I am trying to stay away from blogging at the moment due to my son's up coming wedding on Saturday, but issues keep coming which I feel the need to post.  Given my passion regarding Australian Indigenous affairs, I felt the need to post this latest email from GetUp.  Just as I and others have suspected, it seems that the Australian Government has not done very much consultation with the local Aboriginal communities which the latest legislation will be affecting.

An email from GetUp:

Dear friends,
 
When the Prime Minister announced his radical 'emergency' plan for Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, people welcomed the commitment to tackle the incidence of child abuse, but the jury was out on the actual worth of the plan. Well, now the jury's back in -- and the verdict? It stinks.
 
The Senate will vote on these laws on Tuesday -- and we want a true debate on our hands. Send them a message now that we expect them to stand up for the rights of Indigenous Australians, and respect the integrity of their parliamentary chamber.
 
www.getup.org.au/campaign/NoRubberStamp
 
500 pages of controversial legislation, a paltry one-day Senate hearing, and merely two days of debate for laws that dramatically affects land tenure, community security and the rights of Aboriginal communities in the NT - done with practically no consultation with the Indigenous people affected. Everybody wants to stop abuse, but not with flawed laws like these which experts argued in Friday's Senate hearing actually risk making children less safe.
 
We expect more from our Senate, designed to rigorously scrutinise and vigorously debate the laws passed by the lower House - that's how the brakes are put on bad legislation. But since the Government took control of both Houses of Parliament two years ago, the Senate has become no more than a rubber stamp for the Prime Minister's whims.
 
Send the Senate a message today. We'll deliver them directly, and we'll even throw in a rubber stamp and a speed-reading guide for each Senator -- they’ll need one or the other!
 
www.getup.org.au/campaign/NoRubberStamp
 
GetUp has already written to each Senator demanding they properly interrogate the bills, travelled to Canberra to lobby politicians from around the chamber, met with Indigenous leaders from Central Australia (read their potent blog here), published articles criticising the plan and put people in the Committee room for Friday's hearing. We've done all we can behind the scenes -- now we need your help.
 
Send a message to our Senators today, so at Tuesday's final vote they'll have the urgent appeals of thousands of Australians ringing in their ears.
 
Thanks for being a part of the solution,
 
The GetUp Team
 
PS - If you live in Canberra, email actsenate@getup.org.au to join us in the Senate Public Gallery when the bills are debated and voted on next Monday and Tuesday. It will be harder to make a mockery of our parliamentary traditions with the eyes of the public looking on.
 
PPS - Read the real story in our blog from various Indigenous leaders including Valda Shannon, Gina Smith, Harry Nelson and Walter Shaw. 

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