27th April 2000
Downer
calls UN committee row childish
Visiting the United Nations for the first time since the
mandatory sentencing controversy began, Foreign Affairs
Minister Alexander Downer has said it was childish to
suggest that Australia's attack on the UN committee
system sent the wrong message to countries with poor
human rights records.
18th April 2000
A
thousand stories in the naked country
International media is focusing on Australia as Olympics
host and the attention could challenge our cherished
self-image.
15th April 2000
Man
of the land
One minute he's the spear carrier of the indigenous
grassroots, the next he's the diplomat wooing the UN and
dining at the Lodge. Geoff Clark, first elected chairman
of ATSIC, talks to Debra Jopson.
13th April 2000
ATSIC
stands by apology demand
Race relations will continue to sour if the Federal
Government does not deliver social justice to indigenous
people, Aboriginal leaders said yesterday.
12th April 2000
Perkins
backs Costello, not Howard
The Prime Minister should resign in favour of the
Treasurer, Mr Costello, Aboriginal leader Mr Charles
Perkins said last night, before he and other members of
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander board dined
with Mr Howard at The Lodge. Mr Perkins said Mr Costello
"might give leadership to this country because we're in
dire straits as a nation, never mind Aboriginal affairs".
11th April 2000
Howard's
unit 'corrupted race poll with divisive
question'
The Prime Minister's indigenous policy unit forced the
insertion of a "divisive" question in the Australian
Council for Reconciliation's poll on community attitudes,
despite the opposition of the pollster.
Different
sides of the same fence to sit on
Labor's spokesman on indigenous affairs, Daryl Melham,
was crystal clear on one thing when he was interviewed on
the Nine Network's Sunday program. The interviewer's name
was Laurie.
Labor
promises Wik amendments will end
discrimination
A federal Labor government would amend the Wik native
title legislation, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley told the
party caucus today.
10th April 2000
ALP
muddies waters on Aboriginal affairs
If the Labor Party thinks it's got the high ground on the
Aboriginal affairs debate, its spokesman on the subject,
Daryl Melham, yesterday put that myth to bed. His
interview with Laurie Oakes on the Nine Network's Sunday
program was a classic in double-speak.
9th April 2000
Interview
with Daryl Melham, Shadow Minister for Aboriginal
Affairs
The Prime Minister's attempts to push Aboriginal issues
off the political agenda have blown up in his face. He's
already abandoned his own year end deadline for a formal
reconciliation between black and white Australia -- he's
tried to ignore the row over mandatory sentencing. And
now his government has taken an amazingly unsympathetic
view of the stolen generation. That was the last straw
for some of Mr Howard's MPs and for many Aborigines whose
anger has finally boiled over.
8th April 2000
Thin
end of wedge politics
In a week of horrors, there was one shred of good news
for the Government: with iron self-discipline, Peter
Costello has learnt to control that Cheshire Cat grin
which so irritates everyone. Appearing on The 7.30 Report
on Wednesday, he managed a brisk seven minutes with Kerry
O‚Brien without smirking once, a credit to his
imagemeisters. I predict great things for him. Not so the
rest of them. A government which should be riding high on
the Treasurer‚s masterly economic performance has,
instead, descended into a shambles, propelled there by a
poisonous combination of stupidity, arrogance, prejudice
and cynical opportunism.
6th April 2000
A
sorry state of affairs
THE past weeks have seen the already shaky reconciliation
process dealt some hefty blows. First, the unprecedented
and extraordinarily personal attacks upon the United
Nations' independent race discrimination body. Then the
claim in the Government's submission to the Senate Legal
and Constitutional References Committee that "there never
was a stolen generation".
For
none of you: same old story
For all of us. That was the slogan on which John Howard
rode to victory at the 1996 election. At the time, one of
the foremost Aboriginal leaders, Noel Pearson, caused
controversy by suggesting Howard was really saying "for
all of us, and none of you".
4th April 2000
What
is this petulance? Is this Australia or
Iraq?
There is something profoundly disturbing about the Howard
Government's petulant response to criticisms from the
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination.
3rd April 2000
UN
exposes need for a bill of rights
Alexander Downer is correct in suggesting we should
review our relationship with international bodies such as
the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination. However, it is all too likely any such
review will draw the wrong conclusions.
Ruddock
hits back at UN chairwoman
The minister forced to defend Australia's record on
Aborigines to a United Nations committee last month says
it is ironic that the committee is headed by someone from
the United States, which not only has mandatory
sentencing but allows capital punishment of juveniles.
Howard
softens stand on UN
The Federal Government would not walk away from its
membership of the United Nations, but the UN committee
system was being abused by some prepared to travel to
Geneva and make trouble for Australia, Prime Minister
John Howard said last night.
Generation
Gap
Transcript of the disscussion on Lateline. It was to be
the centrepiece of the Government's second term in
office. But has the Government turned its back on
reconciliation or can it still bridge the 'generation
gap'?
2nd April 2000
Government
vents anger at UN
The Howard Government may refuse to send ministers to
attend future UN human-rights hearings after being
heavily criticised by the race discrimination committee.
Reports
for UN committees too time-consuming:
Newman
Interest groups taking human rights complaints overseas
had contributed to a government decision to review
Australia's relationships with the entire UN committee
system, a senior minister said today.
1st April 2000
Canberra
reaction 'like South Africa'
A former top-ranking UN human rights official yesterday
accused Australia of behaving like "South Africa in other
times" in its angry response to criticism by a United
Nations race watchdog.
31st March 2000
To
hell with scrutiny, let's become a
pariah
In August 1998 the Government's brainchild, a new
parliamentary committee dedicated to scrutinising
treaties, reported that mandatory sentencing of children
breached Australia's treaty commitments.
Rebuff
no surprise to UN committee
The Federal Government's rebuff to the United Nations
committee of experts who last week passed damning
judgment on Australia's recent record on indigenous
issues will upset, but hardly surprise, UN officials.
Petulance
merely draws more attention to racial
injustices
The trouble for the Government with its decision to
review its level of co-operation with United Nations
committees is that it has the bad taste of sour grapes
after an adverse judgment.
Rebuff
for United Nations treaties
The Howard Government, outraged by a United Nations
committee's attack on Australia's treatment of
Aborigines, is planning to turn its back on the UN's
international treaty system.
Amnesty
slams Australia over UN attack
Amnesty International says Australia has shown a
deplorable lack of respect for UN committees, by
attacking a report issued last week by the Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
UN
concerned by Australia's reaction to
report
The United Nations says it hopes Australia will look
seriously the criticism contained in a report issued last
week by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination.
Amnesty
warns Australia over human rights
approach
Transcript of an interview between Matt Peacock and
Amnesty International's Heinz Sherman Siegle. "Well, in
London Amnesty International has warned what it calls an
over-reaction by Canberra could severely embarrass
Australia. Over the next 12 months four specialist United
Nations human rights committees will be examining
Australia's performance or lack of it. At the same time -
as Matt Peacock reports - Australian trade with Europe
may be suffering because of Mr Howard's refusal to accept
human rights provisions in a treaty with the EU."
Australia
headed for bottom of the human rights
barrel
The Howard Government's decision to take on the UN
committee system over human rights criticism of Australia
continued to dominate the headlines today. The critics
were out in force, but so were supporters, as Opposition
Leader Kim Beazley experienced first-hand on radio
talkback in Perth. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has
hit back at those criticising his two-month review of how
the committee system affects Australia, and he won't rule
out significant changes to Australia's interaction with
the UN committees.
30th March 2000
WA
black jail population up by 25 PC -
ABS
Western Australia consolidated its reputation as the
state most inclined to jailing Aborigines by recording an
almost 25 per cent increase in indigenous prisoners last
year.
Australia
shies away from UN scrutiny
By deciding to review Australia's participation in UN
treaty committees, the government shows a deplorable lack
of respect for and understanding of the crucial role they
play within the UN human rights system, Amnesty
International said today.
Government
to review participation in UN treaty committee
system
Transcript of an interview between Kerry O'Brien and
Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer on the 7.30 Report.
"The Howard Government took an unprecedented step and put
the United Nations on notice today, attacking the UN
committee system that oversees the obligations of
member-nations like Australia to various international
treaties."
29th March 2000
No
show at UN meeting 'noted'
The Australian Government's 11th-hour withdrawal from a
United Nations conference looking at traditional
environmental issues "had been noted" by "a number of
governments", a consultant to an indigenous delegation
said today.
28th March 2000
Delegation
to UN cancelled
After receiving a roasting over the treatment of
Aborigines from a United Nations committee last week, the
Federal Government has cancelled a delegation to a
separate UN conference on indigenous issues this week.
26th March 2000
Australia
urged to heed UN report on mandatory
sentencing
A member of the United Nations committee examining
Australia's mandatory sentencing laws has rejected
criticism from the Federal Government that its
recommendations are unbalanced and inaccurate.
Deputy
PM defends race relations record after UN
report
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson today defended
Australia's race relations record, following damning
criticism from a United Nations committee.
Lees
says Queen should apologise to
aborigines
Queen Elizabeth II should apologise to Australian
Aborigines for their past treatment, Australian Democrats
Leader Meg Lees said today.
UN
race committee 'biased' on sentencing
The Federal Government says there is no point in the
United Nations race relations committee visiting
Australia because it is clearly biased.
25th March 2000
Sometimes
it's not easy being grey
THE language of United Nations' deliberations, myriad
committee rooms and marbled corridors, can be excessively
courteous. Almost suffocatingly so. Outsiders can
sometimes miss the subtext. You might have expected
Philip Ruddock, however, to understand the nuances. He is
a very nuanced politician. His every word is chosen with
care, every pronouncement carefully qualified so he gives
nothing away. Where other politicians paint issues in
black and white, with Ruddock it's always shades of grey.
He's a grey man, a politician with a bureaucrat's
abhorrence of confrontation and a lawyer's capacity for
obfuscation. But Ruddock's diplomacy let him down in
Geneva this week.
Attorney-General
Rejects UN Sentencing Report
FEDERAL Attorney-General Daryl Williams says a damning
United Nations report on mandatory sentencing laws calls
the author's credibility into question.
Burke
mocks UN sentencing report
The Northern Territory Chief Minister Denis Burke says a
United Nations committee's recommendation for Australia
to review mandatory sentencing laws is based on
misleading information.
Beazley
backs UN recommendation on mandatory
sentencing
The Federal Opposition has backed a United Nations
recommendation to review mandatory sentencing laws in the
Northern Territory and Western Australia.
UN
rejects govt's claims of unbalance
A member of the United Nations committee examining
Australia's mandatory sentencing laws has rejected
criticism from the Federal Government that its
recommendations are unbalanced and inaccurate.
Government
Rules out
Intervention
The federal Government has firmly ruled out
overriding mandatory sentencing laws and says it's lodged
a formal complaint with the United Nations over its
damning report on race relations in Australia.
Override
sentencing laws:
Melham
OPPOSITION Aboriginal Affairs spokesman Daryl
Melham says the federal Government should override
mandatory sentencing laws to save Australia's
international reputation. The United Nations Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has said
mandatory sentencing laws discriminate against indigenous
Australians and conflict with UN conventions on human
rights.
Don't
ignore UN report:
Nelson
LIBERAL MP Brendan Nelson says a damning United
Nations report critical of mandatory sentencing laws
shouldn't be ignored.
24th March 2000
Australia's
attorneys-general meet today on mandatory
sentencing
A summit of the Australia's attorneys-general today is
likely to agree to disagree on a national response to
mandatory sentencing, federal Attorney-General Daryl
Williams said.
Racism
pervades politics and law
The United Nations has been told racism remains a
powerful force in Australia which pervades both political
and legal institutions. The claim has come for the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission.
Fewer
Aborigines face jail, Ruddock tells UN
The Immigration Minister, Mr Ruddock, was not convinced
by the United Nations that mandatory sentencing would
increase the jailing of indigenous Australians.
23rd March 2000
Australia
in the dock
A senior United Nations human rights expert yesterday
challenged the Federal Government's inaction on mandatory
sentencing, saying it was obliged to override the
controversial laws in the Northern Territory and Western
Australia.
Ruddock
bracing for adverse report
Immigration and Reconciliation Minister Philip Ruddock
appears to be bracing for an adverse report following his
appearance before the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva
overnight.
22nd March 2000
Ruddock
braces for UN comment on mandatory
sentencing
Immigration and Reconciliation Minister Philip Ruddock is
bracing for an adverse report from the United Nations
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD).
UN
continues to question mandatory
sentencing
Mandatory sentencing legislation "conflicted with the
norms of justice", the UN's main race committee said
today as it continued its examination of race relations
in Australia.
21st March 2000
Federal
Labor under pressure to support Senate blockade Mandatory
Nightlead
Labor was under mounting pressure today to blockade
legislation in the Senate if the government continues to
stymie attempts to overturn mandatory sentencing. A
national phone link of 20 organisations representing
church, community, youth, legal and human rights groups
urged the Senate to consider forcing the House of
Representatives to debate Greens Senator Bob Brown's
anti-mandatory sentencing bill. Senator Brown and the
Australian Democrats are in favour of threatening the
government with a blockade of its legislative agenda.
Mandatory
Laws Worsen Plight of Aborigines, UN tells
Ruddock
Levels of Aboriginal incarceration in the Northern
Territory were already unacceptably high and mandatory
sentencing had worsened the plight of indigenous people,
an Australian government delegation was told today by the
United Nations' main race committee.
16th March 2000
NIWG
Slams Human Rights Whitewash (Press
Release)
The National Indigenous Working Group has expressed
considerable concern about the news report that the
Australian Government has politically manipulated the
operations of the United Nations.
