Falconio media briefed on NT’s black record

The human rights group Network Against Prohibition (NAP) has called on international media present in Darwin for the Peter Falconio murder trial to investigate the serious ongoing human rights abuses against Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory.

NAP, which is running a candidate in the upcoming Darwin mayoral elections and recently smoked a giant ‘joint’ in a Darwin park to highlight the Territory’s drug house laws, has been a consistent voice on the issue of Indigenous rights.

Mr Falconio, a British tourist, disappeared on the Stuart Highway in 2001.

Bradley John Murdoch, 45, from Broome in WA, has been charged with his murder, sparking dozens of international media outlets to descend on Darwin.

NAP spokesman Gary Meyerhoff told NIT there had been some initial interest from the United Kingdom and New Zealand media last week, and more interest from international media earlier this week.

While NAP campaigns largely against the prohibition of marijuana in the NT, it also campaigns strongly on the issue of Indigenous rights.

“Indigenous Australians now account for 86 percent of the Northern Territory jail population despite making up only 30 percent of the population,” Mr Meyerhoff said.

“This figure is rising, not falling.

“Many Indigenous people are subject to apartheid-type conditions in the Northern Territory.

“In the cities and regional centres where refugees from remote Indigenous communities gather to escape poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing and essential services, disease and isolation, they are treated as second-class citizens.”

Mr Meyerhoff said the government-funded ‘night patrols’ arrest Indigenous people who are sitting in public places and who appear to be under the influence of alcohol.

“The people are detained in a cage on the back of a van and taken to the Watch-house or to the sobering-up shelter,” he said.

“Many are forced to return to a remote community, and the payment for their travel is taken out of their own welfare payments.

“Rather than spend $8 million dollars on building houses and schools in remote communities, the NT Government made the announcement this week that they would build a new jail.”

In the upcoming local elections, Mr Meyerhoff is running for the Lyons ward, while colleague Stuart Highway is running for Lord Mayor and Robert Inder-Smith for the Chan Ward.

More information on NAP can be found on their website www.napnt.org

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 26 May 2004
Source: National Indigenous Times (Australia)
Website: http://www.nit.com.au
Email: editor@nit.com.au