ICNN

 THE West Australian Government wants to extend the unprecedented ban on full-strength takeaway alcohol sales at Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley for three years after "brilliant" results from a six-month trial.

State Health Minister Jim McGinty said a study by Notre Dame University had found a 27per cent fall in domestic violence incidents reported to police during the trial and a 48per cent reduction in the number of residents presenting at the local emergency department with alcohol-related harm and injury.

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A visiting Bulgarian journalist travelling with a tourism company which operates between South Australia,Victoria, and Central Australia, was astounded by the tour guides distasteful inherited racist attitude to indigenous peoples differences.

The journalist who writes weekly articles for European newspapers and magazines was astonished as the guide an ex carpenter made references of aboriginal people as the missing link between Homo Sapiens and Homo Erectus, a sub species of the human race.

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The Western Australian Government has called for a ban on the sale of take-away alcohol in Fitzroy Crossing in the state’s Kimberley region to be extended for at least another three years.

A six-month ban was introduced in the town in October 2007 and new research shows it has led to a dramatic improvement in health, education and safety.

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Australia’s most senior Aboriginal politician, Northern Territory Education Minister Marion Scrymgour, is supporting a call for dormitories and boarding schools for Aboriginal children in remote communities.

Prominent Territory Indigenous leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu says many Aborigines were better off when they were taken care of by Missionaries.

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The Northern Territory’s Deputy Chief Minister says a recent Commonwealth commitment to health funding will boost Indigenous numbers in training and employment.

Both the Prime Minister and Opposition leader signed off last week on a pledge to improve Indigenous health.

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The Japanese company Inpex has proposed an LNG processing plant on the Maret Islands, but the WA government has indicated it would prefer a shared hub for gas processing. 

State and Federal ministers will meet traditional land owners today to discuss a suitable location for a proposed gas processing hub in the Kimberley.

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The former principal of Yirrkala School in Nhulunbuy has concerns about suggestions for mission type education to be reinstated in the Northern Territory.

The Age newspaper today quotes Territory Indigenous leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu as saying remote communities need missionary-style dormitories to make sure children are fed, clothed and clean.

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According to ABS figures, if you live in a remote community in the NT or Queensland, you are living in the worst places in Australia  

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has crunched the census figures and not surprisingly, found the 10 worst-off areas in Australia are Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and Queensland.

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The registrar of Aboriginal Corporations says he cannot give a timeline for control of the Nyangatjatjara Aboriginal Corporation to be handed back to people in three remote Central Australian communities.

An administrator was appointed almost two years ago to address serious concerns about the corporation’s financial affairs and governance.

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Last nights living black program on SBS had all the hallmarks of a B grade Today Tonight, and Current Affair with all the depth of a 2 millimeter puddle.

SBS with its copious budget and in depth research team, at the end of the day could only provide a mediocre Commercial grade product with all of the bling and beat up of a current affair.

If SBS are to continue to report aboriginal issues in such a negative way the question needs to be asked;  are they like their commercial counter parts in their pursuit of ratings and their averice for advertising dollars at the expense of aboriginal people?.

Rather than stoop to the level of gutter journalism, take a leaf out of the Dateline program presented by George Negus, on the 18th March.

George had the courage to put the retiring UN human rights commissioner Louise Arbour in the hot seat, asking her the hard questions about the intervention, and breaches of the racial discrimination act.

George should be congratulated in keeping up the pressure, then again he is a professional.
 
Leave the tabloid reporting to those who get paid to do it, and give us living black all the time.

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