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SABL Land Grab: An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

The advert below was published in the Post Courier newspaper today, Friday 24 June.

Comments

nonymous

Australia can only export the exploitation and patronising subjugation I have seen in my home town ..

It's a disgrace and only three years of struggle has resulted in change. This is the Australia that witnesses to you and preaches to PNG (where I spent my childhood , no expat lifestyle thank you very much !) how to run things ...

The emails are a trail of what was sent to various Australian departments and show a major buck passing effort because they regard us as too black , too remote ..

Remember the reason I have put this up is because you all have to see what an emporer in his new clothes this Australian government is here, and this can only be exported to PNG as an orange tree can only give oranges .. beware wantoks beware..

The situation being complained about is that businesses in Elliott, namely, trust , are all charging an unconcionable fee for the simple unloading of freight from the truck that visits Elliott once a week, the fee being 25.00 per pallet to take it from the truck and lower it to the ground with no other service offered ..

This is also being charged by other businesses in town. The charge is also paticular to any Aboriginal cargo that is unloaded and to my best knowlege , no other person , council, school, or health service is charged likewise. I am willing to sit down and agree to either handling as part of the fee and that the fee be reduced to a more reasonable level. Thus far there has only been hostility towards my oral as well as written counter offer.

I belive the charge is unconscionable as it abuses the position the businesses mentioned have, ie , the only forklifting capability in town, and that the fee is way out of proportion to the work done and that the charge is an attempt to stifle fair trading as we cant get freight in without either manually unloading it or using the services of the businesses, therefore all commerce is restricted to them as they make getting things very difficult, making such things as internet shopping or bush orders a real hassle. pass this on ...‏

From: Sent: Sat 8/01/09 4:32 AM To: Dear Everyone; At this present time I am emailing you from Darwin . I am back at Uni and have been unable to go into Elliott unless escorted by a family member ... After an NTER workshop I arrived back home to get a tresspass notice from the United Roadhouse , a defect sticker on my trailer and a fine from the police . I believe this was motivated by my remarks at the workshop as it has happened before to me after public meetings were held . The trailer has been inspected by cops in 3 states and found satisfactory and kept maintained to the highest order . Police in Elliott have in all instances have backed the business owners . The nearest I can get the trailer inspected is Tennant or Katherine 250 km S and 420km N of Elliott as I cannot rely on the local police so to do and all businesses in Elliott have boycotted me .A Yellow sticker is thus a death sentence to any vehicle its fixed to in Elliott unless you want to run the gauntlett for a couple of hundred kilometers. Now, this country has a reputation of harbouring free speech and other rights that we all take for granted . These rights are non extistant in our town . Anyone who complains can expect repocussions from the shops and the local shire project officer as well as police . This has resulted in there being few complaints regards any of the above in Elliott . The fact that most departments set up their stands at the council offices rather than deal with matters on a closed door person to person in the complainants house means that they have little to go on . No one is able to complain or have an opinion if they can expect tresspass order and police attention afterwords . Public meetings are often closed when held at the council chamber and next to no notice is given of people like Legal Aid etc visiting Elliott so people dont know whats going on . As at present I cannot get fuel in Elliott . The nearest I can get fuel is 100km North at Danmarra , I cant get food either . Furniture gained at Auction sat at the council yards in Elliott for 3 weeks as a result of my interim report to the Ombudsman regards our housing situation ..the Project officer decided to withdraw all assistance to us in spite of the fact that as settlement of our greivance re housing that they move us up to Marlinja , furniture and all . A government minister did a tour of the house we were given and the house we were promised . Is it right that a person gets a filthy house devoid of new fittings such as taps etc , and is forced to live in a house with no water pressure and a fridge full of rotting meat left by the outgoing occupant for 3 months or more as the fridge in question is such a health hazard that it cant be handled by persons without gloves and respirator?... thats whats happened to my familywhilst we waited for the promised house to be fixed . We moved in to the house promised after 4 days of work , 3 trailer of rubbish removed , by us , and the expenditure of over 200.00 for cleaning stuff , new fixtures etc out of our own pocket . If this happened in Darwin it would make headlines . This is what happens in Australia? Is this what refugees and others come here for ? Is this in line with our hard won reputation as a fair go country that respects free speech and acceptable housing standards ? Remember , if this is the way they treat me , then my Aboriginal family will be treated far worse as they often dont know even the basic rules regards rights etc . reports on Elliott s.1‏ From: )

Sent: Tue 6/30/09 5:15 AM To: 1 attachment marked_up...doc (51.8 KB) Dear Geoff; Please find attached a copy of the report to the Senate , which contains many of the allegations raised in the "workshop" today . The committee wanted me to edit it , hence the highlighting... The paper is 3 parts , first is an overall picturee of the situation , with my report to the liquor commission and food standards in Elliott . Supplimental are the fact that Alan Keogh , manager of United has stated that "All he does is sell beer to boongs " and has been at the forfront of many of the problems we now find in Elliott . Other points are as follows ; My report to the Ombudsman regards our housing problem has resulted in the project officer attampting to bully us as he unwittingly got his butt kicked by the CEO Barkly Shire . Safe house clients have to pay for their own food , and the coordinatore often has no access to a vehicle , having used ours on more than one occasion , Needless to say , duty of care towards ones employees springs to mind .... I have gone through considerable pressure and bullying by people mention ed in an attempt to silence me and make me an example .... I trust you will do something .. regards; Keith Gregory

From: vanua3647@hotmail.com To: indig.sen@aph.gov.au; alice.crowley@aph.gov.au; aleshia.bailey@aph.gov.au Subject: RE: Senate submission from Warllamarnda .... Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 12:40:14 +0000 Dear Sir; I will censor the document as per instructed , but I wish the full version to be kept by your department and a confidential copy , as these allegations require investigation . Some of these have numbers at the footnotes that you can contact to verify these claims or otherwise get the other persons point of view . I have re worded some sections to get around the problems you mentioned as best I can . Bearing in mind also that the purpose of your enquiry is to look at the way our communities are run . Elliotts governance is appalling , both private and public . I have lived in Elliott 4 years and have made the problems known to the NT CABA , but "its not their jurisdiction".. The relevent minister has since made his department investigate and we did have a reasonable job done . As for Kulumindini Aboriginal Corporation , I will point your investigators to the ORAC website , put in our postcode , 0862 and it will come up as ICN 7039. with the secretary as Robert Bagnall . Investigations by the NT government have involved a trip to the council office where a person may make a complaint . Then they will later on be penalised in some form . Attempts to get this to the ears that matter up in Darwin have been recently fruitfull . A minister has been looking at the tresspass act (NT) to amend it to prevent its use to penalise people who speak out or report against the local businesses or liquor problems in Elliott . I hope this will be to your satisfaction regards; Keith Gregory

On Sun, 31/8/08, keith gregory

Man this burns in to me - this is RED NECK Territory - I HATE hearing this sort of story.