aboriginals Flashcards
What is a citizen
Are the individuals born within a nation’s political boundaries or immigrants who have been granted citizenship
Define citizenship
Permanent residents who live in a nation pay its taxes and obey its laws
What is a democratic citizen
Someone who experiences political and legal equity and can fully participate in society
Benefits of being a democratic citizen
Enjoy access to health education and security
Second class citizens
Residents of a country who are not allowed the formal political and legal equality enjoyed by others
eg of second class
low income earners, abos and women
non-citizens and illegal non citizens
Temporary residents such as tourists ot refugees who arrive unannounced and ask for protection and inclusion are illegal
2 arguments about democratic citizenship requirements (you already know this)
Liberalist- minimal gov interference view
Progressive- Pro government stance
4 factors creating unequal citizenship
Denial of human rights
Discriminatory laws
Ongoing impact of poverty and marginalisation
Policies that treat people as non or second class citizens
Approach of european settlers
Was one of suprression and dispersal that sought to take possession of land and impose their own culture
Justification for settlement
Based on the superiority of the christian religion and civilisng the indigenous ‘savages’ and on the legal theory of terra nullius
Colonial documents at the time of settlement
Required the lawful and reasonable treatment of the indigenous population
Problem with colonial documents
Were overridden when the colonial powers felt the need to respond to threats from abos or when they needed land resources
Effect of settlement
Was that indigenous people were treated as non citizens or even non people
Killings of aboriginal people
Over 20 000 killed as a result of retaliatory expeditions and saw the Indigenous people unarmed or incapable of defending themselves
Eg of Killings
WA Battle of Pinjarra 1834
Cause of conflicts i.e killings
Dispersal
Dispersal
Enabled white farmers to occupy lands and often to then exploit aboriginal labour
Segregation
Was the practice of forcibly remocing abos from their own country and relocating them on gov reserves and church missions
Protection and welfare laws
Implemented to regulate the reserves and denied basic rights and abo cultures were supressed
3 effects of segregation
- ANy income earned was held in a trust that sometimes was never paid back
- Edu was limitied to manual training for jobs such as labourers
- Abo children by law were under the guardianship of the state thus seperating families
Dying race argument in the 1900s
Less than 70 000 aboriginal people stills and were seen as a dying race, this was used to deny basic rights
3 laws in the 1900s preventing rights
- WA Abos Act 1936 permitted arrest and detention without trial
- Inelgible for almost all pensions and other social services
- WA,QLD,VIC and NSW preventing abo children from attending normal schools
1930s decision
Move from segregation to assimilation
Assimilation definition
The assimilation policy was a policy of absorbing Aboriginal people into white society through the process of removing children from their families
How were they to be accepted as equal
By becoming whitw through applying for an exemption certificate
Exemption certificate
Gave many of the priviledges of citizenship but not voting rights and was essential if they wanted to access work and education- they had to agree to end any association with aboriginals
Those who didnt have an exemption cert…
The large majority of abos still continued to live on reserves missions and pastoral properties
Eg of treatment by state govs
In 1963 the QLD gov forcibly relocated the abo residents of MApoon to allow a mining company to mine for bauxite
NT ordinance act 1918… i.e assimilation
Have gov the legal right to remove children particularly half castes and place them in orphanages
Justification for assimilation
By the need for child protection or better chance they would get away from their parents
How did the removal process work
Children received basic training in domestic and manual work
Effect on the stolen generation
Many were abused… they suffered a loss of cultural identity that contributed to problems such as psych illness and substance abuse
2 Aboriginal Protests
Tent EMbassys set up outside Federal Parliament in 1972
Freedom ride of 1966 that highlighted discrimination faced by abos in NSW
Pastoral workers direct action
1966 Wave Hill Cattle station walk off were initially demands were for better living and working conditions but progressed to land rights demands
4 Big changes post 1960s
1962 granted non-compulsary right to vote
1984 equal voting rights for all abos
1966 pastoral workers were granted equal wages
1967 Referendum
Whitlam Government progress (4)
- white aus policy ended
-Established Fed department of Abo affairs
Title over lands was given to the people at wave hill
-Passed the RDA
Fraser gov progress
Passed CMWTH Aboriginal Land Rights Act that transferred ownership of reserve lands in NT to aboriginal people
State level resistance to land rights
Very minimal in QLD and WA and virtually non-existent but some head way was made in SA
Progression Slowing - Hawke Gov
- failed to create national statutory land rights and the 1988 Barunga statement for an ABO treaty failed
Paul Keeting progress
Acknowledged public responsibility for the huge failings of previoys abo policy in the Redfern Speech
Koowarta- (u KNOW THIS), and what did qld gov do
Had no effect on the WIk people as before the sale could go through the QLD gov declared the Archer River a national park to ensure no one could use it
MABO decisions
Created native title rights to land and overturned a very long standing precedent
What precedent did mabo overturn and explain it
Terra Nullius- at the time of european arrival Australia for legal purposes was vacant land and thus european law could be applied without the need to acknowledge existing legal rights of Indigenous Australians
MABO no 1 1988
-Challenge to QLD coastal islands declatory act which reinforced the states control over the murray islands in torres straight
Coastal Act and Mabo and hc Response
Declared islands as crown land. Mabo on behalf of the merian people claimed the act as discriminatory
- HC found the act breached the RDA
Mabo No 2 1992
Defined property rights of merian people and in doing so created a new native title for Indigenous Australians
Under native title when did they have access
- A connection had be maintained with land through communal use
- Title had not been extinguised by the creation of freehold title
Limitation of native title
Only applied to a proportion of Abos as title did not exist when control had been passed to others as was the case with land leased by the gov to missionaries
Keating response to Native title
- Native title act 1993 re validated existing british law but endorsed the principles of mabo to allow future land rights claims
- Established the Native title tribunal in 1994 to hear land claims
1996 HC response to Native title (Wik decision)
Native title claims could be made on land under pastoral lease but could not interfere with valid land uses of leaseholders
Howard response to HC decision
Passed native title ammendement act 1998 limiting any claims over pastoral land
4 comparison stats between AUS ANd ABos
- 5.5 vs 3.3/1000 live births (Infant Mortality)
-42 VS 87% post compulsary education
-21 VS 5.7% U/E
2250 VS 146/ 100 000 adult imprisonment rate
Access
Access can be seen as the ability of all individuals to willingly exercise their rights of participation within the legal system
Equity
refers to the degree of fairness of fairness that exists in the exercise of those rights within the legal system.
5 factors limiting a and e for abos
Unequal impact of law socio-economic barriers Language and cultural barriers Attitudes of law enforcers Access to legal rep
Mandatory sentencing in WA AND NT- also discuss the judicial discretion thing
Introduced in 1990s to reduce the number of home burglaries and theft. The laws had a disproportionate impact on abos
2 provisions of nt and wa mandatory
- 10 or older convicted of home burglarly and has more than two previous same convictions- 1 year jail
- 15 and 16 committed more than two property crimes sentenced to 28 days detention or enforced councelling
Human rights and mandatory
Violated the convention of the Rights of the child which states that the use of detention should be of last resort for children
3 reasons mandatory sentencing was unequal
Selective offences
Cultural impact
Sanctions did not fit the crime
Selective offences
They affected abos more than anyone else as they targeted theft and b and e’s but now white collar crimes like credit card fraud more likely to be committed by non abos
Cultural impact being unequal
Offenders were often sent to detention centers far away which can create extreme cultural and psychological stress
eg of cultural impact
suicide of a 15 yr old abo who was sent more than 800km away
Sanctions not fitting the crime
Individuals could be severely punished for a series of minor offences
eg of sanctions
Abo man receiving a 12 month sentence for stealing biscuits and cordial worth less then 25$
Language barriers
Misunderstaning based on poor understanding of Englush and legal terminology create a significant barrier to A and E
2 egs of language barriers
- %90 of abos in arnhem land do not understand aus law and see white society as lawless
- Over %95 of Yolnga people are unwawre of the meaning of terms such as bail, arrest or guilty
eg of being disrespectful to elders language barrier
In abo culture it is disrespectful to disagree with an elder and younger abos will aviod eye contact and always agree. As figures of authoruty police a treated the same way and makes abos look evasive and sees them agree to crimes they did not commit
Problem with customary law
Cultaral barriers also lead to the arrest of abos for offences they regards as normal behaviour
eg of customary law Pascoe case
Pascoe a 50 yr old was promised a 15 yr old girl after paying the girls family since she was a baby. He had sex was with the girl but the girld had never actually consented and complained to the police
results of pasoce case
Was found guilty but sentenced to 24 hours of detention as customary law was used as a factor. his was appealed and the sentence increased to 13 months
howard and pascoe case
Was a factor that lead to the elimination of customary law as a factor when deciding bail and sentencing conditions in the NT
Attitudes of law enforcers and administratrators affecting A and E
Contraversial relationship exemplified by the fact a wa officer conceded his peers approcah white and abo teens differently fearing abos to more violent and unruly
Over policing
Places with high abo populations have ratios of 1:150 wereas normal aus is 1:400
3 eg of over policing in wiluna 1990s study
Ratio of 1:40
Total number 0f 1070 charges more than the actual pop
99% of defendendts were abos
What did the wiluna study show
Poor policing strats, selective policing and police corruption evident in remote towns
Police attention
Police attention is focused om visible offences such as public order b and e and assaults,
How is police attention an unequal imapct of law
Abos are over repped in charges of police assault, resisting arrest and offensive behaviourt
Drunkeness and unequal impact
1 in 3 arrests of abos is for public drunkeness but arressting is not a successful long term way of dealing with the issue
Royal commission into abo deaths in custody
Revealed a wider problem of poor standards of care afforded to all prisoners and as more abos are incarcerated this has a greater impact on them
Doomadgee case
Was arrested fir being drunk and causing nuisance. was taken to palm island police station where he received extensive injuries that contributed to his death
Access to legal rep
Offenders from low income and disadvantaged backgrounds need financial and cultural assistance in dealing with the legal process. This is particularly an issue for abos.
Need for legal rep
70% have incomes below poverty line and are overreped in the justice system… showing the need for effective legal rep
Most effective form of legal rep
Abo legal services established in 1970s
ALS WA 2015
Employed 115 people and dealt with 32000 legal matters using help from private law firms acting rpo bono
What is ALS budget mainly spent on i.e primary function
Representing juvenile and adult male defendents who facing legal processes
ALS other function
Advocacy function seeking to highlight problems in the legal system such as its 2006 report critising the propsed laws to create mandatory sentencing
Current state of play abos
Significant proportion dont enjoy equal citizenship and despite pol and leg equality progress in the later 1900s decades many abos are still in poverty, victims of more crimes and overrepped in the criminal system
Views on significance of abo disadv and policy responses
Deeply divided views concerning its signficance and have different concepts on the relationship between citizens and gov
First view
majority of abos particularly those living in urban areas are now participating in mainstream AUs and have access to all positive rights and their problems are no different to other welfare dependent minorities and there is no need for special policies
Remote communties solution first ciew
Believe the greates problems exust in remot communties and the long term solution is to move abos into urban communities
eg of view one
2014 CMWTH gov decision that it would no longer fund the provision of vital municipal services to remote abo communities
View 2
See a widening gap where urban areas have increasing levels of suburban segregation between better off areas with access to good services and much worse off areas with entrenched problems
eg of view 2
In perth abos live in older surburban centres such as armadale and midland where there is public housing of old and poor condition
Abo spokesperson view 2
Argue gov must provide targeted assistane with the aim of creating much greater substantive equality. Policies such as providing better housing, helath standards and edu attainment
What is at the basis of view 2
Argue that individuate action will not substantially lower the gap, rights of abos need to be entrenched in a bill of rights and need to be recognized as first people
3 policies of howard and abbotts view 1 conservative liberal approach
- Opposition to any symbolic reconciliation such as an official apology for the stolen generation
- Emphasis on individuals and families taking responsibility for problems facing them
- Aboliting the elected abo body and its replacement by a government appointed advisory body
3 rudd government policies
- formal apology in 2008
- Continued the intervention but ended the partial suspension of the RDA
- Appointment of a new rep indigenous body
Criticism of current policy
Calls for direct involvement of abos in the development of long term policies to reduce abo disadv
