Memories of Miss Memory

Prior to the 2010 Australian election I wrote my local Member of Parliament a letter to express to her how disgusted I am about about the Northern Territory military intervention. If you don’t know much about the situation facing the Indigenous people of Australia here are some links to give you a background. The letter follows, along with the MP’s response.

http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/trailer
http://stoptheintervention.org/facts

Dear Ms Plibersek,

One of the most important issues to me as a human being living in Australia, is ending the Northern Territory military intervention and putting an end to the terrible loss of human rights occurring in Australia.

The Northern Territory Intervention (NTER) is an absolute failure, and I ask you to put pressure on Julia Gillard and Jenny Macklin to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act, put and end to welfare quarantining and give back the right to self-determination and land rights to the Indigenous people of Australia.

As long as you continue not to listen to the Indigenous people living in the Northern Territory and place them under Intervention and income quarantining, you are denying them the rights of all other Australians and infringing the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights. It is time to address the communities response to the last 3 years of Intervention, which has been clearly laid out and presented by the communities.

You must also be aware that the promise of housing in return for 5 year leases of Aboriginal townships has not been kept. As Minister for Housing I urge you to keep the promises to the people of NT and build the infrastructure that was promised to them.

Many people in your constituency are concerned about this issue and it is time to put and end to the racial discrimination of the Indigenous people of Australia, and bring Australia in line with the United Nations Universal Human Rights Act which can be read here http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

As an Australian citizen I am embarrassed by the history of treatment of the Indigenous population, it is disgusting to think that in Australia we have a political regime that commits apartheid against it’s indigenous population.

here is her response

Dear Sofie,

Thanks for your email, I appreciate the points you have made about the NTER.

Now that the Government has moved into caretaker mode, however, I am not able to make representations on these kinds of issues.

Please feel free to write to me when a new Government is formed, so that I can take up these kinds of questions on your behalf.

Best wishes,

Tanya

The Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP
Federal Member for Sydney