Would really like your reaction to my prior question about post #93.
OK, looking at #93 - that's an interesting post.
There's some stuff in it that I think makes sense. There's other stuff that I think is overly conspiratorial (and I acknowledge the person who posted the message is only passing some of that stuff on, doesn't necessarily mean they agree with all of it). I'll try and disect.
In 2007, our local Crown Prosecutor (equivalent to your DA’s) went on the national broadcaster to highlight the crimes that were being committed in remote communities – particularly crimes against children. The federal government’s response was to send in the army to do health checks on community members – the outrage from the activist classes was to vilify anyone who supported the intervention. & yet today – there are crickets. Not a word not a whisper from our Land Councils who have the power to stop this.
This is more or less true - I actually had a little involvement on the edges of the intervention myself (in the area of education, not health care, but it overlapped). In my view, it represented a genuine attempt the conservative Federal government of the time (lead by John Howard as PM) to try and address some deep rooted problems in isolated indigenous communities and it was roundly attacked by the left in Australia as paternalistic interference. Personally I think those particular socialists had their heads up their own nether regions - the type of people who are more concerned with being politically correct than dealing with real problems.
If you want to read what I regard as a decent summary of the intervention (that's the official name) you can find one here.
It's not perfect by any means but it does represent a genuine effort to fix real problems that haven't been fixed by over fifty years of other approaches.
Why aren't the Land Councils protesting what is happening? Probably because they agree with it - in my experience, the people in charge of the Land Councils are sensible people who support intervention that will protect people. But it's wrong to say they have the power to stop it.
Theory from my Aboriginal brother’s & sister’s in remote communities is that the aim is to force people out of their communities, that the vaccines are going to be used to ‘kill’ off the elders. Once that happens, the song lines, the stories and connection to ‘country’ will be lost & therefore Native Title, which protects sacred sites from mining and gives ownership of the land to the Aboriginal people will be extinquished.
This is pure conspiracy theory in my view. There is no plan to 'kill off' anybody. But given history, I can understand why some indigenous people might believe that. It also completely misunderstands how Native Title works - the connection to the land described is important in establishing a Native Title claim initially, but once the claim is established, it's not at risk of being lost even if that connection ended. Native Title also doesn't block mining - so extinguishing it isn't required to allow mines anyway.
It is interesting that the community of Robinson River is one of the places where people are being forced into the ‘Centre for National Resilience’ – that’s what they are calling the COVID camps here. (Also interesting to note a tender appeared on the NT Government website yesterday calling for the provision of facility management services for a period of 6 months – the price tag $80M – $100M)
This seems pretty accurate - except the term 'COVID camp' is, in my view, alarmist and misleading. I also don't know about the tender advertisement, but see no reason to doubt it.
Why is Robinson River notable? Big mine in the area – Lead, Zinc & Silver…The whole of the NT is a gigantic mineral deposit – with gold, uranium, rare earths, salt – the list goes on. Most areas can’t be ‘mined’ because of Native Title.
Somewhat true. Robinson River is near large mineral deposits. The whole of the NT - maybe. We just don't know exactly what is out there, but certainly parts of it are mineral rich. But again, Native Title does not block mining - some other types of land rights can, but not Native Title.
Gunner is a very desperate man, his rantings are getting more & more unhinged & it is obvious that he has missed his target. Officials keep saying that there is 80 – 90% vax rate in the NT – I’m calling BS on that.
Overall, the current double dose vaccination rate for adults in the Northern Territory is 84%. I see absolutely no good reason to doubt that number. There are certainly parts of the NT where the number is much lower, but the average, heavily influenced by Darwin, where 60% of the population is, is 84%.