Jody Betzien
Five men have been charged in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court over the shooting injury of two Aboriginal youths in Rockhampton on January 26, "Australia Day". In separate incidents, a 13-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl are alleged to have been the victims of racially motivated attacks.
It is alleged that 17-year-old Hayden Nitz, accompanied by four other men, drove around Rockhampton streets with the intention of shooting Aboriginal people with an air rifle. Police prosecutor Darrell Dalton said Nitz had seen a young boy walking along Richardson Road at about 4.20pm, turned his car around, shot the boy in the back, laughed and drove off.
A 15-year-old girl contacted police after hearing of the boy's shooting. She said she had thought she had been bitten by an insect, but subsequent examination revealed an air-gun pellet was lodged in her back.
The two teenagers were among eight people who were reported to have been fired at in the central Queensland city on Australia Day. The other six were not hit.
Indigenous activist in Queensland and the Socialist Alliance's Indigenous justice spokesperson, Sam Watson, told Green Left Weekly that "Rockhampton has always been a hotbed of racism". He said Indigenous elders in Brisbane are very concerned about the attacks and have passed on their sentiments to the families of the two young people.
Watson urged people not to be complacent about any racial crimes, which he believes are on the rise across the country.
From Green Left Weekly, February 8, 2006.
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