"Traditional owners from Numbulwar on the Gulf of Carpentaria say the actions of five Federal Government workers have caused lasting damage to the Indigenous intervention.

A gang of five intervention workers arrived in the area, nearly 600 kilometres south-east of Darwin, late last month, and were told by council staff to use toilet and shower facilities at a nearby training centre.

Instead the group dug a long-drop toilet in the middle of the most important ceremonial ground in the region.

Traditional owner Billy Gumana has told the 7.30 Report that he is furious.

"They think our culture is a toy culture, they think it's not real, but to us it is real, because we belong to this ground," he said.

The head of the Federal Intervention Taskforce, Major General David Chalmers, says he is appalled and the incident is being investigated."

Labels: Federal Government, John Howard, racism

by Joel Gibson and Debra Jopson

"HUNDREDS of millions of dollars which the Federal Government says it has spent on indigenous affairs have never been spent, have been used to benefit all Australians or have gone towards opposing Aboriginal native title claims.

A significant portion of the money the Government says it has spent since 2000 - which has risen annually and reached $3 billion last year alone - was either underspent or the result of creative accounting, a Herald investigation has found.

Over the past six years, at least $30 million of the money the Government promoted as being for Aborigines was used to oppose native title and compensation claims. Spending figures have also been bloated by money spent on services that benefit everyone - such as medical centres - but the money is nevertheless described specifically as the "black dollar".

Last financial year, for example, almost $50 million of the federal spending on indigenous people was for legal aid, which the courts have recognised as a right under common law. The $500,000 estimated to be the cost of Family Court disputes involving Aborigines has also been counted..."

Labels: corruption, cruelty, racism