Discrimination against 'park people'

Wednesday, June 26, 1996 - 10:00

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE — On June 19, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission held mediation talks between the Townsville City Council and Aborigines who live in the town's Hanrahan Park, known as the "park people".

The Aborigines, mostly homeless people from Palm Island, had filed a complaint with the commission after ALP Mayor Tom Mooney and his council moved to expel them from the park earlier this year.

The council employed private security guards with dogs to remove people camping overnight in the park, under a controversial by-law. The park-dwellers alleged discrimination against themselves on the grounds of their Aboriginality and of disability caused by alcoholism.

The council has temporarily withdrawn its security guards while the mediation proceeds.

From GLW issue 236