Carrot or not - you'll get the stick

This from ABC News:

Nuclear facility may go ahead despite traditional owners' opposition

Federal Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon says legislation passed last year may see a nuclear waste facility go ahead at Muckaty Station, despite some traditional owners opposing it. A weekend newspaper reported the Federal Government has offered traditional owners of the site north of Tennant Creek $9 million every five years to use their land....

I remember reading in Saturday's paper that there are about 400 TO's included in the payment plan. OK, lets do the math:

$9 million / 5 years = $1.8 million per year
$1.8 million / 400 TO's = $4,500 per TO per year

Alright, four and a half thousand dollars every year (before tax that is, most likely) to lease your land to the Federal Government as a radioactive waste depository. Would you agree to this contract if it be your land? How much would you want if it' be you who's ancestors have lived and are buried there?

Whilst some Traditional owners from that area, the Warlmanpa people, have apparently agreed to such a deal, there is also opposition to such an arrangement amongst the countrymen & women from around that part in Central Australia that us white men calls Muckaty Station.

It was never going to be an easy ride for the Feds to find a backyard that would fulfil the selection criteria of no protests. But it was duely noted in the Senate by Democrats and Greens that there is more than just a little bit, if not to say a lot of anger in the local community about how the Feds have just imposed their almighty will, offering a token bribe to the Traditional Owners and should they still not get on the radioactive board then goal posts err.. laws will be changed, "the need for the greater good" enforced on the objecting people.

Thou Shalt not Steal
by Kev Carmody

1788 down Sydney cove
The first boat people land
And they say
Sorry boys our gains your loss
We’re gonna steal your land

And if you break out in British law
For sure your gonna hang
Or work your lives
Like our convicts
With a chain on your neck and hand

And they told us

CHORUS
Woah black woman thou shalt not steal
Hey black man thou shalt not steal
We’re gonna civilize your black barbaric lives
And we’ll teach you how to kneel

But your history couldn’t hide the genocide
The hypocrisy that was real
For your Jesus said you’re supposed to give
The oppressed a better deal

We say to you
yes our land thou shalt not steal
Woah yeah our land you better heal

Well your science and your technology
Can make a nuclear bomb
Development has increased its size
Three million mega tonnes
And if you think that’s progress
I suggest your reasoning is unsound
For you should have found out long ago
You better keep it in the ground

CHORUS

The land’s our heritage and spirit here
The rightful country is black
And we’re sitting here just wondering when we gonna get that land back

They taught us
CHORUS

Well you talk of conservation
Keep the forest pristine green
But in 200 years your materialism has stripped the forest clean
And race is a contradiction that is understood by none
but mostly their left hand holds the bible, the right hand holds the gun

Taken from and therefore Thank You to Tohou Lidia from over @ Shut up! I can't hear the pantomime. Much appreciated.

Same day, same source

Inquiry fails to uncover Aboriginal paedophile rings
The co-chairs of an inquiry into child sex abuse in the Northern Territory say they have not uncovered any paedophile rings in the Territory's Aboriginal communities....

Who remembers the claims made? The media hype? I do, and the people wrongly accused probably do. Whole communities were branded with those accusations. I mean it's good that the police and other investigative bodies follow up any claims, you never know, terrible if it is true and nothing was done. But to label whole communities as paedophiles or paedophile supporters, and that's what Mal Brough and the ABC Lateline did, without having substantial proof that this is the case , is less than helpful in the fight against child abuse. From memory there was one suspect reported by community members, and before you knew it it was a whole ring and then entire communities. Crikey did last September an interesting piece on what effect such slander has on the people attacked and Mark Lawrence a follow up. Anyway, it turns out there was no such ring, can't wait for Mal Brough to officially apologise to the communities involved.

And just as if the Mother of all News-days wanted to emphasise how Indigenous Australia is getting the raw end of the deal, , as it pretty much always does, this in on the same day's news ticker, and again, the ABC:

Native Title Tribunal chief to quit
The head of Australia's native title agency says he is quitting his position because the system is too concerned with legal technicalities to provide real results....

After reading those three stories today, I couldn't help but wonder how much the indigenous community can take before they have collectively a gutful. For them it seems everyday is Bad News day. This country has by god a lot to say sorry for.

their left hand holds the bible, the right hand holds the gun