Greens Senator WA Scott Ludlam will tell a rally in Perth tomorrow (SAT 13 Feb) that the Greens will continue opposing Northern Territory Intervention measures introduced by former prime minister John Howard and since extended across the nation under Kevin Rudd.

The rally, organised by the Aboriginal Rights Coalition, is calling for an end to the Intervention and the restoration of the Racial Discrimination Act, suspended by the Federal Government to enable it to conduct actions that constitute racial discrimination.

“Along with the reinstallation of the Racial Discrimination Act, the Greens are calling for an end to compulsory seizures of lands and to the indiscriminate quarantining of welfare payments and the general trampling on the rights of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory,” Senator Ludlam said.

“The Rudd Government has failed to consult Aboriginal people and is now extending fundamental errors made in the NT across the whole of Australia through national welfare quarantining.

“It will be no less wrong when a single parent in Perth has their income quarantined than when it occurred to an Aboriginal person in the Territory.

“The Greens have introduced a Bill to restore the Racial Discrimination Act but we fear that the old parties will not support it.

“While Liberal and Labor have regressed to heavy-handed paternalism and discrimination, real solutions in terms of school programs, housing, health clinics and day-care centres are going unfunded.

“Sadly, most of the resources spent on the NT Intervention as been used up on administration in Canberra and Darwin.

“This is a massive wasted opportunity and it could have been avoided had the Rudd Government’s so-called ‘consultation ‘ process last year included fully-informed prior consent.

“Instead the Minister Macklin had already announced her intention to go on with the Intervention, and the consultation meetings were only allowed to discuss the narrow range of options the Government had already chosen.”

For more information or media inquiries, please call Eloise Dortch on 0415 507 763
Or, for rally organisers call:
• Natasha Moore (Aboriginal Rights Coalition) 0431 017 157;
• Sanna 0417 852 628;
• Mick 0410 059 693.

WHEN:    MIDDAY, Saturday 13 February 2010
WHERE:    Wesley Church, cnr William and Hay streets, Perth WA
MEDIA CONTACT:  Eloise Dortch 0415 507 763