Australia restores race discrimination act

Source: BBC News

Page last updated at 09:33 GMT, Tuesday, 22 June 2010 10:33 UK
Australia restores race discrimination act
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Sydney

Australia has reinstated race laws that were suspended by the previous government in its campaign against child abuse in Aboriginal townships.

Suspending the law three years ago allowed the authorities to restrict how welfare payments to indigenous people were spent, with the aim of reducing the consumption of alcohol and drugs.

Indigenous activists and the UN condemned the policy as discriminatory.

The intervention powers will now also cover non-Aboriginal people as well.

Australia's landmark racial discrimination act was suspended by the conservative government of John Howard, as part of a raft of policies called "the intervention".



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10374060.stm

---

http://www.freewebs.com.nyud.net:8090/alcohol-is-no-drink/0,,5878313,00.jpg http://blogs.news.com.au.nyud.net:8090/images/uploads/john_howard_toast_thumb.jpg

John Howard

There is a documentary from Australian television on the intervention available here
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/documentaries/interactive/intervention/

Not all that familiar with this issue.

not just you but others as well

the current government is more liberal than Howard's

The article specifically stated it was Howard's government who suspended the law so they could discriminate against the native population.

Too many people going off half-cocked.

You see it all too often in the immigration threads.

Eventually they wear themselves out, we can only hope.