One of the few implemented recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody is about to be demolished.
The Custody Notification Service (CNS) in NSW and the ACT will cease to exist at the end of June. The CNS requires that police notify the NSW Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS), within one hour, if an Indigenous person is taken into custody. The ALS offers advice to the detained person and checks on their welfare. It operates 24 hours a day and has contact with around 15,000 Aboriginal people taken into custody each year.
Since the CNS was introduced in 2000, no Indigenous person has died in a police cell in NSW. Activists and lawyers have consistently called for the expansion of the life-saving service to all other states.
Instead, the NSW CNS, which operates with an annual budget of $526,000, is threatened by federal and state funding cuts.
 “The CNS is more than just a phone line, it’s a lifeline”, said ALS CEO Kane Ellis. “We regularly assist Aboriginal people to access essential medication or medical attention they were otherwise not receiving.”
Of the service’s meagre budget, Ellis said: “The cost to run the CNS is nearly the same as holding two juveniles in detention for one year”.
In the Northern Territory, which has no custody notification service, two Aboriginal men have died in the last month, each within hours of being detained.
If the CNS is cut, Black deaths in custody will rise. The blood will be on the hands of governments and the police.

Dave Clarke

Life-saving custody notification facing closure

The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has passed a motion pledging support to the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy (RATE), which last week celebrated its first anniversary. RATE has been standing and fighting against the erosion of land rights in the inner Sydney suburb.
It was set up on 26 May 2014 to demand that the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) build quality low-cost housing for Aboriginal people rather than build private apartment blocks that enrich the corrupt AHC and Daycorp Developments.
The MUA expressed its solidarity by sending a contingent to RATE, along with organising a press conference. Speaking to the media, an MUA representative said:
“The MUA will support, whenever we can and wherever we can. We believe in their cause; we believe that these people have a right to exist. They have the right to have a home. Their kids have the right to be warm at night … The MUA and the CFMEU and other unions … pledge our support to these people and their just cause. All power to the people of Redfern and the Tent Embassy.”
Both the New South Wales and federal governments want to destroy Aboriginal land rights. RATE is standing in their way in Redfern. Union support is crucial if we are going to win.
[Dave Clarke is a member of the Indigenous Social Justice Association.]

Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy still kicking on

“TJ was a death in custody simply because the police were mad at a kid on a bike”, said Bowie Hickey, addressing a crowd of 150 at Redfern on 14 February – where people have gathered every year in the 11 that have passed since Thomas TJ Hickey died there. Seventeen years old, TJ was impaled on a fence after coming off his bicycle during a police pursuit. Not one police officer has been held to account or charged over his death.
 “For 11 years the Hickey family has been crucified by the cops, [shock] jocks, the jail system, housing commission ... Why? Because we won’t stop talking about TJ”, continued Bowie, TJ’s aunt.
The police had tried to stop the protest, dragging organisers from the Indigenous Social Justice Association (ISJA) into the NSW Supreme Court the day before the rally. Not deterred, the Hickey family, supporters and anti-racist campaigners went ahead. They were confronted by a brutish police presence on the day. Placards and banners deemed offensive were torn from the hands of their owners and disposed of.
Clearly shocked by the police response, Greens MLC David Shoebridge said: “I never thought it would come to this where we see police tearing down signs simply because it offends the police. Maybe it is offensive for police for TJ’s family to say that they think the police killed TJ.
“Well it’s time they got over that offence and deal with the core problem here: that Aboriginal people know that they are second class citizens in this country, that Aboriginal people are getting organised, getting together and demanding some kind of equality.”
Ray Jackson, ISJA president, told the crowd that the Hickey family wanted a permanent marker to commemorate TJ. Pointing to a hand-painted placard, he said: “If you look over there under that tree, you will see the sign that has created this spot as an Aboriginal site of significance as we wish to rename this spot as TJ Hickey Park.
 “The fact that we have to go through this, for the 11th time today shows quiet clearly where justice is in this country. There is none for Aboriginal people … Aboriginal people go through this shit every day and the arrogant bastard cops try to stand over and take from us our human rights. We will not bow to their rule, ever.”
Speaking to Red Flag, TJ’s mother Gail Hickey said she wanted the police to be held to account and for the right to place a small plaque on the fence where he died. “All we want is justice for my son”.
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Dave Clarke is a member of the Indigenous Social Justice Association.

Heavy police presence at TJ Hickey march

Collaboration between the NSW Education Department, the state Liberal government and the NSW Teachers Federation has produced new professional development requirements for public school teachers. The performance and development framework, released publicly on 7 November, will mean more work for teachers.
Permanent, temporary and casual teachers will be expected to complete 100 hours of “professional learning” activities in the next five years. All “professional learning” will be supervised and reviewed. If teachers fail to complete the requisite hours, or their performance is judged unsatisfactory, they will lose their jobs and accreditation.
A year ago, the deputy president of the union, Gary Zadkovich, told teachers: “It is crucial that we reassert our commitment to the highest standard of professional practice.” Now, with the framework – including new teacher “efficiency” principles – on the table, it’s clear what that means: working harder, for longer.
“It’s outrageous”, said a union delegate at a school in Sydney’s southern suburbs, speaking to Red Flag. “I have been teaching for over 25 years now. Why should I be expected to fulfil this so-called professional development, or anyone else for that matter?”
“Up and coming teachers have gone to university for between four and six years”, he said. “Why can’t they sit down and talk about what they think they are doing right and what they need to improve on with another teacher who has been around for longer? That would make far more sense.
“They [NSWTF] should be doing something about the lack of resources in schools, the amount of overtime teachers do, not trying to kick us in the teeth and then telling us it’s for our own good.”
More than three-quarters of public school teachers in the state are members of the NSWTF. The union should be fighting these attacks, not helping to implement them.

NSWTF member

NSW Teachers Federation lines up with government

One hundred and fifty people gathered in the early hours of 7 July at the Redfern Tent Embassy to protest the Aboriginal Housing Company’s decision to bulldoze houses at the Block.
The Block is the legacy of Australia’s biggest urban land rights victory 40 years ago. The land was set aside for Aboriginal housing. Now the AHC wants to clear the ground for commercial developments.
Protesters hung banners from the surrounding buildings, which read, “Always was always will be Aboriginal land” and “Sovereignty never ceded”.
Mick Mundine, head of the AHC, could be seen talking to police officers all morning. When approached by Tent Embassy leaders and others, he refused to answer questions.
Mundine is the Noel Pearson of Redfern. Every year he apologises to the Redfern police about the annual march to commemorate the 2004 death, at the hands of police, of Aboriginal teenager TJ Hickey. He has sent goons on a regular basis to threaten violence against activists.
The police also constantly harass the Tent Embassy, which was established in May. Much racist and sexist abuse has been directed toward Aboriginal people here – in particular the Elders.
As the hours passed, it became clear that the demolition would not go ahead due to the strong turnout of people willing to use direct action to protect the dwellings.
The blockade at the Block will be ongoing. Our side has won round one – but this is far from the end of the matter.
[For more information visit the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Redfern-Aboriginal-Tent-Embassy/249063975290466">Redfern Tent Embassy Facebook page</a>. Dave Clarke is a member of the Indigenous Social Justice Network.]

Block protesters win round one

In 1981, 21-year-old Eddie Murray returned to the small cotton town of Wee Waa, in the north-west of NSW, to visit friends and family. He had been living in Sydney, playing for the Redfern All Blacks rugby team.
He and his mates went out for a drink but were refused entry to the local Imperial Hotel. Eddie was told he was too drunk. Three police officers were called. They arrested Eddie and, within an hour, he was dead in a cell at Wee Waa police station.
Anna Murray, Eddie’s sister, tells me, “I was the last member of my family to see my brother alive. I was on the corner opposite the Imperial Hotel, with my baby in the pram. He was fine, happy as always. Next thing we get a call that he committed suicide in a police cell.
“It is not true. He was murdered, and everyone in Wee Waa knows it. We know it, the police who killed him know it, and it is time Australia should know it”, she says. “If my family give up, which we will never do, then that first (successful) prosecution of coppers will keep on waiting and there will be more deaths in custody. We get that first justice, and the black deaths will stop.”
The police claim that Eddie hung himself is a lie. Eddie had a blood alcohol reading of 0.3. It is highly unlikely that someone so intoxicated could rip off parts of a bed sheet, tie them together to form a rope, make a perfect noose and then hang himself.
The testimonies that the police gave contradicted each other and those of three independent witnesses. Eddie’s original clothes were never found, and neither was his wallet. A second autopsy of Eddie was completed in 1997. The autopsy found that Eddie had a fractured sternum, which could have come about from massive blows to the chest.
The Murray family is famous in Wee Waa. Arthur Murray, Eddie’s father, was a union militant who led strikes in the local cotton fields.
The Murrays also led the fight for cheap and affordable housing in town, so that Aboriginal people didn’t have to live on the reserve, which was located 5km out of town. Arthur and the Murray family were constantly harassed by the local racist and corrupt police force.
When the familly moved to Sydney, Arthur and Eddie’s mother Leila were tireless in campaigning for the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Since that time, things have gone backwards. Aboriginal people account for less than 3 percent of the population, yet now make up a staggering 25 percent of prison inmates. In the Northern Territory the figure is greater than 80 percent. On average, one Aboriginal person is killed in custody every two to three weeks.
The Indigenous Social Justice Association organised a national day of action in June demanding a new independent inquiry into Eddie Murray’s death. Ray Jackson, president of the association, says, “We have now since 1980 had over 450 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody. No police officer, no prison officer, no custodial health officer has ever been found guilty.”
The case of Eddie Murray highlights how blatantly racist the police and the law are in Australia. Only resistance to the government and the police will bring justice for Eddie Murray and his family, as well as all the other families affected by a death in custody.

Still no justice for Murray family

On Friday 14 February 300 people gathered to demand justice for TJ Hickey. Ten years ago, the Aboriginal teenager was impaled on a 2.5 meter high fence by the Redfern police. To this day not one police officer has been charged or held accountable for the murder.
The crowd heard speeches from the Hickey family, Aboriginal leaders, community members and elders as well as former Guantanamo bay detainee Mambouh Habib, Greens NSW MLC David Shoebridge and South African anti-apartheid activist and founder of the African National Congress Australian chapter Kolin Thumbardoo.
 “I will not stop until I get what I want. I want the plaque on the fence. I want a new inquest re-opened and I want an apology from the NSW government”, said Gayle Hickey, TJ’s mother. 
“This family has received no justice and they are continually harassed by the police. We’ve been calling for justice for 10 years and I don’t care how long it takes, I know that Gayle and others will continue to call for that justice”, said Ray Jackson, Indigenous Social Justice Association president and rally organiser. “TJ was impaled on that fence after he was rammed by Redfern police vehicles - we know that, the police refuse to know it, the coroner didn’t want to know it and the government wanted it all covered up. We have to keep on fighting because if we don’t, if we stand still we are going to have more [lives] taken away.”
Bowie Hickey, TJ’s aunt, capture the defiance and resilience of the Hickey family; “In the last ten years we have been harassed by everyone you can think of. The system is treating us like we are the terrorists ... My daughter lies in bed all night long scared. I thought she had Meningococcal. We got to the hospital and I asked the doctor what’s wrong with my little baby. He said, ‘It’s stress.’ How can a five-year-old child be stressed? I’m not a racist person, but this country is, especially the police, the system, the judges. Enough is enough.”
The crowd marched off, chanting “Too many cops, not enough justice!”
One hundred police were mobilised for the rally. Before it had even begun, Redfern was swarming with them. Their presence was designed to intimidate people -- especially Aboriginal people.
At every turn they tried to shorten the march, they even threatened that the march would not go ahead. Their racism was on clear display. Protesters were also attacked.
Outside Redfern police station David Shoebridge, Greens member of the NSW parliament, pointed out that, “Every year the police presence for this rally increases … What other family needs to get permission from the police before they have a memorial for their lost son on the grave or site in which their child died? No other family.”
Outside Central Station, Mamdouh Habib spoke of being denied basic human rights in the name of Australia’s “national security”. Kolin Thumbardoo drew the links between South African apartheid and Australia today. A member of the Redfern community expressed his anger at the police. “We were all bashed by these pigs when we were all teenagers. Them and the corporate crooks they serve are the real enemy ... T.J was the poster child. It wasn’t a riot in Redfern. It was a community protest. We were standing up for our rights against the pigs who treat us like shit”.
Protesters marched to the NSW Parliament where hundreds of TJ plaques were placed on the perimeter fence. Ray Jackson ended the rally by saying; “I had to sign the form for today’s march, and I will do it next year and the year after, or as long as it takes. We will keep on fighting for justice for TJ and all other deaths in custody, regardless of who is in power”.
[Dave Clarke is a member of Indigenous Social Justice Association (ISJA), who organised the rally.]

Ten years and no justice for TJ

Twenty-three years ago in Bowraville, a small town on the NSW north coast, three Aboriginal children were murdered in five months. The families of the Bowraville Three are still fighting the racist indifference of the authorities.
When 16-year-old Colleen Walker went missing in 1990, the local police were unconcerned. They told Colleen’s mother, Muriel Craig Walker, that her daughter had probably gone “walkabout”. They questioned Muriel about whether Colleen was really even her daughter. Colleen was “too pretty” and “too white” in the eyes of the Bowraville police.
The “walkabout” story was repeated to the Greenup family when their 4-year-old Evelyn disappeared two and a half weeks later. Despite the pleas of both families, the police refused to consider foul play.
It was only after a demonstration outside the local police station, along with the subsequent disappearance of another child, Clinton Speedy Duroux, also 16, that an investigation was launched. Eventually, the bodies of Clinton and Evelyn were discovered. Colleen’s has never been found.
“If these were three white kids from the North Shore, or another posh area like that, some poor bastard would have been locked up even if he didn’t do it. They would have put someone behind bars to shut the case”, Clinton’s sister-in-law Leonie Duroux told Red Flag.
The belated police investigation was botched from the start. All three victims disappeared from house parties on the same stretch of road, but the police refused to consider that the murders could be linked.
Detective Alan Williams, who had no training in homicide, was asked to investigate the case. Williams told Four Corners in 2011 that he had “nil” chance of solving the murders. He got the case, he explained, “[b]ecause I was here [Bowraville] – it didn’t mean any cost per se for me to do the inquiries … no one wanted this investigation.”
The outcome was almost a foregone conclusion. Material evidence disappeared, other evidence given to the police by community members was not used in court, and the homicide squad was never called in. The murders remained unsolved.
For more than two decades since, the families have fought for justice. Today, years after they were told to “let go”, the families might be one step closer. The NSW parliament has now voted to hold an inquiry into the murders, the subsequent investigation and the impact the deaths had on the community.
At a rally of around 100 gathered in memory of Colleen, Evelyn and Clinton in Sydney on 21 November, Leonie Duroux told the crowd: “All we want is our day in court; that’s all we ever wanted.” Another at the rally summed up the truth that lies behind the story of the Bowraville Three: “The first people, always last on their agenda.”

Life-saving custody notification facing closure

Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy still kicking on

Heavy police presence at TJ Hickey march

NSW Teachers Federation lines up with government

Block protesters win round one

Still no justice for Murray family

Ten years and no justice for TJ

The first people, always last on the agenda

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