"It is unthinkable in progressive Canberra that a significant and identifiable group of residents has been left behind and feel totally alienated. What an outrageous suggestion!" say JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED.
Julie Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Service, says the Productivity Commission’s exposure of the levels of racism in Canberra demands an immediate and forensic response from the ACT government.
The ACT government has announced an independent review into the over-representation of First Nations people in the justice system.
At $543.19 per prisoner, per day, the ACT leads the nation in incarceration costs, according to the latest Productivity Commission Report on Australia's corrective services.
In this sponsored post, Julie Tongs of Winnunga Nimmityjah speaks about her Aboriginal health services, and how she makes clients feel safe as a woman in business.
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It's now seven years and three months since the ACT government released a request for tender, offering to return Boomanulla Oval in Narrabundah to indigenous management, says CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah, Julie Tongs.
Indigenous leader JULIE TONGS says the death of a young Aboriginal man in a prison far away in NSW, by his own hand, alone and sad has caused her 'unutterable distress' because it could have been prevented.
Young Canberra Aboriginal man TJ Dennis took his own life in a NSW prison at the weekend.
"The facts in this case were never going to sustain the legal argument that the prison authorities had acted in breach of the requirements. Not even luck could save the day," writes legal columnist HUGH SELBY.
"The 'Healthy Prison Review' is damning. There is simply no other descriptor that reflects the extent of the failings identified in the management and operation of the AMC," writes JULIE TONGS.
Legal action on behalf of public-housing tenants facing eviction by the ACT government will begin on Friday (November 11) with a directions hearing in the ACT Supreme Court.
"There are no children 12 or younger incarcerated in the ACT and in the years 2008 to 2020 a total of four children under 12 were held on remand at Bimberi, that is an average of one child every three years," writes JULIE TONGS.
'As long as I breathe, I will be out there advocating for people who don't have a voice', indigenous leader Julie Tongs told BELINDA STRAHORN in this frank and fearless interview.
From a temporary medical service set up at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy site, Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services has grown into an important part of the health services provided to indigenous people in Canberra.
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"While one might ask why the ACT government has chosen to rely on ABS data for internal purposes but point to a much narrower set of data for public purposes, I think we all know the answer," says JULIE TONGS.
Indigenous leader Julie Tongs reckons the Reconciliation Day holiday is tokenistic. "How many people actually turn up for Reconciliation Day? Most of them jump in their car and go down to the coast for the weekend,” she says.
Julie Tongs has again called for a Royal Commission into the the Alexander Maconochie Centre following "shocking" revelations in "CityNews" about the prison's management and the unchecked behaviour of staff.
Prison authorities are scrambling to contain a coronavirus outbreak, which has escalated to 22 cases in the two days since it was discovered.
Cost of living pressures for vulnerable members of Canberra's indigenous community are set to ease courtesy of a generous donation from a charitable fund.
