Exclusion and Embrace 2016: Disability, Justice and Spirituality - understanding sacred texts, and the experiences of people with disabilities and carers within the context of faith

Exclusion and Embrace 2016: Disability, Justice and Spirituality

From August 21, 2016 03:04 until August 23, 2016 05:04

•  At Jasper Hotel, 489 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Australia

The Australian Catholic University, The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, The Progressive Christian Network of Victoria Inc., would like to invite you to:

2016 Exclusion and Embrace Conference

Date: 21-23 August 2016

Venue: Jasper Hotel, 489 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Australia.

This Conference is a rare opportunity to bring together people interested in understandings of sacred texts, and the experiences of people with disabilities and carers within the context of faith. This  multi-faith Australasian Conference  has the support of a wide number of organisations including the Jewish Christian Muslim Association (JCMA) and the Faith Communities Council of Victoria (FCCV). The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania is providing the Conference Secretariat.

The Conference will draw on the wisdom of all faiths, and will deepen our understanding of the many aspects of disability and spirituality. We are interested in your experience, research, practice, and ideas and knowledge.

Among the themes explored will be ethics, care, inclusion in faith communities, friendship, discrimination, love, justice, liberation.

In Australia, and abroad, an increasing number of people are actively exploring the intersection of disability and spirituality. An excellent Conference program will present perspectives across the faith spectrum, with opportunities for dialogue and formation of new networks. It will have appeal to people who live with disability, families and carers, academics and practitioners (volunteers and staff).

Two esteemed speakers will be keynoters at our Conference: Prof Hans Reinders is Chair of Ethics at VU University, Holland, and editor of the journal Religion and Disability. Rev Bill Gaventa is Director of the Summer Institute of Theology and Disability and President-elect of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). We are also delighted that an Australian cast of presenters is increasingly coming on board: Prof David Tacey an interdisciplinary scholar who is widely published for his knowledge of Australian spirituality. Other presenters include Lorna Hallahan, Sheik Isse Musse, Melinda Jones and Diana Cousens (see website Speakers tab for details).

There will also be an exhibition of artworks that reflect people’s experience of disability and spirituality, as it relates to the conference theme.

View and download the brochure (note: when printing remember to tick print on both sides and flip on short edge)

The Conference is also seeking Abstracts within these three streams, as they relate to disability and spirituality.

(i)         Supports in faith communities/service providers

(ii)        Sa­cred texts/theological understandings of disability

(iii)       Theological Educa­tion/Research.

Please go to Call for Presentations for details of Abstract Details and Guidelines. Abstracts need to be submitted by 10 April, 2016. Presentations may include formal papers, posters, personal stories, poetry, or other approaches.

We invite presentations which address aspects and experiences as they relate to spirituality and disability. Themes include liberation, education, bioethics, reconciliation, sexuality, pastoral care, inclusion, love, theological interpretations. All presenters must be registered for the event by 15 July, 2016.

Other sponsors and endorsers include Spiritual Health Victoria, Spiritual Care Australia, Christian Blind Mission, Victorian Council of Churches, Progressive Christian Network Victoria, Australian Catholic University and the University of Divinity.

As part of the Conference, we are also launching and displaying an  Art Exhibition, depicting the conference themes. Andy Calder, Conference Convenor

Further Information:  Ann Byrne  The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania  Email: ann.byrne@victas.uca.org.au

Phone: (03) 9251 5404

Endorsed by: Faith Communities Council of Victoria, Jewish Christian Muslim Association of Australia, Victorian Council of Churches, Spiritual Care Australia, Spiritual Health Victoria and University of Divinity.

Mt Druitt - the "stardom" of this western Sydney suburb is unable to save its Aboriginal health service

Picture above is from here

Picture above from here

An Aboriginal Community Health Service in Western Sydney is being forced to close after a Federal Government decision to cease its funding.
Posted by NITV on Saturday, 4 July 2015

These days, the economy is run for the benefit of business, not the rest of us.

Picture below is from here.

More shocks with the reporting of some epic results following on the easing of work rights and obligations - this time connected to the 457 visas under which workers are sponsored to work in Australia by employers.  This time it is the 'enlightened' non-feminist firm Thiess which is a subsidiary/partner of its 'enlightened' non-feminist corporate colleague Leightons.  Please note that Leighton Holdings is now known as the CIMIC Group. Those familiar with the old Leightons Holding board will remember year after year of all male boards - but now they have moved on to the token female.  BTW, please note Miss Eagle does not agree with 'the goal' supported by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) of 30% of boards to be female. 

The Sex Discrimination Act has been in place since 1984.  Introduction of such legislation was part of Australia's obligation when ratifying the United Nations' Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  More than 30 years has gone by and corporations are only being pressed for 30% female representation!  But then WGEA - and its predecessors with other nomenclature - has always been a featherduster organisation.  And look where its so-called "carrot and stick" approach has got women.

In 2010 the then EOWA awarded Thiess an EOWA Award as an employer of choice for women.  This was at the time when there were all sorts of shenaningans going on at the site of the Wonthaggi desalination plant construction.  As for women lauding Thiess .... who? Professional women? Women further down the food chain?  With such undemanding standards, will Thiess Services and CIMIC Group end up employers of choice for women?  I don't think there is an award for providing sound workplace practices for migrant workers.  Clearly, if there was an award, I would expect Thiess Services to find themselves ineligible.  I think we could rely on the Electrical Trades Union to see to that. 

Complaints have been around for a long, long time.  Please see these listed in 2013. 

If you want too tickle your funny bone with a sardonic laugh or three, please read this from April last year. Note the panel for this review - a review which had its mind made up long before it began.  It had its goal clearly in view.  Now we are seeing the results of it.

Please note the ministerial responsibility in the review - it is that well known wife of fish, Senator Michaelia Cash.  These days she is the Assistant Minister for Border Protection (the portfolio for being cruel to refugees and asylum seekers, particularly women and their children) and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women. Australia does not have a Minister who only handles the portfolio of women's affairs because of its significance. And, of course, a woman cannot be expected to handle such a portfolio responsibly.  It is essential that the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott - who day-by-day has his credibility leaking as badly as a run down people-smuggling boat - gives significance to the portfolio.  Seems to be that gone are the days when significant women handled this portfolio with great success and benefit to those whom the portfolio served.

What we have found aired to us in recent weeks is that large numbers of men and women in the Australian workforce - particularly if they come from overseas on a 417 working holiday visa or a 457 employer sponsored visa - are treated shoddily.  The Liberal-National Parties currently in government in Australia, together with their corporate mates, are trashing Australia's reputation for fairness and equity.  Australia is becoming yet another rip-off station on the international circuit.

Such practices disadvantage ordinary Australians. How?

1. Can we really trust employers, as a group,  if they say they cannot fill their jobs with Australian employees?  Not all employers using 417s and 457s are bad employers.  However, when major corporations act like Thiess they bring everyone into disrepute.

2.  The enthusiasm with which the Abbott Government and their corporate cronies have adopted the concept - or some of the concept - of overseas working visas is part of an overall objective of driving down wages in Australia, particularly for unskilled or semi-skilled work.  And remember we don't yet know what Australia has signed up to in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. 

3. Currently, Australian government agencies are not working for all Australians.  As a peep into the WGEA shows, no pressure is being brought to bear on recalcitrant employers and yet, as we saw in last year's Budget, the Abbott Government is prepared to place enormous financial and family pressures on Australian workers. 

4. Is Australia producing a new breed of refugees as people flee from us because of the evil and gross indecency of many employment practices in this country?

As you can see below, Networkers, I have included a reading list.  It's a bit of a mixed bag - but it will give you an idea of some of the stuff that is around and a lot of this stuff will have been inserted in the minds of politicians by professional lobbyists.  The last on the list is from one of my favourite economic commentators, Ross Gittins. I conclude this article with A Taste of Gittins from his article which I have included below:

To me the main drawback is not so much that employers may not try hard enough to find local workers to fill jobs, or that the availability of this external supply may limit to some extent the rise in skilled wages, but that it reduces employers' incentive go to the bother of training young workers. 

Still, we mustn't forget that, these days, 

the economy is run for the benefit of business, not the rest of us.

Further reading

Visa holders and migrant workers - workplace rights and entitlements

Compete to prosper

The evidence is tacking up that Australians will earn lower wages in the years ahead

Australian oil and gas workers earning less which may give industry competitive edge

Minimum Wage Review 2014 - Australian Retailers Assocation submission

Immigration to Australia

How Australia's supply of labour is changing

MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD ON THE CRISIS FACING ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES. ACT TO STOP THE FORCED CLOSURES

The text below is from www.concernedaustralians.com.au.

Will You Help to Prevent a Crisis? 

The Commonwealth’s commitment to Homelands and Outstations was surely sealed by the 1967 Referendum. How can it be then that the federal government can consider abandoning their long-held responsibilities by cutting essential funding to these especially vulnerable areas? 

What is clear is that the Commonwealth knows full well that the consequences of the cuts will fall with brute force onto Aboriginal communities least able to defend themselves. Such behaviour is contemptible. 

It is quite clear that state governments do not have the resources 

to simply replace Federal funding.

Mr. Barnett in Western Australia has responded by indicating that he will close up to 150 remote Aboriginal communities by simply cutting off their essential services – water, power etc. Arrangements with the South Australia government are still to be determined but at this stage the outstations fear their fate will be similar to those in the West. 

The results of such actions are perhaps too great to contemplate, just as there is no real attempt to understand the cultural implications of moving people from their traditional homelands. 

What does closure mean? 

The relationship between Aboriginal peoples and their lands is acknowledged but little understood. The connection to land is the embodiment of Aboriginal cultural identity. It totally embraces a sense of belonging without which there is a life long sense of grieving and loss. 

It is only on your own land that you have rights – once you move these rights are lost and you become simply a squatter on somebody else’s land. Forced removals in the past have proved devastating and costly, not only to the communities themselves but also to the surrounding communities responsible for resettlement. Nearly all outback Aboriginal communities are under-resourced, have inadequate infrastructure and are grappling with social problems. 

To burden these communities further is unthinkable. Such action would place Australia in conflict with international law. "...forced evictions are ... incompatible with the requirements of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and could only be justified in the most exceptional circumstances...." UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, General Comment No.4, (1991) 

Pope Francis warns Australia of socio-economic disaster when he states, “severing the ties of Aboriginal people from their land and thus their culture, spirituality and very foundation of their being, is unethical, immoral, un-Christian and heartless.” 

We strongly believe that the Federal funding decision should be reversed. 

For this we need your urgent help. 

Can you either send letters or telephone Tony Abbott and Nigel Scullion and tell them that it would be totally unacceptable for funding to Remote Communities to be cut. The Uniting Church, guided by Congress and local synods, opposes the closure of communities and forced removals. Many of the points they have made are included in the list below as a help for those who wish to write letters. Contact details of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs are also below.  

Points for Letters –Writers Opposing Remote Community Closures: 

(you may like to focus your letter on one or more of the below points) 

• The unconscionable failure of the Federal Government to maintain its responsibility for the safety and future of Aboriginal Peoples from Outstations/Homelands.

• To close communities will create a wave of dispossession denying people the ability to stay in touch with their land and their culture. 

• There has been no attempt by government to understand what such forced community closures and movement of people means for people’s social, mental, spiritual and physical life. 

• There has been no consultation with Aboriginal people or the organisations which represent them regarding alternative solutions, and 

• The movement of so many people would put enormous pressure on the communities they go to – housing, education, health facilities, and community relationships. Nothing has been done to plan for and deal with such impacts. 

Hon. Tony Abbott: 

Parliament House, 

PO Box 6022, 

Canberra ACT 2600 

Tel: (02) 6277 7700 

Electoral Office: 

PO Box 450, Manly, NSW, 2095 

Telephone: (02) 9977 6411 

Hon. Nigel Scullion: 

Parliament House, 

PO Box 6100, 

Canberra, ACT 2600 

Tel: (02) 6277 7780,  

Electoral Office: 

Unit 1, 229 McMillans Road, 

Jingili, NT 0810 

Telephone: (08) 8948 3555 

Telephone Calls to Oppose Remote Community Closures: 

If you decide to telephone your concern to the offices of Mr Abbott and Mr Scullion please give your name and address while leaving a message stating your strong objections to these funding cuts that will lead to the closure of homelands/outstations. Demand that the decision is reversed. If you have the energy, please do also inform your Local Member of your concerns.  

A slogan for International Women's Day 2014? PENALISE - PENALISE - PENALISE

"What's on your mind?" Facebook asks each time I post.  Well, what's on my mind is the dreadful interview with a young-ish woman on ABC TV this morning.  The young-ish woman spoke about why women are not getting a fair go in the workplace and are not well represented in the higher management positions etc ad nauseam.

Picture below is from here

Let me declare my interest.  I am a 1970s-1980s feminist and to see what happens to even the most basic feminist traditions such as IWD makes me ill.

The young-ish woman enunciated a new version of failure to understand or act on the REAL problem by discussing how mentoring of women had failed but this new thing called sponsorship of women would be a huge success. 

What absolute garbage!!!  The problem no longer lies with women - except perhaps those women who are unable or unwilling to study and work hard to progress.  A lot of women prefer stasis to playing boy's games or suffering  under boys' bias.  

But let's take a look at what women can do.  Work hard? See Gail Kelly, CEO of Westpac.  Manage family responsibilities - even multiple births?  See Gail Kelly! Extend your education in a new direction? See Gail Kelly.  Improve the company's bottom line? See Gail Kelly.    

Gail Kelly is not alone in managing all this.  She is merely (?) the most public face of what a lot of women are doing, have done, and will continue to do.

In 1984 Australia legislated the Sex Discrimination Act which in recent years has been revised without doing what needs to be done.  Discrimination of any type can be difficult to prove.  Discrimination on the basis of gender is particularly difficult.  Penalties for such discrimination either at business/corporate level or the individual level have been, more often than not, the equivalent of being well and truly beaten with a feather duster.  

The problem, in the main, is no longer a problem of women and their abilities and education.  Women - generally speaking - have never been more well-educated, well-qualified, and able.  

The problem lies where it has always lain - with men.  The problem lies even in the second-highest office in the land - the Prime Minister's office. The problem lies, currently, in the civil discourse established by Australia's current prime minister to defeat one particular woman - but also women within his own party.  What is the punishment for the Prime Minister's vilification of women?  Success - that's what.  He got there.  His cronies got there.  The media he favoured got there.  

What will the young-ish woman do about that?  What will the ABC Breakfast Show do about that?  What will the Sex Discrimination Act do about that?  What will that joke of a government bureaucracy titled the Workplace Gender Equality Agency or EOWA do about that?

Men are rewarded with real status and meaningful incomes while women are given useless legislation, a very dim government bureaucracy, a lot of lip service.  

Saturday 8 March is International Women's Day.  Are you spending it in a meaningful way or just going to one of the frippery type events.  I suggest that there be a one word message for this year's IWD - PENALISE!

Pope Francis, Catholicism, The Vatican, The United Nations, Empire and Women & Children

I have been asked by a few people what are my thoughts on Pope Francis. I warm to what I see but I do reserve judgment. I don't believe that one man can turn around the culture of the insular Vatican or the wide Catholic diaspora. 

I believe there are inhibiting and evil cultures at work within the Vatican and within Catholicism at large. One of them is the culture of almost two thousand years of Roman style administration - the administration of Empire. The Catholic Church has been ruling a physical empire - not just a spiritual one. This flies in the face of Jesus who said his kingdom was not of this world. Central to the continuity through changing times and controversies has been the exercise of power across the world through an administration both Roman and Catholic.

This power has as one of its foundations exclusion. This exclusion is seen most clearly in the church's attitude to women and children. Children are powerless still. Women do have power and agency in this day and age ... but, with only rare exceptions, this is a product of the 20th century.

I don't applaud Pope Frank for having some of the better dressed poor to breakfast. That is not a world first. I will know things are on their way when the Vatican is handed back to the Italian Government and the Lateran Treaty is null and void; when the Catholic Church becomes a stateless entity with no representation at the United Nations.

One other thing is needed from top to bottom and that is a policy of inclusion as opposed to the current policy of preferment. Excluded women and children have to be welcomed into the centrality of the Church. A clear sign that this is happening will be the abolition of required celibacy within the Church. I know there is a long queue of women, particularly in religious orders, awaiting ordination to the priesthood. However, a reformed church will take into itself people from the pews IRRESPECTIVE of age, gender, ethnicity, educational qualifications.

The Catholic Church has long called itself The Universal Church. This is a lie. It is not The Universal Church as long as there are people excluded from its ranks simply on the basis of who they are rather than what they have to contribute.

So dear Pope Frank, I do give you ten out of ten for style. But more than style is required. Substance is of the essence and that must be, as far as contemporary humans are able, enduring. You will have to upset whole tribes of Vatican huggers and preferred prelates ... but I do believe that if you do it well - and you are capable of doing it well - there will be loud applause from the pews and beyond. You might even find many who have moved from the Church finding their ways back to inclusion.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/20/does-pope-francis-have-a-woman-problem.html

POLITICAL FOOTBALL - Australia and its fight against apartheid in 1971 - and what happened in Toowoomba

In 1971, I was chair of an organisation called Citizens Against Apartheid in Toowoomba, Queensland. Toowoomba - an ultra conservative regional city - was to play host to one of the two regional Rugby Union games played by the South African Springboks against Australia's Wallabies.

Our small group had come into being because of Richard Buchhorn, then the National Chaplain of the Catholic youth organisation, the Young Christian Workers. [Below you will find more about Richard in a piece I wrote on The Network four and half years ago.] Richard was and is an ardent campaigner against racism.  He had got in touch with a Toowoomba contact he had who passed Richard's interest on to my husband and I and some friends his willingness to come and speak in Toowoomba.  This galvanised us into action.  We held a debate between Richard and the President of Toowoomba Rugby Union (an old school friend of my husband). It was well attended.  It unearthed some surprising supporters and we were off and running. We published some leaflets.  But on the day, I was the only one of us available (with my nine month old baby son) to attend.

The story and the drama has best been told in the late Stewart Harris's book Political Football.  Because history and time have changed the attitudes to apartheid and racism in sport, and because history of the fight against apartheid is now being resurrected in Australia in the shadow of Nelson Mandela's death - now seems the time to collate my tiny role into one keeping-place.

I have collated the material relevant to my small part in the fight against the Springbok tour in 1971 into the PowerPoint file below.  I also had the good fortune (as did Richard) to be at the dinner organised by Meredith Burgmann in her role as President of the NSW Legislative Council.  It was rather incredible. All of a sudden - at least so it seemed - we radical leftie types (and we were called worse) were now respectable.

That night at Parliament House we honoured those Wallabies who had taken very great and grave stands against apartheid and apartheid in sport.  The money raised that night would send to South Africa the first young Aboriginal Rugby Union team to tour there.

What amazed me that night was the attendance by many who, in another generation, would have vilified me and those doing the sort of thing I did.  Now, however, Nelson Mandela himself had become respectable, honoured and revered.   I wasn't strong-armed off a football field as Meredith Burgmann was.  Neither was my nose bloodied and spread across my face as Brian Tovey's was.  All I can say is that I did what I was able to do at the time.  It has been yet another lesson in my life that probably the greatest change agent of all is time.  Time shows what is true and what is false.  Time shows what is worthy and what is venal.

Young women and work rights. Please don't resign - get professional advice on your work rights.

From Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission ~~~~~

We are currently reviewing our my work rights campaign and would like to receive your feedback. The ‘My work rights’ campaign aims to raise awareness of young women’s rights at work. Experiencing harassment and discrimination can have real, negative impacts on a person’s confidence and wellbeing.

Our research shows that among young Victorian women:

a third have experienced sexual harassment at work

more than a third have been discriminated against at work.

We also discovered that young women often don’t make a complaint about discrimination or sexual harassment. They are more likely to resign.

We’ve developed a quiz to help young women find out about their rights at work. Please send this update on to your networks and encourage them to promote it and take our short survey at myworkrights.com.au to help us improve the campaign. The survey is anonymous and takes 10 minutes or less to complete.

If you, or anyone you know have any questions about rights at work you can call the Commission’s Enquiry Line for a free and confidential chat on 1300 292 153 or email enquiries@veohrc.vic.gov.au.

For updates about ‘My work rights’ like facebook.com/myworkrights and follow@MyWorkRights on Twitter.

For further information about the Commission's electronic updates service visit: humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/eupdates
.......................................................................................
Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission 
Level 3, 204 Lygon Street |Carlton 3053 | Victoria, Australia
Telephone: 1300 891 848 | Fax: 1300 891 858
Email: communciations@veohrc.vic.gov.au
Web: www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au

The Commission's Privacy Policy can be found at www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/privacy

Cronulla comes to Canberra - bigotry and racism and xenophia brought to you by Abbott, Rudd, and Morrison

Picture above from here

This article was posted on Facebook to-day 

by my old friend John O'Dempsey.

John, unlike me, has remained a Labor loyalist

in spite of Rudd's latest immigration policy. 

An illuminating article on Scott Morrison - 

Australia's Shadow Minister for Immigration -

was written by Nick Bryant in The Monthly

Scott Morrison's electorate covers the scene of the Cronulla riots.

Scott Morrison claims to be a Christian

and attends Shirelive Church.

www.shirelive.com

Scott Morrison stands in complete contrast

to the previous Member for Cook, Bruce Baird.

Bruce Baird is a Christian and it is discernible.

Bruce Baird, when in Parliament, was one of a

small number of Liberal Members of Parliament

who went against the tide of the Liberal Party

on immigration and asylum seeker matters.

The last of this small number leaves the Australian Parliament

at the conclusion of this parliamentary term. 

Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, is a professing Christian

The Australian Labor Party has always had practising Christians

in parliament despite what vilifying conservate Christians may say.

Rudd is rather different insofaras he has been prepared

to wear his Christian adherence on his sleeve.

In his first Prime Ministerial term,

Rudd could be seen regularly on television

holding Press Conferences outside church on Sunday mornings.

Rudd, now in his second go as PM, does not appear to have 

re-instated this practice although it may yet occur.

He has spent a few week-ends away from Canberra.

Networkers, your Miss Eagle is a Christian too -

a practising one in two denominations, Anglican and Quaker.

I'm a rather simple soul and don't find much commonality

with either Scott Morrison or Kevin Rudd, in either faith or politics.

I don't consider myself doctrinaire

but rather a follower of the words of Jesus.

Jesus gave us two commandments -

we don't need ten if we follow the two thoroughly -

Love God with every part of our being

Love our neighbours (who are all inclusive) as ourselves.

These words are not hard to remember -

just not easy to do.

He also said this and you can reference it here:

 Beware of false prophets, 

who come to you in sheep’s clothing, 

but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 

You will know them by their fruits. 

Do men gather grapes from thornbushes 

or figs from thistles? 

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, 

but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,

 nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 

 Every tree that does not bear good fruit 

is cut down

 and thrown into the fire. 

Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

The Challenge is on: Bankstown challenges Basic Cards and Income Management now that it has come to the Big Smoke,

The Income Management Map 

It comes from here.

From: Say No to Government's Income Management - Not in Bankstown Not Anywhere

Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 1:29 PM

To: paddy.gibson@gmail.com

Subject: Bankstown Coalition set to challenge expansion of income management on anniversary of NT Intervention

 

Picture from here

Barb Shaw of Mount Nancy Town Camp, Alice Springs.

Say No to Government Income Management - 

Not in Bankstown, Not Anywhere Campaign Coalition

 

Media Release 20 June for immediate release

 

Bankstown Coalition set to challenge 

expansion of income management 

on anniversary of NT Intervention

 

Members of the Say No to Government Income Management - Not in Bankstown, Not Anywhere Campaign Coalition will join a rally this Saturday June 22, marking 6 years since the announcement of the NT Intervention.

 

The Coalition says it will challenge the further expansion of income management planned for July 1, 2013. Income management began in 2007 for Aboriginal people living under the NT Intervention and was expanded to Bankstown in 2012.

 

From July 1 2013, new categories of marginalised young people will be compulsorily placed on income management across the NT and all trial sites including Bankstown:

 

- People under 25 applying for a Crisis Payment for Released Prisoners

- Young people receiving an unable to live at home allowance

- Recipients of the Special Benefit

 

The Campaign Coalition in Bankstown is supported by 67 organisations representing a diverse range of ethnic and cultural communities along with trade unions and faith groups. Since a declaration calling for a community wide boycott on income management in 2012, Bankstown has the lowest numbers of people on both voluntary and compulsory income management of any trial site.

 

Semra Guler is a Regional Resource Worker with the Western Sydney Community Forum and a spokesperson for the Coalition:

"All the evidence shows that income management is not improving anyone’s situation. We're having difficulty explaining to our member organisations why social policies that do not work are persisted with and will be expanded to target more community members."

"I've visited Central Australia and seen first hand the destructive impact of income management. I can't find words to describe how systematic racism was that I saw  there. We're proud to join the rally protesting 6 years of NT Intervention".

Kylie Sambo is a young Aboriginal leader from the Northern Territory living on income management. She is traveling from Tennant Creek to address the protest:

"Being put on income management was very upsetting. I know how to manage my money - I don't need a card to control what I can spend things on".

The number of Aboriginal people in prison in the NT has doubled under the Intervention. Kylie says that making income management compulsory for young people coming out of prison will do nothing to address the challenges they face:

"So many of our people are going into prison now. When they try to make their life different coming out they have a criminal record which makes it hard to get a job, hard to get a license. Now they'll be more on BasicsCard, it will be really difficult to go out and achieve something in life."

Paddy Gibson is a Senior Researcher with the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at UTS and is a spokesperson for the Coalition:

"Front-line staff have voted with their feet and are refusing to place people on income management in Bankstown. This latest expansion planned by the government is an attempt to circumvent that opposition".

"Six years ago the government launched an Intervention in the NT which has tried to establish punishment and control as the policy framework for dealing with social disadvantage. Young people in the NT have suffered enormously under this policy. Youth suicide rates have increased 160% and reported rates of self-harm are up more than five fold."

"Now marginalised youth in Bankstown are also set to be punished. The government's own evaluations show an astronomical administrative cost of between $6000-8000 per person per year on income management. From Bankstown to the bush we will continue to struggle for funding to be redirected from income management to badly needed for support services and job opportunities for youth who are struggling".

 

Rally details: 

MARKING 6 YEARS OF THE NT INTERVENTION

 

12 noon, Saturday 22 June 2013

Paul Keating Park, Bankstown 

(near Bankstown station)

 http://goo.gl/maps/f8IHi

 

Organised by the 

Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney

 

Speakers:

Kylie Sambo, NT youth leader living on income management

Maree O'Halloran, Welfare Rights Center

Gary Moore, CEO of Homelessness NSW

Robin Croon, Public Service Association

Wafa Ibrahim, Child, youth and family support officer, Arab Council Australia

 

Kylie Sambo will be available for interview from 

11am on Friday June 21. 

She will be staying in Sydney until June 28.

 

Fore more information or to arrange interviews contact:

Paddy Gibson 0415 800 586

Semra Guler 0411 644 652

 

www.sayno2gim.info

Like us on Facebook: 

Say No to Government's Income Management: 

Not in Bankstown, Not Anywhere!

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From feminist misogyny to mainstream men - two men bell the misogyny cat. This feminist is grateful.

We all saw the Prime Minister's misogyny speech.  

It now appears to have been book-ended by Morrison's "You're not wanted" video.  

Perhaps some enterprising person will put them together 

as a collector's item to be marketed 

in the lead-up to International Women's Day 2014.

What now seems to have occurred is that calling out misogyny 

has left the limitations of feminist outrage 

to become mainstream - all because of the actions of two good men.

Thank you to Martin Boylen for his statement.

Thank you to Lieutenant General David Morrison

for his leadership and forthrightness.

It's on the record: how an Australian Government discriminates

This new book is an important historical record that focuses on the Senate Committee Inquiry into the Stronger Futures legislation. It shows how the Government decision-making process chose to ignore the views and ideas expressed by many Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory communities in much the same way as has happened since colonisation.

Dale Hess's Calendar - 2013-02-18

Thursday 21 February, 7 pm - 9.30 pm: Film screening: The Economics of Happiness.  The Oases Graduate School presents this film from the International Society for Ecology and Culture to promote systemic solutions to today’s social and environmental crises. Venue: 2 Minona Street, Hawthorn.  Donations on the night will be appreciated to help cover supper costs.  RSVP toinfo@oases.edu.au.

Monday 25 February, 1 pm: Public Lecture: If Gandhi Were Alive Today. Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi will be visiting Melbourne to interact with people and organisations aligned with her beliefs of peace and nonviolence. Mahatma Gandhi’s essential values of nonviolent action, social justice, and respect for women and Mother Nature remains alive at all times, and has continued its relevance in the current time. This lecture will focus on the treatment of women by the society and the importance of developing a culture of nonviolence and strategic interventions in education on action in nonviolence at various levels of academia. Venue: Upstairs seminar room, 147-149 Barry St Carlton, Vic, 3053. Website:http://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/events/ela-gandhi-if-gandhi-were-alive-today-public-lecture.

 Monday 4 March and Thursday 7 March: Community Development Course. Learn practical ways of empowering communities; Understand the basic concepts of Community Development; Examine power and change processes; Discuss community development practices; Hold conversations with experienced Community Development workers; Access to further learning resources; Come to understand the field; Use the modes of head (intellect), heart (feelings), hands (practical work with people) and feet (groundedness). Led by Jim Ife,Jacques Boulet and Rob Nabben. Contact: 9819 3239, 2 Minona St, Hawthorn, icd@borderlands.org.au. Cost: $300 full / $250 con. Bookings essential.

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Saturday 9 March, 1 pm to 2.30 pm: Reflections of a Fukushima Farmer- the reality of nuclear meltdowns. Japanese for Peace invites you to bring a picnic lunch (or grab something at CERES), a rug/chair, and come and hear about the current situation for those affected by the catastrophic events two years ago. If you think you may come, please email  info@jfp.org.au to give us an idea of numbers. There will also be an optional tour of Ceres afterwards at 2.30 pm. CERES Community Environment Park,At the Village Green, Cnr Roberts and Stewart Streets, Brunswick East, Victoria (MELWAYS Map 30 B7)

Friday 15 March, 6.15 pm for 6.30 pm – 9.15 pm: Film Screening:  Rachel.  It was 10 years ago that Rachel was killed by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to stop it crushing a Palestinian home. This is the story of her tragic death and the people she had come to love. State Library of Victoria, Conference Centre, Entry 2, La Trobe Street, Melbourne. Cost $15 plus booking fee $1.89. Book online: http://www.eventbrite.com.au/event/4361336876?ref=ebtnebtckt#

Saturday 16 March – Sunday 24 March: Cultural Diversity Week. 

For details, see: 

http://www.multicultural.vic.gov.au/projects-and-initiatives/cultural-diversity-week

Tuesday 19 March: Following the US to War: Lessons from Iraq. Speakers will include Paul Barratt (Campaign for an Iraq War Inquiry); Dr Jenny Grounds(MAPW); Professor Richard Tanter; and Maki Yonaha (Japanese for Peace). Venue details soon!  For more read this. Facebook.

Wednesday 20 March & Thursday 21 March, 9 am – 5 pm, lunch and refreshments provided: Anti-racism Workshop.Refugees,Survivors and Ex-Detainees (RISE) is presenting a series of anti-racism workshops for organisations. The online registration form is up and running! Resisting Racism Victoria project, the first of its kind in Victoria, which will see the running of anti-racism workshops in 2013 for staff/volunteers of organisations that service communities of colour. Register online https://docs.google.com/a/riserefugee.org/forms/d/1lR0d5elFUl-zG_eNgMxin_J79thgPk-lY4pLh6xLFE8/viewform. Spaces filling fast! Find out more http://riserefugee.org/what-we-do/anti-racism. Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3HHEbT9djo.Please contact us at resistingracism@riserefugee.org if you have any questions. Later workshops 24 & 25 April, 22 & 23 May and 26 & 27 June. Melbourne CBD.

Friday 5 April and Monday 8 April: Advanced Community Development Course. Feel more confident in practicing community development in your workplace; Examine the issues, challenges and dilemmas of Community Development; Connect theory with practice; Hold conversations with decision makers and other Community Development workers; Access to further learning resources; Use the modes of head (intellect), heart (feelings), hands (practical work with people) and feet (groundedness); Think creatively about your organisational context; Interfacing with the wider context. Led by Jim Ife, Jacques Boulet and Rob Nabben. Contact: 9819 3239, 2 Minona St, Hawthorn, icd@borderlands.org.au. Cost: $350 full / $300 con. Both courses: $600. Bookings essential. 

Friday 19 April, 7 pm to 9 pm; Saturday 20 April – Sunday 21 April, 9 am to 5 pm: Biochar Workshop. As a soil additive, biochar offers numerous benefits. It increases the capacity for soil to hold water & nutrients, greatly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, enhance crop yields and capture and store carbon for the long term. Learn to make and operate a simple biochar reactor; produce a range of different biochars at different temperatures; carry out basic tests on your biochars; make biochar/compost/mineral blends.  Faciltators: Prof Stephen Joseph, University of NSW, Paul Taylor PhD, Author of “The Biochar Revolution”, and Russell Burnet, Biochar Energy Systems. Workshop cost – includes lunch both days & Friday evening intro: $195 before 1st April; $250 regular price. Only $149 for extra family member or partner. Venue: Friday night: Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital, 50 View Street, Bendigo; Saturday & Sunday: A1203 Goornong-Mayreef Rd, Elmore. Website: http://kynetontransitionhub.com/home-4/biochar/biochar-workshop/ 

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Sunday 21 April – Saturday 27 April: Nonviolent Action from the Strategic to the Prophetic. For young, emerging activists (18-30) who feel deeply that the present order with its emphasis on dominance and economic expansion is unsustainable, and are ready to develop commitment and skills in nonviolent ways to help promote change, this is an opportunity to learn from two very experienced activists, Margaret Pestorius and Simon Reeves.

This course is subsidized and a special application form must be used:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jh2trfcr0dxyn5n/Nonviolent%20action%20%281%29.pdf.  The cost for full board & accommodation, plus materials, is $200. Participants will cover their own travel costs, to and from Silver Wattle Quaker Centre Ltd -1063 Lake Road, Bungendore NSW 2621 Ph: 02 6238 0588 

Sunday 12 May – Sunday 19 May: Kanyini Intensive (working with Uncle Bob Randall and his family). 7-day intensive (Sunday to Sunday, plus travel time) retreat located with in the Uluru National Park and surrounds in the Northern Territory. This is a unique opportunity to receive teachings from Bob Randall on the principles of Kanyini and Aboriginal culture. This will be a profound experience towards integrity in cultural counter-flows, a re-alignment of the importance of personal spirituality, and towards acknowledgment of 70,000 years of Aboriginal knowledge and traditions. Uncle Bob will share his wisdom and belief that spirituality is the ultimate answer to reconciliation in Australia. Uncle Bob will share his wisdom on aspects of Kanyini including, connections with the dreaming, place, family relationships and the spirit. Teaching Kanyini and sharing Aboriginal culture, knowledge and spirituality with all Australians and beyond, are an integral part of Bob's vision. Further information: email info@oases.edu.au or call 03 9819 3502.