Closing the Gap

Stop Black deaths in custody

Gunnai Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has received crossbench backing for her call on Labor to implement the royal commission into Black deaths in custody’s recommendations. Isaac Nellist reports. 

History shows that governments have consistently resisted any proposals from First Nations advisory bodies to deliver real justice. Peter Boyle argues that the Voice to Parliament could end up as another token gesture, unless there is a strong and independent movement for First Nations justice.

In February 2016, I wrote an article for Green Left Weekly about that year’s Closing the Gap speech, with the headline “PM’s Closing the Gap speech — more Turnbullshit”. Aptly named I thought. But two years later nothing has changed.

The Socialist Alliance stands in full solidarity with the burgeoning movement against the forced closure of remote Aboriginal communities in WA. This movement can win and if it does it will be a victory for all working people in Australia. Without any consultation, the federal government announced in September that they would cut funding that, for more than 40 years, had been provided to support these communities. The state government, equally contemptuous in their lack of consultation, then announced that up to 150 communities would have to close.