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PM John Howard’s decision to “take control” of 60 to 70 Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory began to be implemented on June 27 when the first Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers flew into the Aboriginal township of Mutitjulu, near Uluru. The police officers were met by a large community delegation demanding answers.

The following article is abridged from a speech by Susan Austin, Socialist Alliance Hobart branch convener, to a 250-strong Indigenous rights rally on June 27 organised by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.

East Timor is holding parliamentary elections on June 30. Many commentators predict former president Xanana Gusmao’s new party, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), will form government, ousting the current ruling Fretilin party. However, a new government is unlikely to bring an end to the severe social and economic crisis besetting the country, Tomas Freitas from Luta Hamutuk (“Struggle Together”), a Timorese activist group that monitors the state budget and the petroleum fund (now worth US$1.4 billion), told Green Left Weekly’s Peter Boyle. Freitas is also a member of the Consultative Council on the Petroleum Fund, which is comprised of government and civil society representatives.

A snap protest at Parliament House attracted 250 people on June 27 against the federal government’s plan to send police and military into Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. Speakers included Greens Senator Bob Brown, who labelled the plan a “concocted pre-election strategy by a government who for 11 years has done nothing for Aboriginal people”. Sara Maynard from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre suggested that protesters’ anger be directed toward the Tasmanian premier and parliament for going along with the plan, while Aboriginal activist Jimmy Everett pointed out that PM John Howard is fighting one injustice with more injustice. Susan Austin from the Socialist Alliance spoke about the “Justice for Mulrunji” campaign and said more deaths in custody would be likely under Howard’s racist plan.

In a June 25 joint statement issued with his Australians All co-patron and former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) chairperson Lowitja O’Donoghue, former Coalition PM Malcolm Fraser attacked the Howard government’s June 21 announcement that it was taking control of 60 Aboriginal communities in remote areas of the Northern Territory as a “throwback to past paternalism”.