Latest news with #remoteCommunities
SBS Australia
5 days ago
- Health
- SBS Australia
Queensland Health faces class action over allegations of systemic racial discrimination
Thursday Island Hospital is managed by Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service, which is facing allegations of racial discrimination in the class action. Credit: AARON BUNCH /AAPIMAGE A class action against Queensland Health has been launched in the federal court alleging systemic racism at two remote Hospital and Health Services. Litigators, JGA Saddler Lawyers, say there are clear breaches of the Racial Discrimination Act by North-West Hospital and Health Service (NWHHS) and the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS). The NWHHS and TCHHS service 47 of Queensland's most remote communities, many of which have high populations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The case alleges that racial discrimination resulted in substandard health care being provided which in some cases, led to death. JGA Saddler director Rebecca Jancauskas said the team would examine healthcare provision over three decades as part of the lawsuit, from December 1996 to March 2025. She said evidence dating from this time shows instances of ongoing systemic racism. 'We've heard horrible, harrowing stories of people who've been turned away and who have suffered extreme outcomes as a result,' she said. 'Their health has suffered, and in some cases, they've passed away as a result of the care that has been doled out. 'We will say that this can very clearly be distinguished between allegations in terms of an overloaded or inappropriate health system. 'We say the evidence will show that this is racial discrimination.' Ms Jancauskas said while the lawsuit was based on experiences of racial discrimination, there was room to amend the case's scope, with allegations of negligence expected as well. Prominent human rights barrister Joshua Creamer has been engaged to represent the interests of the claimants. Earlier in the year Mr Creamer was involved in community meetings in the Torres Strait, which heard from community members on the matter. Mabuyag and Murray Island Elder Tassi McDonald recounted her experience working in health, opining that the system had changed for the worst. 'It's gone – the health system has gone flat – I see it in front of my eyes, because I'm an old health worker,' she said. 'There are more white nurses and white doctors.' Ms McDonald said she believed the Torres Model of Care, which allowed her to work out in community as an Indigenous Health Worker, functioned best. 'When I first started working, we were all about prevention and it's all curative now,' she said. 'Curative is different: when you're sick, you go down to hospital. I know that my people out there I see every day, they still need help. 'I feel for my people, that they still have more people dying.' Wakaid Tribal Council of Elders, who invited the lawyers to their community, say they are happy to work with them to interpret language. Wakaid Elder Robert 'Bongo' Sagigi, who has studied Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, said Islanders had a right to 'free and prior, informed consent'. He called on the legal team to visit the outer islands of the Torres Strait where health issues are exacerbated by their remoteness. 'The lawyers have to go around to every island – [I told them], they got to do it, because we're talking about consent. 'Don't create things without consent and use data belonging to individuals to get money come through.' Queensland's Minister for Health, Tim Nicholls, said he would not comment on matters before the court, but emphasised that racial discrimination was unacceptable. 'I've met with a number of the mayors [and] they have been very clear to both the Premier and myself of the challenges that we face there,' he said. In recent years, both the NWHHS and TCHHS have been investigated in relation to their treatment of Indigenous staff and patients. Some of these reports already cite instances of Indigenous staff and patients who've experienced discrimination in those services. Mr Nicholls said he was awaiting an investigation currently underway into the cultural safety of the TCHHS processes, with a report originally slated for release in June 2024 now due in mid-2025. 'Once we've got that, we'll then look at what action needs to be taken,' he said. 'I think those two pieces of work which should be implemented will go a long way to helping address the issues. 'That implementation group, which the Director General has established, is all about moving to the implementation of those recommendations.' Interviews and feature reports from NITV. A mob-made podcast about all things Blak life. The Point: Referendum Road Trip Live weekly on Tuesday at 7.30pm Join Narelda Jacobs and John Paul Janke to get unique Indigenous perspectives and cutting-edge analysis on the road to the referendum. Watch now
SBS Australia
19-05-2025
- General
- SBS Australia
Remote First Nations communities celebrate million-book milestone
SBS Indonesian 19/05/2025 08:46 The Indigenous Literacy Foundation's Book Supply program has given that opportunity to thousands of people in remote communities. It has just marked a major milestone, providing one million books to hundreds of remote communities across Australia, half of them authored by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. These books allow young Australians to see themselves reflected in the books. Listen to the full podcast. Listen to on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 3pm. Follow us on and , and don't miss our
SBS Australia
12-05-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
'I'm obliged to step up': why Jacinta Price wants to go for the Liberal Party leadership
Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she wants to focus on rebuilding the Liberal Party 'for the benefit of all Australians' in the wake of the Coalition's huge federal election loss. "Having put up my hand for the position of Deputy Leader supporting Angus Taylor is how I have chosen to do this," the Warlpiri Celtic woman told NITV in a statement. If successful, Senator Nampijinpa Price will become the first Indigenous woman in the leadership of a major political party. Federal Country Liberal Party politicians from the NT have the option of sitting with either the Liberal or National parties. Since she was elected in 2022, Senator Nampijinpa Price has sat with the National Party, until she announced late last week she would be defecting to the Liberal Party. She gave her own assessment of why the Coalition had failed so dismally at the polls this election. "We ran an election driven by fear - that should never have been the case," Senator Nampijinpa Price told Sky News. "Because the Australian people could see that some of us had some wonderful policies, but we were stifled from being able to give that message, tell Australians ... what we had on offer, and do it with conviction. "I'm very passionate about our country and the direction in which it is going, because I've seen how socialism has destroyed the lives of those that I love in remote communities and with the Labor government now in power for three more years, it is the most marginalised who miss out, let alone everyday Australians in all of this. "And so I guess the fighter in me feels I'm obliged to step up." While Senator Nampijinpa Price has become a valued presence in conservative circles - frequently speaking at events and writing opinion pieces - her relationship with First Nations communities is much more fractious. She has been highly critical of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and First Nations leaders; is in open warfare with NT land councils, including a defamation case from the Central Land Council chief executive; has seen protests for not connecting with local Traditional Owner groups when visiting various parts of the country and has faced criticism from Indigenous groups for not listening to their expertise. Writing for Newscorp over the weekend, Noel Pearson, one of the architects of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Native Title Act, said that for Nampijinpa Price, the election was her "denouement as a one-trick pony". "Her great power came from her willingness to take up the mantle against her own people, and 61 per cent of Australians rejoiced in the relief from history she gave them," he wrote. "You can't just replay your greatest single hit and expect to have a political career of any substance. "She has served her purpose. There is nothing left in her bag of tricks. "All she is good for is to play the old hit single again and again." Cultural heritage laws have also been a frequent target of Senator Nampijinpa Price's criticism. In a wide-ranging self-described 'rant' to Facebook live on April 21, before the election, Senator Nampijinpa Price said that under a Coalition government "you wouldn't see parts of our natural environment closed off and people having no access to them ... based on racial heritage." In a social media post a few days later, Senator Nampijinpa Price proposed reforms to federal cultural heritage laws that would introduce a national interest test. "Rock climbing at magnificent places like Mount Arapiles is being decimated because of cultural heritage laws that aren't fit for purpose," she said. But in response to questions, the senator rejected that she had ever said that "Traditional Owners in Victoria should not be able to enact any restrictions on rock climbing and any such suggestion is a blatant misrepresentation of the Coalition's position". "The Coalition's cultural heritage reform proposes a balancing of the interests of Traditional Owners with genuine cultural heritage claims and the protection of the environment with the interests of those who want to develop, engage in tourism or recreation, such as rock climbers at Mount Arapiles in Victoria," she said in response to NITV's questions. "What we cannot allow are the increasingly common vexatious claims, or those backed by poor evidence." In 2020 the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Minister placed an Interim Protection Declaration on a rock art site in the Dyurrite Cultural Landscape after it was brought to the attention of the Barengi Gadjin Land Council that people were climbing on and around rock art. The land council says on their website that they and Parks Victoria have conducted numerous cultural heritage and environmental surveys within the Dyurrite Cultural Landscape in order to assess the impact of recreational activities on cultural values and the environment. "These surveys revealed significant rediscoveries of cultural and environmental values that need to be protected," Barengi Gadjin Land Council says. Stuart Harradine from the Wotjobaluk nations says that many recreational activities have caused harm to heritage values. "Seeing visitors trampling over ceremony sites or artefact scatters or seeing climbing bolts drilled into the bones of our Creation Ancestors or at our rock art sites causes enormous distress to Traditional Owners," reads an online statement. "When our health and well-being are impacted in this way, it calls into question our very place within the Creation (Dreaming) Cycle. "While this may be beyond a full understanding within conventional Western thought, it is why Traditional Owners must reassert their ancient cultural responsibilities to care for Country and Culture, so that this harm can be minimised." The Liberal Party leadership ballot is due to take place in Canberra on Tuesday. Senator Nampijinpa Price did not answer NITV's question whether, if successful in becoming Angus Taylor's deputy, that next election she would consider a run in the House of Representatives.
