Senator Brown, 17th May 2006
Government must stop blocking safe petrol roll-out
The whole nation must respond to the crisis of degradation which has Australia's Indigenous people in its grip, Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
"The Prime Minister should lift this issue to the top his personal agenda. The plight of the First Australians is a national disgrace. Australian must restore health, safety and dignity to Aboriginal Australians. This will require tough decisions - and in light of the $6 billion budget gift to wealthy Australians, there should be a vastly greater commitment to Aboriginal Australia from Canberra," Senator Brown said.
Senator Brown said that the focus on Aboriginal social breakdown, including rape, paedophilia and destructive drug addiction has to broaden to include white exploitation, profiteering and disdain for Aboriginal culture.
"We are 11 years into Mr Howard's Prime Ministry. His most memorable early contribution to this outrageous situation was to reject what he labelled 'black armband' view of history. The problem is he turned the black armband into blinkers," Senator Brown said.
Senator Brown said new Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, should reverse the federal government's opposition to the full roll-out of unsniffable Opal petrol in Central Australia, including Alice Springs.
Senator Brown will available for comment in Melbourne today at Flagstaff Chambers, 557 - 561 Lt Lonsdale St at 11.30 am
He will be given an address to students at the Agora Lecture Theatre, Latrobe University at 1.00pm today.
Further information: Prue Cameron 0408 473 379
Australian media reports that a recently leaked Northern Territory police briefing paper exposes "shocking" cases of sexual abuse and violence against women and children in remote Australian Aboriginal communities.

Northern Territory, Australia
Central Australian Crown prosecutor, Dr Nannette Rogers, alleged a range of "dreadful" cases she has heard of. Her paper claims details of abuse (over a 15-year period), including the rape of a seven-month-old baby, and the sexual assault and drowning of a girl by an 18-year-old man. The report refers to a disturbingly abusive and secretive Indigenous male culture. She says a "web of kinship" has helped to create a "conspiracy of silence" and that Aboriginal communities were suffering from "tragedy fatigue," allowing horrific crimes to appear unremarkable. 

"It doesn't augur well for Aboriginal people to be functional human beings with the attributes of turning around and caring for children themselves," she said. "The child grows up seeing violence done to him or her and having violence done to him or her." 

 Tangentyere Council chief executive William Tilmouth says it is appalling behaviour. "It's a behaviour that's got to stop, it's behaviour that denigrates the family, as well as the women," he said.