AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA                                           MEDIA RELEASE                                    4 October 2012
NSW DEMAND DIGNITY GROUP

 

A working shower for all Australians:
Amnesty International Australia panel discussion on the
Indigenous housing conditions

A top array of high profile speakers will be discussing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing conditions at a public panel event on Wednesday October 17 at the Teachers Federation Conference Centre.

Hosted by Amnesty International Australia’s NSW Demand Dignity Group, an expert panel of activists, campaigners and journalists will debate human rights, building standards, Indigenous housing and conditions in remote homeland communities.

Joining the panel will be Amnesty International’s Campaign Coordinator on Indigenous Peoples Rights, Sarah Marland; Healthhabitat’s Managing Director, Paul Pholeros, and; Australian journalist and foreign correspondent, Jeff McMullen.

For over three years, Amnesty International has partnered with the Alyawarr and Anmatyerr communities of Utopia Homelands, in the Northern Territory, to develop our report: "'The land holds us: 'Aboriginal Peoples' right to traditional homelands in the Northern Territory".

“The Homelands are home to around a third of the Aboriginal population of the Northern Territory,” said Amnesty International’s Campaign Coordinator on Indigenous Peoples Rights, Sarah Marland.

“For Aboriginal Peoples of Australia, this connection to traditional lands or ‘country' is of central importance to Aboriginal identity and culture.

“However, there is an extreme disparity in funding between homelands, which support 35 percent of Aboriginal Peoples in the Northern Territory, and Growth Towns which only make up 24 percent of the Aboriginal population.

“The vast majority of government spending in the Northern Territory continues to only be allocated to people living in Growth Towns, which means that some 500 homelands communities are almost completely missing out.

“Amnesty International continues to call for the Federal and NT Governments to work in partnership with Aboriginal Peoples to ensure the long-term viability of homelands, and for homelands to be included in programs for health, education and infrastructure,” Marland said.

ENDS

Event Details:

What:               A working shower for all Australians – Amnesty International Panel Discussion

Where:             Teachers Federation Conference Centre, 37 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills, NSW

When:              Wednesday 17 October, 6:00pm           

This is a free event presented by the Amnesty International NSW Demand Dignity Group.

Please RSVP to ensure we have a place for you!

For more information please contact:

Ken Welsh
0420 354 096
nswdignity@amnesty.org.au

Media Contact: Lauren King (02) 8396 7627 / 0434 424 465

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Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people campaigning to protect human rights. We have a vision of a world in which every person enjoys all the rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.

Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity campaign aims to end global poverty by strengthening recognition and protection of the rights of the poor and disempowered. The NSW Demand Dignity Network meets on the first Tuesday of every month. Everyone is welcome!

Where: Action Centre, Level 1, 79 Myrtle St, Chippendale.

Time: 6:30pm

For more information please contact nswdignity@amnesty.org.au