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Mick Gooda Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner There have been many issues confronting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in 2013-14, such as the over-representation of our people in the criminal justice and child protection systems, the future of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and…

A stable and enduring basis for a dynamic and long term relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people over land is emerging through negotiation and agreement-making. Native title agreements are increasingly seen as an important tool in defining the rights of native title holders over their land. But here, as in other aspects of native title, there is concern that there are currently…

As a sovereign country, Australia has a right to decide who is allowed to enter and stay in the country. However, with this right comes a set of legal responsibilities.

Every morning our people would crush charcoal and mix that with animal fat and smother that all over us, so that when the police came they could only see black children in the distance. We were told always to be on the alert and, if white people came, to run into the bush or run and stand behind the trees as stiff as a poker, or else hide behind logs or run into culverts and hide. Often the white…

This is my fourth Social Justice Report as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. The focus of this year’s report is family violence and child abuse in Indigenous communities.

In my role as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, I am required to prepare two reports on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ human rights issues each year – the Native Title Report and the Social Justice Report.

The 2000 Social Justice Report is the second by Dr Jonas. It tabled in both houses of the federal Parliament on 28 March 2001. The theme of the report is reconciliation and human rights.