The Australian Army to help combat petrol sniffing By Megan Saunders 27nov01
THE Howard Government will consider bringing in the army to help combat the petrol sniffing scourge in indigenous communities. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Philip Ruddock said he would discuss with Defence Minister Robert Hill the option of using Army Reserve units such as Norforce to help rebuild communities devastated by the epidemic. But he said it would only be pursued with the consent of local communities. The development came after it took nine months for the Government to allocate $1 million in extra funds John Howard promised in February to counteract the problem in the Northern Territory. Mr Ruddock also lent support yesterday to the idea of recruiting more young indigenous men and women into Norforce – a voluntary reserve with a large Aboriginal component – to discourage them from taking up sniffing. "It's an issue of self empowerment, it's not an issue of conscription," Mr Ruddock told The Australian yesterday. "It gets them out, it's active, it's in an environment in which people get to work as teams." Mr Ruddock said Norforce had an extra $800,000 allocated in the last Budget to expand opportunities for Aborigines. He was speaking following an article in The Weekend Australian Magazine detailing how the South Australian town of Pukatja was under siege by petrol sniffers, six of whom had died in the past 18 months. In the report, psychologist Craig San Roque, who has worked with Central Australian sniffers for 10 years, supported the option of bringing in the military. "I have been kicking around this military option for a couple of years now," Dr San Roque said. "And despite the possible repugnance for things military by soft-hearted advocates of reconciliation and indigenous welfare, the army actually has appeal to many indigenous people – they do not look upon the military as a threat." The Prime Minister had allocated a $1 million funding boost to counteract the problem in the Northern Territory earlier this year after saying that he was moved by earlier reports on the issue in The Australian. The funds have just been allocated to the Darwin Skill Development Scheme, the Arrguluk Community Development and Employment Project and a consortium of community groups in Central Australia led by the Tangentyere Council. The projects will include bush camps and health education, and recreational programs. But the Pukatja community is not included. Mr Ruddock said the Government may consider funding boosts to other communities if the initial projects "produced outcomes". Labor's new Aboriginal Affairs spokeswoman Carmen Lawrence said yesterday, the day after being appointed to the shadow ministry, that she would seek a full briefing on the petrol-sniffing problem. "It seems that there has not been sufficient momentum behind attempts across the board to deal with this," she said. © 2001 The Australian http://theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,3323472,00.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/ until 11 March, 2001 and Recoznettwo is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznettwo%40green.net.au/ from that date. This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
