Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Policy

Principles

The Greens NSW believe:

1. Aboriginal peoples had prior occupation of the land now known as New South Wales, and as the original owners and custodians of the land, they have a specific and unique cultural and spiritual relationship with this country;
2. New South Wales was invaded and Aboriginal peoples have never ceded sovereignty, ownership or control of its land and waters;
3. The peoples of Australia of their many origins must make a commitment to go on together in a spirit of reconciliation;
4. That currently, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people die, on average, 18 years younger than other Australians and they should have at least the same life expectancy and living standards as other Australians;
5. Where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been dispossessed of their lands they have a right to redress, including measures that assist them to acquire, own and manage land in a way that enhances their social, cultural, economic and environmental well-being;
6. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities must have control over decisions that affect their wellbeing, which can only be achieved with adequate funding accompanied by appropriately negotiated spending and investment guidelines and accountability procedures;
7. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage sites and objects must be protected, and all items of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage should be returned to their rightful owners and custodians; and
8. A formal apology and reparations must be made to the stolen generation.
   
   

   Goals

   The Greens NSW will work towards:

9. Constitutional recognition of Australia's cultural diversity and the original and ongoing occupation of Australia by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
10. Ensuring that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have equitable and appropriate access to essential government services such as health, education, training, housing, community infrastructure and policing within a decade;
11. Ensuring the equality of outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on all major indicators of health, education, training, housing, employment and living standards within a generation, within a framework which acknowledges the possibility of different aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities;
12. Ensuring current and future generation members of Aboriginal Land Councils and other Aboriginal people in New South Wales can benefit materially from Aboriginal Land Councils’ lands now and into the future;
13. Ensuring that the office holders at all levels of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council network continue to be popularly elected;
14. Supporting skills, leadership and capacity development among members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities who wish to work in, manage or run community services and/or serve on representative bodies;
15. Enhancing continuity and security of funding for successful programs in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities;
16. Providing culturally appropriate services and resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities which respect each community’s priorities;
17. Assisting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to retain and or reclaim their cultural heritage, including language, items of cultural heritage, sites of cultural significance, and access to, and use of traditional fisheries; and
18. Encouraging and welcoming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as members of Greens NSW.
    
    

    Detail

    The Greens NSW will:
19. Support amendments to the preamble of the Australian Constitution to recognise the original and ongoing occupation of Australia by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their rights as Australia's indigenous peoples;
20. Increase resources in both community-controlled health services and mainstream services and train more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and health professionals;
21. Make Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child health a major priority, with a focus on community-controlled health services, and additional community-based child-care services;
22. Support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community initiatives and networks to address family violence and abuse, resource their Women's Legal Services, establish safe houses in communities and support initiatives to reduce substance abuse;
23. Establish and fund early childhood education and care programs in schools with significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student populations;
24. Ensure that the Department of Education and Training implements its Aboriginal Education policy and programs especially targeted to the improvement of outcomes for Aboriginal children from pre-school to schools and tertiary education;
25. Make Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Studies a mandatory component of all Teacher Education courses;
26. Increase support for the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, languages, customs and history curricula to be taught in all schools and the community;
27. Adequately fund a 10-year Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing plan to address unmet need, with a focus on appropriate housing and a component providing training and resources for ongoing maintenance;
28. Resource youth programs as essential services in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with a priority being given to remote communities;
29. Ensure that there is effective, non-discriminatory policing in all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, including in remote communities the infrastructure to enable a live-in police presence, and ongoing funding for successful community night-patrol programs;
30. Require all police, with priority given to those working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, to undertake cultural awareness training;
31. Support a thorough investigation of the link between social and economic disadvantage and the increase in suicide and incarceration rates;
32. Support necessary legislative changes and priority funding of successful programmes that may bring down the suicide and incarceration rates;
33. Implement, with full participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the outstanding recommendations of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody (1991) and the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families (1997);
34. Provide recurrent resources for opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment and enterprise development in remote, rural and urban communities, based on support for currently successful initiatives as well as taking into account relevant studies;
35. Ensure that all programs and services in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities employ qualified people nominated by such communities where possible, and provide training and capacity development for community members;
36. Require NSW government agencies to adopt strategies resulting in a substantial increase in meaningful participation in service delivery by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;
37. Lobby for amendments to the Native Title Act 1993 and complementary NSW legislation that have the support of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and:

• 37.1 Bring such legislation into consistency with international law
• 37.2 Give effect to the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• 37.3 Give effect to the Draft International Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• 37.4 Give effect to recommendations of the UN Commission on Human Rights;

38. Support amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NSW) 1983 to:

• 38.1 Clarify the roles and responsibilities of Aboriginal Land Councils
• 38.2 Provide clear mechanisms whereby the funds and property of Aboriginal Land Councils shall be used to provide material benefits (which may include affordable housing, educational scholarships and other benefits) to their current and future generations of members and other Aboriginal people in a transparent and sustainable manner
• 38.3 Prevent the disposal of land of spiritual or cultural significance unless supported by the local Aboriginal Land Council and those with traditional connection with that land and
• 38.4 Improve the governance of Aboriginal Land Councils;

39. Implement the NSW Indigenous Fishing Strategy, and, if appropriate, amend this strategy as a result of ongoing consultations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
40. Amend Planning laws and regulations so that:

• 40.1 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make the determination as to what is a cultural heritage site and object in need of protection and
• 40.2 The destruction of such cultural heritage sites and objects may only be permitted following a full judicial hearing and determination that destruction is vital and in the public interest;

41. Seek the return of all items of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage to their rightful owners and custodians;
42. Support Reconciliation initiatives including implementation of the recommendations of Australian Declaration Towards Reconciliation and the Roadmap for Reconciliation presented to the Prime Minister in 2000 by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation; and
43. Compensate, as a matter of priority, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for property that has been taken from them or wages that have been withheld.

Follow this link for The Greens NSW Indigenous Australians Policy Summary.