey Stokes are contesting lower house seats in WA, and Kenny Lechleitner in the NT. 

NSW Senate candidate Michael Eckford (Anderson) has urged voters to 'adopt a polling booth', asking them to print and hand out his online how-to-vote card at polling booths throughout the State tomorrow. During the election campaign, the activist and pastoralist has called for a republic, a review of free-trade agreements, more debate over the national water management crisis, and recognition of Aboriginal culture in caring for country.

NUCLEAR-free campaigners took to the streets of Kalgoorlie yesterday to call for an end to a uranium 'siege' they say is enveloping the WA Goldfields region. The protest action preceded a sustainable mining conference, which Mia Pepper of the Conservation Council WA described as an important and welcome opportunity for better practices in mining. Ms Pepper joined Aboriginal campaigner Pastor Geoffrey Stokes to call for an end to uranium mining moves in the Goldfields.

RUGBY League's second Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) was unveiled in Townsville yesterday. The North Queensland Cowboys plan targets Indigenous employment, education, health and sporting opportunities, and NRL Chief Executive David Gallop says it makes a genuine statement about reconciliation. It comes on the eve of this weekend's NRL Close the Gap Round, including the Reconciliation Cup on Saturday between the Cowboys and the Bulldogs.

A HOUSING advocacy body has called for an urgent injection of resources to improve the housing supply available to Indigenous Australians. It is estimated that there are 20,000 too few properties available for Indigenous people nationally – a figure that National Shelter's chairperson Adrian Pisarski says is unacceptable. Mr Pisarki said his organisation wanted to work with governments to improve housing outcomes for Indigenous people, including in the private rental market.

MINING royalties have helped to establish a community learning centre that opened at Nyirrpi, four hours northwest of Alice Springs, yesterday. The Warlpiri Education and Training Trust (WETT) contributed $290,000 to run the Nyirrpi Learning Centre as a 12-month pilot program. The centre will provide education and training courses, computers with internet, books in English and Warlpiri and a place to teach, collect and store Warlpiri cultural information.

The New South Wales Government has contributed half a million dollars to Redfern's National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) to support the next generation of Indigenous sporting and artistic leaders. Premier and Minister for Redfern Waterloo Kristina Keneally handed over a cheque at the centre this morning. The funds will support young Aboriginal people starting their own businesses, as well as sporting, recreation and social activities.

A POLL of a different kind closes soon - nominations for the coveted Australian of the Year 2011 Award and other categories for senior, young people and local heroes. National Australia Day Council chairman Adam Gilchrist says more than 1300 nominations have already been received nationally but there's room for more before the deadline of midnight on Tuesday, 31 August. Indigenous Australians of the Year have included Professor Mick Dodson last year, Cathy Freeman and Neville Bonner.

CO-CHAIR of the National Congress of Australia’s First People (NCAFP) Kerry Arabena has welcomed a softening of the Federal Coalition’s position on the national Indigenous representative body. Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion indicated last week that a Coalition Government would not only keep the Congress, to which Labor has committed $29.2 million, but might expand its role. Ms Arabena said the Congress agenda around economic development and participation, cultural security, and education appeared to have captured Senator Scullion’s imagination.

THE Australian Greens launched their Indigenous policy today, outlining their support for an amendment of the Australian constitution to formally recognise Indigenous Australians. Speaking in Sydney, NSW Greens Senate candidate Lee Rhiannon said the party would also continue working towards the abolition of the Northern Territory Intervention and supporting Indigenous Australians to take the lead in directing policies that impact upon them.

RUGBY league champion and North Queensland Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston visited Vincent State Primary School in Townsville today to get behind a campaign aimed at encouraging students to get their eyes tested. About 200 students had the test as part of the OneSight Foundation program, which provides free eye care and eyewear to people in need and to those in remote communities. Indigenous blindness rates are 6.2 times higher than in other Australians.

BIPARTISANSHIP on constitutional reform to recognise Indigenous peoples has been the highlight of an election campaign that has largely ignored Indigenous Australians, according to advocacy group ANTaR. While ANTaR president Janet Hunt said constitutional reform was important, she said the two major parties had failed to lay out a proper vision for NT remote communities, implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or reducing Indigenous over-incarceration.

THE Queensland Government has announced more than $36 million in funds for Queensland's Indigenous Councils. Local Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Desley Boyle said the funding help the councils deliver better services, provide around 260 jobs and boost the quality of life for people in their communities. Some of it replaces revenue once generated by Council-run licensed canteens, now closed or restricted under Alcohol Management Plans (AMPs).

VICTORIA's newest court building has been named after a pioneering advocate for the rights of Indigenous Australians. Deputy Premier and Attorney-General Rob Hulls yesterday formally dedicated the former County Court building at 223 William Street in Melbourne as the William Cooper Justice Centre, after Yorta Yorta man and founder of the Australian Aborigines League, William Cooper. Mr Cooper's grandson Uncle Boydy (Alf) Turner was in attendance.

The Australian Greens have challenged candidates in the Solomon electorate of the Northern Territory to support their plans for a National Commission on nuclear waste. The Solomon electorate covers Muckaty Station area, which has been nominated for a nuclear waste dump. A commission would oversee scientific evaluation; investigate alternatives to remote repositories; implement international best practice in community engagement; and introduce a commitment to minimise the creation of waste.

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has credited Cape York Aboriginal campaigner Noel Pearson as the inspiration behind Coalition measures to entice unemployed Australians off welfare. Promising bonus payments for unemployed people who get and keep jobs and the withholding of welfare payments for people who leave jobs within six months of receiving such payments, Mr Abbott described Mr Pearson as ‘our gutsiest, and our most imaginative and innovative thinker on these sorts of issues’. Source: AAP

THE Northern Rivers region of NSW can't continue to be excluded from the national agenda, according to the Northern Rivers Social Development Council (NRSDC). NRSDC president Tony Dreise says local Aboriginal communities already bear the brunt of high rates of overall economic marginalisation, social disadvantage and exclusion, and he has called on all federal election candidates to commit to real and lasting action in the region, starting with an immediate investment in Aboriginal housing.

THE Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) has called on the major parties to respond better to the needs of Indigenous children. The peak body's chairperson Steve Larkins said the Greens had acknowledged Indigenous self-determination and showed a willingness to work closely with Indigenous people but the ALP hadn't done enough to build on its own unprecedented investment in Aboriginal Affairs, and the Coalition's Indigenous policy was based on a flawed one-size-fits-all approach.

NATIONAL Indigenous Television (NITV) has urged the public to challenge their local MPs about support for Indigenous broadcasting, in the lead-up to the federal election on Saturday. NITV chairperson Terri Janke says increased funding for Indigenous broadcasting and media, and help for NITV to become nationally available as a free to air TV channel are vital to Australians' appreciation of Indigenous cultures and issues, social inclusion and 'closing the gap'.

PALM Island man Lex Wotton has made one of his first public appearances since being released from jail. Mr Wotton was jailed in November 2008 over riots on the island in 2004, sparked by the death in police custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee. Civil libertarians are outraged over a gag order imposed on Mr Wotton as part of his parole conditions. Mr Wotton and his wife Cecilia attended a NAIDOC dinner in Townsville on Friday but left it to supporters to express their relief at his return.

FOLLOWING vilification complaints by Timana Tahu earlier this year, the Australian Rugby League (ARL) Indigenous Council, the National Rugby League and the ARL have announced a range of measures to promote cultural awareness and to address racial vilification. They include cultural support officers within each NRL club, cultural awareness training, suspensions and fines, the compulsory investigation of all vilification issues, and codes of conduct to reinforce a zero tolerance approach.

THE Northern Land Council (NLC) says a Federal Coalition plan to abolish the permit system for NT Aboriginal communities is a direct attack on the property rights of Indigenous peoples. NLC chief executive Kim Hill says the permit system helps to stop ‘paedophiles, drug and alcohol runners, and charlatans of many persuasions’ from entering communities, and undermining it compromises the security of Indigenous communities.

THE United Nations in Geneva has heard that the NT Intervention has had a destructive impact on Aboriginal communities. In his presentation to the Committee for Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Race Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes relayed the concerns of fellow attendees Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, who said they had not consented to the Intervention, that it was not ‘a special measure’, and had weakened communities and culture and removed people from their lands.

THE Federal Government has promised $2.6 million in funding to help 32 Indigenous community controlled health organisations across Australia undertake accreditation-related activities. Indigenous Health Minister Warren Snowdon said the Purple House, a well-known renal facility in Alice Springs,would be amongst those to benefit, receiving nearly $300,000 to upgrade its facilities, including a new dialysis room with disabled access and medical equipment. 

THE Australian Greens have called for a national commission to rigorously and scientifically investigate ways to manage Australia's radioactive waste inventory. Speaking in Alice Springs on Friday, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam and the party's lead Northern Territory Senate candidate Warren H Williams said the greatest urgency was to establish a consultative and democratic process of site selection, guided by science and transparent decision making.

A COALITION Government would establish an independent super-bureaucrat reporting directly to the Prime Minister on progress in addressing Indigenous disadvantage, abolish the NT permits system on Aboriginal land, deliver on housing and fast-track Indigenous boarding facilities, according to Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion. Launching the Coalition's Indigenous Affairs policy on Friday, Senator Scullion promised $54 million over four years for dental health, school attendance, tourism and economic development opportunities, and employment initiatives.

A PROTEST outside Federal Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek's Sydney office on Friday has highlighted the sidelining of the NT Intervention during the federal election campaign, despite the worsening state of chronic housing shortages, lack of health facilities and inadequate education in affected Aboriginal communities. Protest organisers, the Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS) called on the electorate to vote for the Greens or independent parties who had consistently opposed the Intervention.

A STRIKING painting depicting ancestral stories by SA artist Jimmy Donegan has been awarded Australia's most prestigious Indigenous art prize at the 27th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA). At a sunset ceremony in Darwin this evening, the 70-year-old was awarded the $40,000 Telstra Art Award for his work titled Papa Tjukurpa, Pukara.

THE major political parties have shown a lack of serious commitment to Indigenous health during the federal election campaign, says the Queensland Aboriginal & Islander Health Council. The peak health organisation’s CEO Selwyn Button says bipartisan commitments to close the gap have come to little, and the Indigenous health sector is extremely worried by the ‘almost complete silence’ on Indigenous disadvantage during the election campaign.

NSW Senate candidate Michael Eckford (aka Anderson) says that, if elected, he and his Senate running partner Criselee Stevens will champion Australia becoming a republic. Dismissing as 'meaningless' the ALP's weekend pledge to work towards a referendum on recognising Indigenous people in the Australian Constitution, Mr Eckford said referendums rarely succeeded so 'why not commence the process to emancipate the whole nation from its colonial past?'.

BOTH Labor and the Coalition have thrown their support behind industry vocational training and employment centres for industries willing to employ at least 1000 Indigenous people. A spokesperson for GenerationOne, the group responsible for the idea of the training centres, said details such as funding would not be available until after the Federal election.

ONE of Australia’s most influential Aboriginal organisations has thrown its unequivocal support behind the Australian Greens. The NSW Aboriginal Land Council has launched an unprecedented advertising campaign, urging its 23,000 members and Indigenous Australians everywhere to get behind the minor party to register a clear protest vote against 'the assimilationist policies' of the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal-National Coalition. It says the Greens must hold the balance of power in the Senate.

AUSTRALIA's premier national Indigenous art prize will be awarded tomorrow, selected for the first time from five category winners. The $40,000 27th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) attracted 321 entries. The five category winners – who were announced in Darwin today and whose work organisers said displayed 'aesthetic power and technical mastery' – were selected from 96 finalists from throughout the country.

A STRATEGY designed to boost Indigenous opportunities in Australia's $26 billion inbound tourism industry and give people the chance to grow their own sustainable Indigenous-tourism business will be launched in Melbourne tomorrow. A group of influential members of the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC), making up the Indigenous Tourism Advisory Panel has developed and will implement the National Tourism Indigenous Strategy (NTIS).

A TWO-DAY conference aimed at helping to build strong Queensland communities where Indigenous children face a positive future gets underway in Cairns tomorrow. Keynote speakers at the 250-strong Qld Council of Social Service gathering will include Indigenous Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda, as well as Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie, who'll reportedly argue that compulsory income management is a flawed answer to a complex issue.

THE Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) has urged the international Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to recommend a full-time racial discrimination commissioner in Australia. FAIRA Chairman Les Malezer says racism in Australia is as bad as it has ever been since 1788, but the government, police and courts are 'in constant denial of this very real and grotesque problem'.

WA Greens candidate Kado Muri says it's time for the Federal Parliament to consider implementing dedicated Indigenous seats. The Goldfields anthropologist and archaeologist says the concept has worked in New Zealand for nearly 150 years and could work here too. He says that if Indigenous people were represented in the parliament at the same rate as in the broader population, they'd have three House of Representative members and one Senator.

FAR North Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and cultural practitioners are expected to gain unprecedented exposure later this month, with a series of dedicated high-profile events. Running alongside the Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair (CIAF), will be the UMI Arts Big Talk One Fire Indigenous Cultural Festival from 20-24 August, featuring Indigenous markets, the Pathways exhibition, and a two-day cultural celebration at the Cairns Civic Theatre.

AN Alice Springs town camp resident standing for election has spoken out against the planned expansion of the Government's BasicsCard system. The Government insists compulsory income management is helping children but Barbara Shaw says it has made it harder for parents to feed their families and should be scrapped. Ms Shaw says more remote community children have been hospitalised for malnutrition since income management was introduced.

THE man behind the GenerationOne initiative to end Indigenous disparity has written to the major political parties, seeking a commitment to better support Indigenous Australians into jobs. Andrew Forrest wants whatever party wins the coming federal election to establish dedicated vocational training and employment centres whenever an employer or an industry guarantees 1,000 or more sustainable jobs for Indigenous Australians. 

NSW Aboriginal activist Michael Anderson launched his Senate campaign on International Day for the World's Indigenous People's on Monday, declaring that a strong black voice for environmental and social justice was long overdue. Mr Anderson said he wanted to highlight the human rights issues faced by Indigenous Australians  and that Aboriginal culture was about sustainability and did not have to impede economic success.

THE Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) has called on all political parties to ‘come clean’ on their intentions for Indigenous people post-August 21. SNAICC chairman Steve Larkins says there’s been no coherent, positive Aboriginal policy from any of the parties so far and there’ll be no improvement in Indigenous outcomes unless funding is matched by a bipartisan agreement to work in partnership with Indigenous people.

RECONCILIATION Australia (RA) has welcomed the Rudd Government’s weekend promise to seek bipartisan support for recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Australian Constitution, if re-elected. RA co-chairs Professor Mick Dodson and Mr Mark Leibler said constitutional recognition is a vital element in the process of reconciliation.

FEDERAL Environment Minister Peter Garrett's promise that a re-elected Labor government would ban uranium mining on a 1200-hectare parcel of Aboriginal land to be incorporated into Kakadu National Park has been hailed by the Northern Land Council, the Greens and environment groups. Mr Garrett said yesterday that traditional owner, Jeffrey Lee had asked for the area to be protected, in the face of overtures from a French energy company hoping to extract uranium from the site.

MEMBERS of a new alliance of regional Indigenous health organisations are seeking meetings with the Prime Minister, and the Opposition and Greens leaders to get some bipartisanship on Indigenous health priorities during the current election campaign. Meeting in Brisbane at the weekend, the group expressed disappointment in the slowness of action to close the gap and called for a consistent national approach to comprehensive primary health care.

AMNESTY International has told a United Nations committee monitoring an international convention on the elimination of racial discrimination that Australia is failing to meet its related obligations. The human rights agency told the committee in Geneva today that the continuation of racially discriminatory measures introduced under the NT Intervention and maintained by successive governments was a particular concern.

DARWIN-based Indigenous cousins Des Abbott and Joel Carroll played key roles in Australia's victory at the Champions Trophy world hockey tournament in Germany. Australia beat England 4-0 to claim a third successive title in the lead-up to October's Commonwealth Games in India.

AMENDMENTS to the Australian constitution to recognise Aboriginal people would be put to a referendum under a re-elected Labor government, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said on Sunday. Ms Macklin, who was at the Garma Festival in northeast Arnhem Land to release the government's Closing The Gap policy, said an expert panel would establish how the constitution should be amended.
 

JESSICA Mauboy, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Warren H Williams have been named major finalists in the 2010 Indigenous Music Awards. The trio makes up the field for the Act of the Year category, which will be announced along with a host of others at a presentation ceremony in Darwin on 28 August, during the Darwin Festival. The Saltwater Band will headline the event.

THE Australian Greens have announced a plan they say would address the crisis in Indigenous ear and hearing health. The plan, which Greens Senator Rachel Siewert says the party will lobby to have implemented, includes increased hearing screenings, follows ups for children from remote communities when they start school, improved sound equipment in classrooms, and training for teachers about hearing loss.

THE Federal Opposition says the Rudd Government deliberately lied about the number of houses completed under its Indigenous housing program. Opposition spokesman on Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion says Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin counted six houses at Gunbalanya when she reported last month that 67 houses had been built in the Northern Territory, but the Gunbalanya houses were only handed over last week – three weeks later.

THE Australian Catholic Social Justice Council has called on all political parties to address homelessness in Australia with commitment and compassion. The Council’s Chairman Bishop Christopher Saunders says every citizen has the right to shelter and the strategy of moving people on – which he saw happen to Aboriginal people from sand dunes at Broome last week – is no solution at all.

SOCIAL economic and cultural benefits worth around $200 million are expected to begin flowing to the Yawuru traditional owners of Broome, Western Australia, following the successful registration of native title agreements signed between them and the State Government in February. The benefits package was in exchange for land to be used for tourism, residential and industrial development and a new airport.

A NEW alliance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisations will hold a remote health summit in Brisbane tomorrow. Concerned that Indigenous communities have so far gained little from COAG and other agreements on Indigenous health, the Northern Australian Remote Aboriginal & Islander Health Alliance has invited political leaders to attend the event.

THE Australian Greens have called on federal, state and territory governments to invest in diversionary strategies and crime prevention instead of building and expanding prisons. Speaking in Adelaide, the party’s Legal Affairs spokesperson Scott Ludlam said such action would reflect a unanimous Senate Committee recommendation that governments fund a justice reinvestment pilot program as a means to reduce crime and increase community safety, and address ‘skyrocketing’ Aboriginal incarceration rates.

ABORIGINAL lawyer and human rights specialist Megan Davis will present the 11th Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture, hosted by Charles Darwin University (CDU) later this month. Ms Davis’s talk will map out the history of Indigenous engagement with the United Nations and the international human rights system. The annual lecture commemorates the Gurindji people’s 1966 Wave Hill Walk Off led by Vincent Lingiari.

AUSTRALIA’S peak nutrition body says politicians need to place more priority on nutrition as a means of closing the gap in Indigenous health. Following media reports that Indigenous children in remote areas are 'starving', Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) has renewed its calls for better support for the Indigenous nutrition workforce, ongoing monitoring of Indigenous dietary intake, and improvements in Indigenous housing.

NATIONAL Homeless Persons' Week has again thrown the spotlight the over-representation of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people in homelessness figures. About 105,000 Australians are homeless on any given night, and Indigenous people account for 18 per cent of clients accessing specialist homelessness services and 25 per cent of accompanying children. Homelessness Australia has called on all federal election candidates to commit to the fight to end homelessness.

THE Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) has urged political leaders to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's development by increasing support for Indigenous-led early childhood services. The child advocacy body says meeting children's health, development and cultural needs is the best way to ensure improvements in their long term well being and educational achievements.

NSW Aboriginal activist Michael Anderson has joined the ranks of Indigenous Australians standing in the Federal Election. The Canberra tent Embassy founder and now pastoralist registered under his birth name Michael Eckford to run as an independent for the Senate. He is campaigning on the issues of free trade agreements, health care, free education, and tackling climate change.

AUSTRALIA’S National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research, the Lowitja Institute, has announced the appointment of Dr Kerry Arabena as its new Chief Executive Officer. Dr Arabena is a descendant of the Meriam people of the Torres Strait, and is the current Co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples Ltd. The Institute announced Dr Arabena would commence the position on 19 August 2010.

NEW awards have been launched to recognise the very best Indigenous businesses and business people in Australia. The Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce (AICC) and The Australian newspaper will co-convene the First Australians Business Awards, which AICC Chairman Warren Mundine says will help ‘shatter the myth that Indigenous people don't understand or value business’. The inaugural awards will be announced in Sydney in November, with nominations closing in October.

THE Aboriginal Legal Service of WA (ALSWA) says the family of the late Mr Ward may still pursue civil action against the State Government and the prison transport company implicated in the Goldfields Elder's 2008 death in custody, in the wake of a Government offer of a $3.2 million ex-gratia payment. ALSWA CEO Dennis Eggington said the service was consulting the family further and had also asked for more information to determine whether an application would be made to have the inquest into Mr Ward's death re-opened.

THE West Australian Government has approved an ex-gratia payment of $3.2 million to the wife and children of a Goldfields Elder who died in January 2008 after being transported in the back of a prison van in searing heat. Attorney General Christian Porter said the payment, including an interim payment of $200,000 made earlier this year, would comprise $1.4 million to Mr Ward’s widow Nancy, and $400,000 to each of his four children, the latter to be held in trust. 

THE ABORIGINAL Legal Rights Movement Inc in South Australia has withdrawn its 2008 complaint to the United Nations regarding funding to Aboriginal legal services in Australia. ALRM chief executive Neil Gillespie said the Commonwealth’s recent decision to increase funding to legal services meant that the Labor Government had finally honoured its pre-election pledge.

MT NANCY resident Barbara Shaw will run as Greens candidate in the safe Northern Territory Labor seat of Lingiari. The outspoken anti-intervention campaigner will take on Labor Minister Warren Snowdon, who won the seat with a margin of 11.2 per cent at the last election.

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A QUEENSLAND Senate candidate for controversial political party One Nation has proposed the creation of two Aboriginal seats in the Federal Parliament. Rod Evans says the major political parties have done little to improve conditions for Aboriginal people but independent Aboriginal seats in the House of Representatives could make a difference. One Nation was founded by former MP Pauline Hanson who was elected in 1996 after insisting that Aboriginal people received more privileges than other Australians.

THE Rudd Government says it has achieved a lot in Indigenous Affairs since it was elected in 2007, despite the many difficult challenges still facing Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin used an address in Canberra yesterday to talk up recently reported outcomes in Indigenous housing, $1.2 billion worth of expenditure in the NT communities, and employment reforms as evidence of progress in an area where previous governments 'found it all too difficult and gave up'.

THE Australian Greens today announced that the popular Northern Territory singer/songwriter, Warren H Williams, would run as a Greens Senate candidate in the next Federal election. The Western Arrente man has voiced opposition to the NT intervention, uranium mining and a proposed uranium dump on Aboriginal land. His campaign is being launched in Alice Springs today.

WELLINGTON in central-western NSW will host a night of Aboriginal boxing on 11 September. The event, tagged as the Night of the Black Stars 2, will be a fundraiser for the Indigenous Boxing Academy. Organisers say the card will feature top NSW Aboriginal professional and amateur boxers together on the same card with local Wellington boxers.
 

WEST Australian high jumper Casey Narrier has her sights firmly set on representing her country – and her Aboriginal people – at the 2012 London Olympics. She gained a third-placing at the national championships earlier this year.

FINALS glory is again beckoning for Northern United. The predominantly Aboriginal rugby league club based in Lismore, northern NSW, is aiming to go one better this year after narrowly losing the 2009 Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League (NRRRL) grand final in their inaugural year. Northern United have already secured a finals berth after coming back from a slow season start to win eight games in a row. The club’s reserve grade side is also through to the season deciders.
 

UNTIL he was revealed as this year's winner of arguably the country's premier Indigenous art prize, South Australian artist Jimmy Donegan hadn't received much recognition for his work. Mr Donegan's vibrant canvas Papa Tjukurpa and Pukara took out both the $4000 general painting category and the prestigious $40,000 main prize in the 27th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA), announced at the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT (MAGNT) in Darwin on 13 August.

REDFERN'S National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) received a sizeable financial boost last week. NSW Premier and Minister for Redfern Waterloo Kristina Keneally toured the centre and handed over a cheque for $500,000 to assist it to support the next generation of Indigenous sporting and artistic leaders.

NATIONAL Rugby League (NRL) recently launched its second Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in Townsville last Thursday. Chief executive David Gallop outlined RAP's commitment to Indigenous communities through employment, education, health and sporting opportunities. He also said the NRL had reviewed all of its vilification policies.

THE Aboriginal recruits who recently took part in the Indigenous Pre-recruitment Program for the Australian Defence Force have shown they've got what it takes. Ernie Bridge, who heads up the WA-based training organisation Unity of First People of Australia (UFPA) said 36 participants had graduated and at least 80 per cent of them would pursue careers in the defence force, thanks to the support of UFPA.

WHILE Indigenous groups across the country have welcomed pledges from the major parties earlier in the month to pursue constitutional recognition of Indigenous people, many remain sceptical that the promise will gain traction now the election is over. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin announced to a Garma festival audience that a re-elected Labor Government would pursue constitutional recognition of Indigenous people.

PALM Island man Lex Wotton has made one of his first public appearances since being released from jail. Mr Wotton was jailed in November 2008 over riots on the island, sparked by the death in police custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee. Civil libertarians are outraged over a gag order imposed on Mr Wotton - referred by many community members as 'The Warrior' - as part of his parole conditions.

BRISBANE-BASED Aboriginal businesswoman Sandra Georgiou wants the bold and black Indigenous women of south-east Queensland to stand up and be recognised. With an idea to make these women - our aunties, mothers and sisters - feel great about themselves, Ms Georgiou has created a glossy 2011 Black Bold and Beautiful calendar launched last week in Brisbane.

FEDERAL Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin pledged that a re-elected Labor Government would pursue support to include Indigenous Australians in the Constitution. She made the pledge at Garma, the cultural festival in north east Arnhem Land following pleas from Yolngu leader and Yothu Yindi Foundation Chairman Galarrwuy Yunupingu and other Indigenous leaders. The promise was made as Indigenous affairs struggled to rate a mention in the general election campaign.

THE Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM) in South Australia has withdrawn its 2008 complaint to the United Nations about the Australian Government after having its funding increased. The ALRM chief executive Neil Gillespie said the Federal Government announced recently that it would honour its pre-election promise by increasing funding to Aboriginal legal services around the country by $34 million.

The Armidale Noongar Corporation (ANC), along with Challenger Institute of Technology, has been trialling a pilot commercial aquaponics system in Armidale, with surprising results. The system teaches the group how to sustainably cultivate fruit and vegetables, providing both training opportunities and the opportunity to produce an income. The system was designed by aquaculture and aquaponics lecturer Tony Bart and built by ANC members.

AN exhibition of artworks and multi-media displays detailing the Aboriginal experience of the world’s longest stock route has opened in Canberra. The art and objects were produced for the Canning Stock Route Project, a four-year program developed by FORM, an independent arts organisation based in Perth, which involved artists, traditional custodians and emerging Aboriginal curators and film-makers. The result of their work is Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route, which is now on display at the National Museum of Australia.
 

THE West Australian government has approved one of the largest ex-gratia payments ever made in Australia to the family of an Aboriginal Elder who died of heatstroke in the back of a prison van two years ago. The State’s Attorney-General Christian Porter announced the $3.2 million payment to the family of the man known as Mr Ward in Perth on 29 July.

THREE Indigenous candidates in Western Australia are contesting the same Lower House seat for the upcoming Federal election.The contest centres on the seat of Hasluck covering large parts of the Eastern and Hills suburbs of Perth, held by Labor’s Sharryn Jackson by just one per cent. Ms Jackson’s competitors include high-profile Nyoongar health professional Ken Wyatt, who is representing the Liberal Party, Yamatji Glenice Smith for the Greens and Nyoongar Elder Dot Henry for the newly formed First Nations Political Party.

In one of four knife-edge contests around the country, Liberal candidate and Noongar man Ken Wyatt is strongly expected to wrest the metropolitan seat of Hasluck from the Labor incumbent Sharryn Jackson by a slim margin. The 55-year-old senior Aboriginal education and health advisor said he would be elated to become the first Indigenous person in the House of Representatives, and would use his position to help close the gap on Indigenous health.