Australia pledges more teachers for Aboriginal Outback The Associated Press February 14, 2008
CANBERRA, Australia: Determined to prove that a national apology to Australia's sidelined indigenous population is more than words, the government on Thursday promised more teachers to tackle widespread illiteracy in Outback Aboriginal communities.
The commitment to match symbolism with action has been applauded. But attention is rapidly swinging toward the challenge of boosting Aborigines from Third World squalor to the Developed World affluence that other Australians have enjoyed during a 17-year economic boom.
Aborigines account for about 450,000 in Australia's population of 21 million. They are the country's poorest group, with the highest rates of jailing, unemployment and illiteracy. Their life expectancy is 17 years shorter than that of other Australians.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd won international acclaim Wednesday by leading the Parliament in apologizing to generations of mostly mixed-race Aborigines who were taken by government officials from their mothers in a bid to make them grow up like white Australians.
"This is a story about Australians — human beings_ who were ripped apart over the better part of a century, and it was time the nation's Parliament said: 'That was crook (wrong), let's acknowledge it and let's move on,'" Rudd told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television Thursday.
The apology was his first parliamentary act since his center-left government was elected in November last year after 11 years in opposition.
A government inquiry found in 1997 that many of the so-called "stolen generations" were abused in institutions and most were deeply scarred by their separation from family.
The influential national broadsheet The Australian said in a front-page editorial Thursday that the spirit of Rudd's apology is "dishonored if the current generation cannot devise new and better policies to lift the conditions of indigenous peoples."
"Expectations Rudd has created for his prime ministership are huge," the newspaper said.
NORMALLY CONSERVATIVE .. Australian - newspaper in Sydney, New South Wales Australia ... Australian. Newspaper in Sydney, New South Wales Australia covering Sydney local ... This newspaper is owned by News Corporation. ... Who Owns The Media? ... http://www.mondotimes.com/1/world/au/180/4445/11095 .. fuagf add ..
Rudd has refused to pay compensation to the tens of thousands of families torn apart by the racist assimilation policies that prevailed throughout most of the 20th century.
But he has set bold targets to remove the inequalities between the living standards of black and white Australians. They include improvements in indigenous education and housing.
On Thursday, his deputy Julia Gillard introduced to the Parliament legislation to pay for an extra 50 school teachers this year in the Outback of the Northern Territory.
The 64 million Australian dollar (US$58 million; €40 million) policy will provide an additional 200 teachers in this remote northern frontier over four years. No figures were immediately available on current teacher numbers.
Most Aborigines in these drug and violence-ridden communities scattered across tropical and desert wilderness survive on welfare and many struggle with the English language. Their children have the nation's poorest literacy and numeracy skills. Truancy is rampant.
"If we are to encourage these young indigenous people to come to school, we need to have enough teachers ready to teach them," Gillard told Parliament when introducing the legislation. It will be voted on within months.
Part of Rudd's promise of action is an invitation to the opposition to attack the long-standing indigenous problems by joining the government in what he describes as a type of "war cabinet." Australian governments engage opposition lawmakers in crucial decision-making in times of war to ensure bipartisanship against a national peril.
"The challenges are too great and the consequences are too great to allow it all to become a political football," Rudd said of indigenous issues.
The bipartisan approach is aimed at developing long-term strategies beyond the reach of a government's three-year term.
The first priority of this new strategy is to provide adequate accommodation for Aborigines in the Outback, where there are often as many families in a house as there are bedrooms.
Paul Torzillo, a medical director of a remote Aboriginal health service in South Australia state who has surveyed 5,000 local homes, said the condition of existing houses made it impossible for Aborigines to maintain their health.
Most houses have nowhere to cook or store food, and a lack of maintenance in these government-provided homes is the predominant problem.
"Only 11 percent of those houses had electrical safety, so that in all of the rest there were major electrical fire risks," Torzillo told ABC radio.
Wilson Tuckey, an opposition lawmaker, said he abstained from the apology vote Wednesday because it would not improve Aboriginal lives.
"I thought there was a better chance for the Aboriginal people if I said a prayer on their behalf and relied on the efforts of a higher being because I have no confidence whatsoever that Kevin Rudd is going to do anything for them," Tuckey said Thursday.
Edit .. didn't resist ..
UMMM .. DEAR WILSON, I THINK YOUR GOD IS KINDA LIKE KEVIN'S AND HE WOULDN'T TELL TWO PEOPLE DIFFERENT BEST WAYS .. WOULD HE??
OH!, deepest sympathies to all .. Northern Illinois.
Further arrests over Rosemeadow brawl Arjun Ramachandran January 8, 2009
Insert:* Demolition ordered for Rosemeadow estate AN URBAN design experiment declared a failure 10 years ago, and inadequate funding to help young people in western Sydney, contributed to this week's street violence in a Rosemeadow estate.
A police car window was smashed in Rosemeadow last night, as police made further arrests over the bloody brawl at a south-west Sydney public housing estate on Monday night.
The window was smashed as the car left Macduff Way - near Macbeth Way where this week's violence occurred - despite the presence of 25 police officers, police said.
Police earlier arrested three people during patrols of the volatile neighbourhood, where streets are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare.
During the patrol of the "3M" precinct - named after MacBeth, Malcolm and Macduff Ways - police also confiscated a truckload of rocks and bottles that might be used as weapons in future attacks.
A 26-year-old Rosemeadow man was arrested about 5.30pm and charged with affray.
About 11am, a 16-year-old who was stabbed in the brawl was also charged with two counts of affray.
A short time earlier, a 16-year-old who was under police guard at hospital after being stabbed several times in the brawl was charged with two counts of discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, causing danger with a firearm, discharging loaded arms with intent, two counts of affray, possessing an unregistered firearm and other firearm offences.
A police source said the teen gave a "chilling" interview in which he described practising firing a rifle into a field behind his house, and expressed no remorse about the two people he was accused of shooting.
All three who were charged yesterday were refused bail and face court today. The two 16- year-olds will face Campbelltown Children's Court and the man will face Campbelltown Local Court.
Anthony Michael Neely, 18, faced Campbelltown Local Court yesterday and was charged with affray.
Police still hope to arrest others believed to have been involved in the violence on Monday night.
Up 100 people had gathered in the street when police arrived on Monday night, although it was believed 30 were actively involved in the brawl.
Seven people were injured, including two who were shot.
Police said on Tuesday there were likely to be others who were injured but who had not attended a hospital.
Monday night's violence has also prompted calls for the Government to review the future of the public housing estate, with many residents on Tuesday calling for it to be bulldozed. with Dylan Welch
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