USA Media: Dr Binoy Kampmark - Abbott and Aboriginals

USA MEDIA - This Audio is especially edited by Sovereign Union just to address Abbott and First Nations Peoples issues, especially The Homelands and the Carmichael Mine. KPFK, Pacifica in Southern California discusses these First Nations issues in Australia with guest Dr. Kampmark, who teaches within the Bachelor of Social Science (Legal and Dispute Studies) program at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia Australia is considered one of the US’s main allies in the English speaking world. But the conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric on a number of policy fronts has made him an embarrassing bedfellow of the West. On top of his vehement climate denialism, Abbott has recently been criticized for the appalling treatment of imprisoned asylum seekers that are held on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus. Mistreatment of prisoners includes sexual abuse, rape, and physical assault. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, singled out Australia for its abuse of children asylees in particular, to which Prime Minister Abbott responded that he was “sick of being lectured to.” Abbott has also come under fire recently for policies and comments targeting his nation’s indigenous population. His administration has pushed severe cuts to Aboriginal legal services. Those cuts were just reversed after public outrage. But comments that Abbott made earlier in the month underscore the poor relations his government has had with indigenous communities. Abbott claimed it was not the responsibility of tax payers to subsidize the “lifestyle choices” of aboriginal people who live on remote lands and need services. See more at: http://uprisingradio.org/home/2015/03/27/tony-abbotts-abuses-of-australias-asylum-seekers-and-aboriginal-peoples/#sthash.Lp57WWf9.dpuf