Chief amongst those powers was the control over access to grog.

Brough told the House of Representatives that:

“The authors of the Little Children are Sacred report described alcohol abuse as the ‘gravest and fastest growing threat to the safety of Aboriginal children‘.

…

To dry up the lethal rivers of grog, this bill will enable the government to introduce a general ban on people having, selling, transporting and drinking alcohol in prescribed areas. At the same time, our measures apply tougher penalties on people who are benefiting from supplying or selling grog to these communities.”

The primary anti-grog measure introduced by Brough was contained in section 12 of the NTNER Act – which replaced the previous regime in section 75 of the NT’s Liquor Act of offenses and penalties relating to “restricted areas” with a regime relating to “prescribed areas“.

Brough’s “prescribed areas” expanded the area subject to the alcohol bans by several orders of magnitude to include all Aboriginal freehold land in the NT – about 42% of the Territory landmass.

And, as I explained in Crikey back in 2007 in relation to another contentious part of the NTNER legislation, the Devil would always be in the detail.

And Vince Kelly, now President of the Police Federation of Australia and in 2007, as he remains, also President of the NT Police Association, told the SBS program Living Black just prior to the introduction of Brough’s “tough on grog-runners” legislation:

VO: But only days away from the ban coming into effect, Northern Territory Police may not be ready to tackle this latest Government plan.

VINCE KELLY: I do envisage difficulties with prosecutions because of the way legislation is drafted. There has been limited training or no training provided to the NT Police on the practical implications of the legislative changes that are coming about because of federal legislation. So all these difficulties will flow through, ultimately, to prosecution.

In March this year the NT News reported that one particularly useless part of the NTNER legislation would be scrapped:

Under a rule introduced by the previous federal government, anyone who spends more than $100 on takeaway alcohol must have their ID recorded and say where they plan to drink it. NT Licensing Minister Kon Vatskalis yesterday said the law was “a waste of time, a waste of paper and a waste of ink”. He said he had discussed it with Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin and he expected the laws to be removed “soon”. “The Minister agreed with me that it was not the brightest idea of the intervention,” he said. The scheme was said to be an attempt to stop grog-runners but it doesn’t stop anyone buying booze – or taking it to alcohol-free communities.

Almost two years after the introduction of the NTNER scheme current Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin was asked about the effectiveness of the NTNER legislation in stopping the “rivers of grog”.

As Macklin told journalists at a press conference in Melbourne on the 5th of August 2009:

“…certainly all the evidence shows that that particular measure has not been effective. That said, I just want to reiterate how critical it is that we have strong alcohol controls on the supply of alcohol…one of the things that we have to do to control and reduce that violence is to see stronger alcohol controls.”

And, as the Fairfax Press reported last Friday, the rivers of grog are apparently flowing faster and wider than before:

“In the communities targeted by the intervention…there was a 34 per cent increase in alcohol-related crime, the report, titled Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory, said.

The last spike could be due to the criminalisation of alcohol possession in some remote communities. The Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, attributes the increases to higher police numbers.”

“An increased police presence in remote Northern Territory communities, particularly in places that previously had limited or no police, has resulted in more reporting in a number of offences, including violence, alcohol and child abuse,” a spokeswoman said.

For some time The Northern Myth has been aware that several NT Magistrates have been less than pleased that their sentencing options with regard to grog-running – particularly for serious and repeat offenders – have been seriously compromised by the supposedly tougher regime instituted by Brough and maintained by Macklin.

The Northern Myth also understands that many police – particularly those in remote areas that have to deal with grog-runners face-to-face on a daily basis – are particularly pissed off at this situation – they know that if they get a repeat offender “bang to rights” that they will only face a fine at most when the matter is dealt with by the Courts..

Before September 2007 a prison sentence was available as a sentencing option for a Magistrate dealing with a person convicted of a basic “restricted area” offence under the Liquor Act – an option increasingly attractive in respect of repeat or particularly serious offenders.

Since then, under the “prescribed area” provisions of the NTNER-modified Liquor Act, the maximum penalty available is a fine.

A prison sentence can now only be imposed for an aggravated version of the basic offence that relates to “transporting” more than 1,350 millilitres of pure alcohol with the intention to supply.

The pre-existing regime under the NT Liquor Act, at section 124A, always allowed (and still does) for Police officers to state or “aver” that seized grog was alcohol.

But there is no equivalent averment provision in the NTNER Act in respect of the 1,350 millilitres of pure alcohol situation.

The consequence of this is that if Police seize enough grog to trigger an aggravated offence and charge accordingly they will have to chemically analyse each item if the defendant opts to go to hearing.

The Northern Myth understands that the NT Police Forensic Lab in Darwin is not geared up to conduct such testing, and would have to send the seized alcohol interstate for testing.

The practical result of this snafu is that the vast majority of charges – including those that would clearly be classed as aggravated “grog-running” offences – are now processed by the Courts as basic “prescribed area” offences, and the only sentencing option is a fine.

Three weeks ago Marie Nudjulu stood before Court at the troubled community of Wadeye charged with a number of “prescribed area” offences.

The Northern Myth has seen the Court Transcript of Proceedings against Ms Nudjulu.

The Prosecutor read the following facts – admitted by Ms Nudjulu’s Defence counsel – into the public record:

Your Honour, the facts are that approximately 5:55 am on Thursday, 10 September 2009, Marie Nudjulu, the defendant, was the rear passenger in a green Holden Vectra sedan, registration: 536 888, driving to Wadeye from Darwin.

The defendant was travelling with Sebastian Cumpuda(?) and Terrence Parmbuck both rear passengers and Matthew Cumpuda driving. At that the defendant’s vehicle was stopped by police in the vicinity of Woodyculdiya Outstation turn off from Port Keats Road. The search of the vehicle apprehended nine bottles of spirits and 29 unopened 375 ml of cans of Victoria Beer on the floor at the defendant’s feet.

When asked who owned the unopened 29 cans of 375 ml of beer the defendant replied, ‘The VB is mine, I bought it for myself’, the two unopened 700 ml bottles of Bundaberg rum were located at the feet of the defendant were claimed by the co-offender Terrence Parmbuck. The remaining bottle of spirits was claimed by the co-defendant Sebastian Cumpuda.

The vehicle was seized and conveyed to Daly River Police Station. Both the defendant and co-offender, Parmbuck, were conveyed to the residence of Wadeye in a marked police vehicle. The defendant was advised she will receive a summons in relation to the matter.

At the time of the offences the whole of the Daly River land trust area is a prescribed area under the Liquor Act as amended by the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act. The defendant was not the holder of a liquor permit in order to provide a lawful excuse for the liquor in question.

According to the transcript Ms Nudjulu had previous convictions for possession of alcohol contrary to the Liquor Act – and was currently subject to a suspended sentence. This meant that, in ordinary circumstances under the previous regime, she would be a prime candidate for a custodial sentence.

But, as Stipendiary Magistrate Melanie Little told the Court:

“Her Honour: Well she…I mean this just demonstrates how this legislation is not completely – look at this lady’s record, it’s inevitable she would have gone to gaol for this offence, absolutely inevitable, $2200 maximum penalty now. I wonder – I don’t understand Canberra, it just totally bewilders me.

…

Her Honour: Look at the record, look at it. How many, look, one, two – this is now her fourth bring liquor and she was on a suspended sentence. I wonder – it just – it seems to have accelerated and the message is out, isn’t it, there’s absolutely no deterrence anymore.”

And in sentencing Ms Nudjulu, Magistrate Little made her views on the practical effects of the NTER Act modifications to the NT Liquor Act clear as possible:

Her Honour: Ms Nudjulu, on 10 September you were in a car at 6 o’clock and the police stopped the car and there was other people there and quite a lot of alcohol was found. You said that 29 of those cans were beer, 29 375 ml cans of beer were yours, and you pleaded to guilty to bringing liquor into the community. The liquor and the vehicle was seized. You had no permit to have alcohol here. You said you bought it for yourself and you were in the – what’s called a prescribed area.

We used to call them restricted areas and the penalties were very significant, Ms Nudjulu, and as I mentioned had they been – under the old penalties and old regime you would be looking at a period of imprisonment today. The maximum penalty today is $2200 and I take that into account.

I take into account that you were told to keep out of trouble. This offence is not punishable by imprisonment so it’s not a breaching offence. I take into account that this now the fourth bring liquor, plus you’ve got other offences on your record. So it’s clear to me that you’re not taking any notice whatsoever of the rules, Ms Nudjulu.

I accept you have been trouble for some time since I put you on that suspended sentence, and I take that into account. You pleaded guilty the very first time in court so I take that into account as well. It’s not a small amount of alcohol, having said that it’s certainly not at the – completely at the upper end, but I take that maximum penalty to – to mean that – well I know that it covers all offences, control liquor, possess liquor, bring liquor, and I regard bringing liquor is at the upper end of the types of offences that are covered by the maximum penalty.

You’re convicted and fined $400, $40 levy, 28 days to pay. You’ll get a piece of paper explaining how to pay that money and – and how to get more to pay if you need that extra time. (emphasis added)

Canberra – weak as piss on grog and grog runners in the NT.

In April this year, Kevin Rudd, maintaining the fine Australian political tradition of vilifying people you’ve not met and never will, told the world that:

“People smugglers are engaged in the world’s most evil trade and they should all rot in jail because they represent the absolute scum of the earth. We see this lowest form of human life at work in what we saw on the high seas yesterday.”

Rudd was talking about the tragic events arising from an explosion on board the boat, known as SIEV 36, carrying a group of Afghani asylum seekers en route to Australian waters from Indonesia.

SIEV 36

Last week two of Kevin Rudd’s “scum of the earth” made guilty pleas before Justice Dean Mildren in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in the matter of The Queen v Mohamad Tahir and Beny.

Justice Mildren, here speaking in his Sentencing Remarks directly to Mohamed Tahir & Beny, summed up the background to the trip from Indonesia:

On 15 April 2009 a Type IV Indonesian fishing vessel, about 15 metres in length of wooden construction with an inboard engine, was intercepted by HMAS Albany approximately two and a half nautical miles south-east of Ashmore Reef inside the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands. The vessel has been given the name SIEV 36 by Australian authorities. At the time of interception you were both inside the wheelhouse at the helm of the SIEV 36. The vessel also carried 47 unlawful non-citizens, 46 from Afghanistan and one from Iran. The SIEV 36 had been at sea for about five days and nights after leaving Indonesia. The vessel carried sufficient food and water and it was equipped with a compass but it only had one life jacket. The passengers each paid up to $6000 to reach Australia.

And, rather than being the “lowest form of human life”, the two men charged with bringing the boat into Australian waters – Mohamed Tahir & a man known only as Beny – were really just young innocents abroad on a folly – not members of some evil conspiracy.

Beny is one of twelve children and attended school in South Sulawesi till he was about seven years old and has mostly worked as a subsistence fisherman and labourer .

As Justice Mildren told the court on his Sentencing Remarks:

“…approximately 12-18 months ago, you left South Sulawesi to go to Java in order to find work. You obtained some employment but about a month before you became involved in this matter, you left Java to go to Lombok in order to find work there. You were approached in Lombok by an older man who offered you employment on this trip. You were to be paid five million rupiah (about $AU560) which to you is a very large sum of money. You were lured into the task by the money. You expected to be caught. You were told that you would be returned home after a short time.”

Mohamed Tahir was one of seven children had a similar work history as Beny and was:

“…born in a village called Muncar near Banyuwangi in East Java. You also had been employed as a fisherman. You were approached by two older men at the wharves near your village and were offered five million rupiah to undertake this job. You had not been in work for some months and to you this was a very substantial sum of money. You left your village with the men and you were taken to Lombok. There the vessel was loaded with the passengers on a beach. At the time of departure, a captain was also on board.

Beny and Tahir were both severely injured in the explosion.

As Justice Mildren told them in Court:

“Beny you received burns to your left leg, left arm, left foot and the left side of your back. You were also thrown into the water for about 25-30 minutes before you were rescued. You were hospitalised for about 20-30 days.  Following your discharge from hospital you…were arrested and detained at the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation at Pinkenba in Brisbane. You falsely told officers of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship that you were 17 years of age. A bilateral wrist X-ray taken for the purpose of age determination subsequently revealed that you d the skeletal maturity of a male of at least 19 years of age. I accept your counsel’s submission that the question of your age is one of some difficulty. You do not know your date of birth and there were conflicting reports about how old you were. It is accepted now that you are over 18 and that you are probably about 19, although you may be 20. This information has been confirmed by your solicitors through speaking to your family.”

…

“Tahir, also received burns to right arm and left leg. You have permanent significant scarring. You are still wearing bandages and will need to wear the bandages for the next two years. You still have pain.”

…

You, Tahir, were arrested following your discharge from hospital and detained at the DIAC juvenile facilities at Redcliffe in Perth. You had falsely told officers at the DIAC that you were 13 years of age. A bilateral wrist X-ray taken for the purpose of age determination subsequently revealed that you had the skeletal maturity of a male of at least 19 years of age. You do not know your exact age but you accept that you are older than 18.

The question of Beny and Tahir’s age is relevant because of the operation of subsection 233C(1) of the Migration Act 1958 (the Act) which provides that a mandatory minimum sentence does not apply to persons under the age of 18 years.

Beny & Tahir entered guilty pleas to offences under section 232A of the Act for which the maximum penalty is imprisonment for 20 years or a fine of $220,000 or both.

The true evil for Beny, Tahir and for Justice Mildren, is the requirement that anyone found guilty under section 232A of the Act is liable to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years with a mandatory minimum non-parole period of at least three years as required by section 233C of the  Act.

These provisions were introduced as amendments to the Act in 1999.

Introducing the Bill to the House of Representatives, Peter Slipper said that:

“The bill…introduces a more severe penalty of 20 years imprisonment or 2,000 penalty units, or both, for the trafficking of groups of five or more people. This penalty recognises that organised crime groups are involved in people trafficking, and the penalty reflects the seriousness of the offence.”

Labor’s Con Sciacca responded:

“Overall in 1997-98 some 157 illegal immigrants arrived by sea on our shores. In 1998-99 this figure increased eightfold to 859, and more are coming every day. This increase in people smuggling, in the operation of the so-called `snakeheads’, signifies that Australia’s penalties for these offences do not go far enough to deter those who assist these criminal warlords on our shores.”

In Beny & Tahir’s case all in Justice Mildren’s Court knew that they were not members of one of Slipper’s “organised crime groups”, nor were they Sciacca’s “snakeheads” or Rudd’s “scum of the earth” deserving of the condign punishment required by the provisions of the Act.

In any other circumstances Beny and Tahir would be prime candidates for the exercise of long-standing judicial discretions and the application of the ordinary judicial Sentencing Principles that provide clarity and transparency in sentencing.

But in Beny & Tahir’s case Justice Mildren’s hands were tied.

In words that reveal his barely restrained judicial frustration, he told Beny and Mohamed that:

“But for the mandatory minimum sentences which I am required to impose, I would have imposed a much lesser sentence than I am now required by law to do. There are dangers when the Courts are required to impose mandatory minimum sentences. In cases such as this, the ordinary sentencing principles play no function.

…

The other dangers of mandatory minimum sentencing, apart from the fact that the Court is required to impose a sentence which is greater than the justice of the case would otherwise require include the fact that principles of parity between offenders has little or no role to play. All offenders that fall within the class will be treated equally no matter what their level of criminality may be.

However this is not the occasion to debate the merits of mandatory minimum sentencing.”

Beny and Tahir were both sentenced to five years “on the top” and a non-parole period of three years.

Justice Mildren recommended that Beny and Tahir be released after twelve months.

Maybe now is the time to debate the merits of mandatory minimum sentencing under the provisions of the Migration Act?

Ding the Dingo pup. Photo: Gloria Morales

This is what Gloria told me:

I don’t know too much about how this little fellow came to me but someone called from The Granites [a large gold mine 300 kilometres further up the Tanami Track from Yuendumu] about a week and a half ago saying that they have a Dingo pup that was very sick and was being sent down to me.

Later that day a bus with a group of young Aboriginal boys turn up at my house about midday.

The boys said that the little Dingo pup was very sick and had been left at the Granites Mine. They didn’t have much more information than that.

I got a box and made him a little home in our bathroom and gave him some water and food – half-cooked chicken necks are very good for small puppies.

At first he was terrified and  hid in a corner, shaking. After a while I got him out and sat him on my lap and gave him a cuddle and got the chicken neck and and put it in my hand.

He must have been a lot more relaxed being held by me because he he started eating like crazy and nearly ate my fingers as I was holding the chicken neck!

He was very skinny, with bones showing through his skin and I could count all of his ribs.

Later I talked to my friend in Alice and she helped me to find a good home for him. It was better for him to go to a new home as quickly as possible so that he could bond with the new person and create a connection with her instead of bonding with me.

I’d looked after him for two days and by the time I took him in to Alice Springs he had managed to start playing with the other puppies and had left the bathroom and gone into the bedroom and hide under the bed or under the side table.

At one time I found that he had dragged one of my pajamas under the side table and was sleeping on them.

By Saturday morning when I took him into Alice Springs he was already filling out, with not as many bones showing and he looked in much better condition and was less easily frightened than when he first came to me.

I’ll be keeping an eye on how he is doing with his new carers.

UPDATE – it seems that Ding’s first choice of carer wasn’t such a good one after all – the house he went to had a few orphaned Joeys and maybe Ding’s genetic hard-wiring kicked in and he started making very agressive moves not only at the Joeys (”lunch!!”) but also the hand that was feeding him…he is now at the RSPCA shelter in Alice Springs – I’ll keep you posted.

Another view of Ding - note the empty belly

]]> http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2009/10/29/camp-dog-of-the-week-ding-the-dingo-pup/feed/ 5 http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2009/10/29/camp-dog-of-the-week-ding-the-dingo-pup/ http://feeds.crikey.com.au/~r/CrikeyBlogs/northern/~3/CApKvv519sQ/ http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2009/10/28/australias-shame-part-2-tiwi-forestry-30000-hectares-of-bankrupt-monoculture/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:50:31 +0000 Bob Gosford http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/?p=2104 The Northern Territory has seen a number of what might politely be called “adventurous” broad-acre agricultural schemes that have resulted in inglorious failure.

Readers will know that I have borrowed the name for this blog – The Northern Myth – from a favourite book of mine of the same name published in 1965 and written by the distinguished agricultural scientist and economist Dr Bruce R. Davidson.

Davidson was a man well before his time and of whom many of the current boosters of the mantra of “develop the north” should take notice.

He was highly sceptical of the overblown claims being made by politicians, commentators and other boosters in the 1950’s and 1960’s of the potential of the north as an unburdened paradise for broad-scale agricultural development.

Davidson’s The Northern Myth presents a brutally clinical assessment – based on good science and thoroughly researched economics – of the prospects for many areas of agricultural and pastoral development across the top one-third of the Australian continent.

Parts of Davidson’s book are of course somewhat dated – but I’m sure that Davidson would be just as sceptical of some of the current claims being made – by the same classes of people – about the apparently bountiful future of agriculture in the north.

The most well-known of the failed experiments in northern broad-acre farming in the Top End was the Humpty Doo rice farm project.

The good folk at the Litchfield Shire Council provide this useful snapshot of the rice project – and of the mood of the time that is strikingly similar to some current views:

Rice grown at Humpty Doo was going to feed the starving millions in Asia. The Northern Territory could become the world’s food bowl – and the post-war world desperately needed food. With new skills, new markets, big money, and big ideas, northern development would become a reality, not just a hollow cliché. Certainly there had been failures before, the optimists admitted. But things were different now, they reasoned. Past failures were attributed to bad luck, bad judgment, inadequate capital investment, and similar reasons. Now, all these limitations and reasons for failure could be swept aside by a new wave of large scale capital development. And the Territory’s coastal plains would at last live up to all the hopes which had been held for them since explorer John McDouall Stuart in 1862 said of the area “it could be the finest colony under the Crown – capable of growing any and every thing.”

It didn’t quite turn out that way.

Suddenly, in the 1950s, the area became the focus for national ambitions to develop the north. The spectacular failure of these ambitions made the name “Humpty Doo” part of Australian folk lore.

In 1954 the junior Menzies government Minister Harold Holt infected the American mega-millionaire Alan Chase with enthusiasm for rice growing at Humpty Doo. Chase formed a grand plan for planting half a million acres to make the NT the world’s biggest rice producer. Chase declared that the Territory would be a food bulwark against communism. “Hunger in Asia breeds communism, and I believe that we have here the means of removing that hunger.” A specially commissioned film, “The Miracle of Humpty Doo” was produced and widely shown.

Chase formed a company Territory Rice which began experiments and plantings. By 1959 there were 5,500 acres under cultivation. It was proposed that the rice growing area would be subdivided in to 400 small farms, with housing and townships.

Magpie geese got the blame, but there were many more fundamental reasons – the project was always undercapitalised; no allowance had been made for rainfall and sunshine variability; soils were poor and drainage unsuitable; costs were high and poorly controlled; and marketing was never properly organised.

A few years later the land-clearing bug was still afoot in the Top End.

This excerpt comes from the NT Government’s Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment report, Land Clearing in the Northern Territory, written by E.J. Hosking in 2002:

In 1967 the first large-scale clearing project occurred in the Northern Territory on Tipperary station by the Tipperary Land Corporation (TLC) and at the time was believed to be the one of the biggest single agricultural projects in the world (NT News, 24/07/1967). The scheme planned for 79,000 ha to be cleared over 5 years, however, poor management, seasons and trying to do too much too soon eventually sent the Texan-based company broke (Mollah, 1980). Not learning from these mistakes, the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) undertook a similar feat in the early 1970s on Willeroo Station. An estimated 48,600 ha was recorded as cleared, with only 16,000 ha ever being farmed (Fisher, 1977).

With self Government in 1978, the NT launched the Agricultural Development and Marketing Authority (ADMA) in 1981/82. This Authority assisted private cropping developments (Sturtz, 2000) that helped establish the NT horticultural industry, and resulted in further clearing on Tipperary station in 1988/89 and development of the Douglas Daly research farms.

The Senate Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee is currently having a close look at forestry and mining operations on the Tiwi Islands just off the coast from Darwin. The Committee was scheduled to submit it’s report by Monday 26th October but there is no sign of the report at the Committee’s website and it has yet to be tabled in Parliament.

I’d heard a few weeks ago that the Committee would not make that deadline, in part due to the sheer complexity of the matters it has been charged with investigating, and also because there is a fair likelihood of separate reports from the Committee members.

You can see the Committee’s Terms of Reference here.

I’ve previously examined the mess that is left of the Tiwi Forestry operations here and here.

Most recently I looked at the predictable failure of the MIS schemes promoted by Great Southern Plantations, the operators of the large-scale Acacia mangium plantations on the Tiwi Islands that have been left to rot after its collapse in May this year.

It is clear, to me at least, that the collapse of the forestry operations on the Tiwi islands represents not just a failure of an ambitious agricultural scheme but also a failure of good corporate governance and highlights the need to conduct appropriate risk, economic and environmental analyses of the overall project – particularly in environmentally and culturally sensitive areas.

And it is not just in Australia that the Tiwi Forestry operations have drawn attention.

In late September Verlyn Klinkenborg editorialised in the New York Times and pointed to the broader impacts of the collapse of the forestry scheme on the islands:

…this is not just another forestry project gone awry — 75,000 acres of bankrupt monoculture where there used to be native tropical woodland…What’s left behind is a sense of desolation and distrust. I talked with several Tiwi Islanders — over a dinner of mud crab, local barramundi, local mussels and magpie goose — and it was clear that many of them doubted the good faith not only of Great Southern and the Northern Territory government but also their own Tiwi Land Council, which had encouraged the partnership

...

The question that night at dinner wasn’t just the economic loss involved — the loss of jobs and royalties and individual investments. It was the meaning of this failure, its demoralizing effect on a people who have been striving to find a way toward economic self-determination. Like traditional owners on the mainland, the Tiwi have had to struggle with the cruel vicissitudes of Australian policy toward its aboriginal population — everything from the brutality of official racism to the confused tolerance that has come in more recent times with cultural and political empowerment.

Apart from the social fallout from the failure of the arrangements between the Tiwi Land Council and Great Southern Plantations there are the very real questions about what will happen to the trees in the ground – will they be left to rot or is at least some part of the project capable of being salvaged?

On 16th May 2009 Administrators were appointed to Great Southern Group. Subsequently, on 18 May 2009 McGrathNicol were appointed Receivers and Managers of Great Southern Limited and certain subsidiaries of Great Southern.

In September McGrathNicol issued Circulars to Investors advising that the Tiwi Island forestry schemes (which consisted of a large number of tree-plots leased by small investors) would be unfunded after 30 September.

On 2 October McGrathNicol issued a further Circular to Investors in the Tiwi Leases, advising that:

The Tiwi Island operations are commercially unviable. The operating costs and capital expenditure requirements are extremely high. As we have been without funding for the Tiwi Island operations from 30 September 2009, we have commenced cessation of these operations. We also wrote to the landlords, the Tiwi Land Council, on 30 September 2009 advising that we will not be accepting any liability for the lease costs from 30 September 2009.

On 1 October 2009 the Tiwi Land Council terminated all head leases on the Tiwi Islands, relying on a clause contained in the head leases which entitled the landlord to terminate in the event of the insolvency of GSMAL.

In June the Tiwi Land Council had told the ABC that it needed a total of $120 million in order to:

…make the forestry plantations on the Tiwi Islands viable following the collapse of Great Southern Plantations…the land council’s Cyril Kalippa says he has asked the Federal Government for help because Great Southern’s account estimates show substantial money will need to be found to keep it going. “We need about $80 million for the next three years – that’s for the wages and the things that we need to operate the forest. “And also we need $40 million to extend the wharf or the jetty so that 50 tonne ships can come in and pick up the chip wood.”

Apart from the huge sums to keep the trees in the ground and alive – and the money to rebuild a ruined jetty – there remain very real questions about the viability of the whole scheme and who might front the large sums of money in a very tight market to a project with a troubled past and a far from certain future.

In early October The Australian reported that the Tiwi Land Council was optimistic that the project was still viable:

Despite the withdrawal of support from a banking consortium last month, Tiwi Land Council chief executive John Hicks said global demand for woodchips indicated the scheme was “clearly a viable operation”. “We have got it debt-free,” Mr Hicks said. “And it has a minimal rate of return of between 15 and 30 per cent.” The plantations will be harvested on decade-long cycles and landowners now have title to all fixed assets, including the camp headquarters, sewerage farm, port infrastructure, and airstrips. The TLC estimates it will need $80m to manage the plantation to maturity in 2013 and fix the Melville Island wharf so the trees can be exported.

Mr Hicks said at least 15 private investors had indicated they were prepared to support the group in the run-up to the first harvest in 2013. Mr Hicks said the 20 staff on the operation had been retained and that the plant had the potential to create 660 jobs in associated industries.

The controversial venture has already fallen victim to a cyclone and Great Southern was last year ordered to pay $4m for breaching environmental guidelines.

On 2nd October – the same day that McGrathNicols described the Tiwi Forestry project as “commercially unviable”, Dr Judith Ajani gave evidence to the Senate Committee’s Inquiry at Hearings in Canberra.

Dr Ajani is an economist specialising in forest and plantation research at the Fenner School at the ANU, where she has worked since 1996.  She is the author of ‘The Forest Wars‘ (MUP 2007) and is well placed to comment on the Tiwi forestry schemes.

Dr Ajani’s evidence to the Senate Committee centred on her assessments of the short-term propsects of Australia’s woodchip production and exports, the likely demand for the low-grade woodchips from the Tiwi Islands over the period 2010 to 2014 and the looming glut in supply caused by the rapidly increasing supply of plantation hardwood chips from plantations planted under the MIS schemes.

This is a glut that Dr Ajani says will require Australia to double the volume of sales into a flat market (Japan) where we export up to eighty-five per cent of out chips and where we  already supply about one-third of their intake – and that this will commence as soon as early in 2010.

Responding to questions from Greens Senator Rachel Siewert, Dr Ajani told the Committee that:

Dr. Ajani: What we have at the moment, and it is the really crucial issue here, is a very big volume of hardwood chip resources coming on stream from [Australian] plantations and we also have the native forest resource hanging in there as a continuing significant supplier of hardwood chips.

…

So what we are looking at here is Australia’s plantation chip resource increasing from our current level of production of around 4 million cubic metres per annum—that is the volume of that resource that we export currently from hardwood plantations—to around 14 million cubic metres per annum by 2010-2014. Native forest resources in there at the moment are supplying around 5½ million cubic metres. We have inevitably some very big resource volumes coming on stream very quickly. Some people might say that this is not a glut situation. I think they are not being open in their assessment of the reality here.

…

…with a glut we have a problem that happens in any commodity industry. Lower quality resources are the ones that always struggle to get market share and, in particular, to get market share at the price they expect.

…

…the Tiwi Islands chips using Acacia mangium are of a lower quality. They are of a lower quality, according to Great Southern plantations, because they have a lower pulp yield—in other words, you need more wood to make the same volume of pulp—and they are of a lower quality in terms of the additional costs that are required with respect to bleaching for paper production. That is information that Great Southern itself presented.

NT Labor Senator Trish Crossin asked Dr Ajani how the Tiwi might deal with their very real practical problems – they have trees in the ground that will cost a lot to maintain before they can be harvested and sold into an uncertain market:

Dr. Ajani: …it is a complicated problem…the Tiwi Island issue is embedded in a much bigger problem, which is the plantation MIS arrangements as a whole. The first job is to contain the problem. It is not just for the Tiwi islanders but also Australia wide—that is, in my view we should terminate the plantation MIS arrangements, because the last thing we want is greater havoc being played because we have more investment going into these operations while we are facing the market as I have described. The issue you raise is: what then happens to the trees?

…

…given the information that Great Southern itself provided some time ago and given the market conditions, there should be a great care about further expanding the plantation estate.

Liberal Senator Ian McDonald, in previous governments a Minister that provided no small measure of support for the plantation industry in general and MIS schemes in particular, asked a number of forceful questions of Dr Ajani, concluding with a question that revealed his belligerence and inability to comprehend her evidence:

Senator IAN MACDONALD—Chair, I am at a loss to understand the evidence Dr Ajani is giving.

Chair of the Committee is the Liberal Senator for South Australia, Simon Birmingham asked Dr Adjani about the prospects of the world hardwood chip market.

CHAIR— Dr Ajani, is the global hardwood chip market still growing?

Dr Ajani—The global hardwood chip market is largely flat…The trade figures are largely flat. The current downturn also is not presented in this graph on page 4. I do not see the hardwood chip trade globally recovering to such an extent that the wood volumes that we have coming on stream, virtually immediately, are going to be cleared easily and without putting pressure on the price.

Dr Ajani—…We are seeing globally a very strong separation of wood into wood products—paper and sawn timber—and the actual production trends of those products. In other words, what we are seeing globally are resource saving technologies coming through such that the strong growth in wood products is not flowing through to strong growth in wood input.

CHAIR—Recycling technologies and so on are substituting for plantation and native woodchips—is that your contention?

Dr Ajani—Yes. The main play here in the paper market is the role of recycled paper dampening the demand for wood despite strong growth in paper consumption.

Senator McDonald returned for one last unsuccessful shot at Dr. Ajani:

Senator IAN MACDONALD—What is your concern about the Tiwi Islands, from the Tiwi Islanders’ point of view?

Dr Ajani—I think they have a product which is not well placed in the play that is going to unfold over the next few years as our hardwood plantation resource comes onto the market.

In short, it seems that the Tiwi have been landed with a white elephant of monumental proportions – large swathes of pristine, high conservation-value tropical forest have been stripped and burned – or sold off in curious deals that have only made a loss to date.

The Tiwi have now been forced to go cap-in-hand for money from a cautious market and Governments that, understandably, have little inclination to throw good money after bad for a resource of dubious sustainability and diminishing value.

Many think that Tiwi Forestry is just another Northern Myth – an ambitious but poorly-researched and managed scheme that will – if it has not already – see large tracts of precious tropical forest land laid to waste for no good end.

As I indicated above, the Tiwi Islands forestry case is complex and I have only just touched the surface here.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me – so if you have a view contrary to mine please register, and leave a (hopefully constructive) comment.

Similarly if you feel you may have something to add to or support my comments then please do the same.

You can read some background material (from a blog run by the NT Environment Centre in Darwin) here.

And I’d encourage you to read the Submissions and Transcripts of Evidence given to the Senate Committee at the Committee’s website here.

Thanks for taking the time to get this far!!

Perhaps McDermott could have looked at the NT, where more traditional policing methods – like the use of the “three point hold” also known as “‘ground stabilisation’ or ‘take-down’ – has been implicated in a number of recent deaths.

Yesterday ABC Darwin reported that NT Police officer Acting Sergeant Bradley Fox had been charged with aggravated assault in relation to an incident at the Royal Darwin Hospital in December 2007 that ended with the death of the well-regarded film-maker Bob Plasto.

Bob Plasto

The ABC’s Obituary to Bob Plasto records that:

After leaving the ABC in 1980, Bob founded his own film production company and went on to become an internationally renowned film-maker, making more than 75 films in 35 years. His work included films about Islamic fundamentalism, Pine Gap, the Coniston killings and Aboriginal land rights. Bob was the first independent film producer to enter post-revolution Iran. His exclusive story from this visit, In the Name of God won the United States’ highest award for an independent documentary, the Alfred I Dupont Award in 1986. Iran – Behind the Veil won Best Documentary at the New York Film Festival, the film lauded for capturing a myriad of telling scenes, despite the tight Government control which followed the crew at every turn…Bob was also a poet who wrote more than 500 poems. He retired from film-making in August.

His funeral was held at Darwin’s Uniting Church on December 31. He is survived by three daughters, Jacqueline, Georgina and Rune Al-ith and one son, Tyge.

NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh recently conducted a joint inquiry into two deaths – including Plasto’s – because:

The circumstances of the deaths were investigated at the one inquest because of common factors and an overlap of issues. Both deaths were at least contributed to by injuries sustained after the police used force involving restraining the men in a prone position. Both men were large men who suffered from pre-existing heart conditions. An issue arises in both cases as to whether the deaths were caused by ‘positional asphyxia’,

According to his report into Plasto’s death NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh, on 22 December 2007, NT Police attended at Knuckey Street in central Darwin, where they found Plasto, who was:

“…shaking and sweating and speaking incoherently [and that they] believed…needed urgent medical assistance due to his mental state.”

Plasto was taken to the Royal Darwin Hospital emergency department, where he was examined by a doctor shortly after 4pm, who, according to the Coroner, reported that:

“…he was “pleasant and cooperative.” He was sweaty. She recorded “no insight into current state but does say he will do whatever I think he needs to get better.”

Plasto was then “sectioned” by a Dr Cromarty. At that point, responsibility for, and custody of, Plasto transferred from the NT Police to the Royal Darwin Hospital as an involuntary patient.

Dr Cromarty told Nurse Rebecca Weir that the Deceased was “acutely psychotic and he needed psych reg [psychiatric registrar] assessment”. Dr Cromarty said she spoke to a police officer (Fox) shortly after 4.30pm and told him that she had sectioned the Deceased. She also told him that she was concerned that the Deceased was psychotic.

Plasto remained at the emergency department – as did several NT Police officers including Acting Sergeant Bradley Fox – waiting for the psychiatric registrar to assess him.

During that time:

“The Deceased often talked to himself. The people who heard him speak could not make sense of what the Deceased was saying. He was highly agitated. He was standing up, sitting down and walking in and out of the Oleander room.”

…

“The Deceased, who was a chain smoker, repeatedly asked…for a smoke…The longer the Deceased was waiting at the hospital, the more agitated he became.”

Shortly before 6pm Plasto moved towards the external doors of the emergency ward, repeatedly stating that he wanted to have a smoke and “I want to go and get some air”, “I want to have fresh air.”, “I want to go outside. I want to go outside.”

Some Police officers tried to convince Plasto to stay inside, Acting Sergeant Bradley Fox was more abrupt, telling him to “Get back in the room”, “You’re not free to go just yet. You’re going to have to wait a little bit longer”.

The situation then escalated rapidly with Acting Sergeant Bradley Fox effecting what is known in police parlance as a “takedown”.

“Very shortly, six or seven men including all four police officers became involved in the restraint of the Deceased. Whilst on the ground, Fox and ACPO Eric Morrison applied significant weight to the Deceased’s upper torso. At one point, Fox was using his pectoral area to lie forward on the Deceased’s left shoulder. At some stage, Fox’s right knee was also used to push down the Deceased’s left scapula trying to effect a ‘3 point hold’. The Deceased was resisting and pushing up with his right hand. Acting Sergeant Fox says that he was using all his physical strength and weight. He described the intensity of the struggle as a ten out of ten. He said it was possibly the hardest apprehension in that manner he had ever undertaken. ACPO Morrison was putting his left knee on the Deceased’s right pectoral. Fox also held the Deceased’s head down with his left knee.”

Dr Cromarty attended the scene:

She saw the Deceased restrained face down on the floor with several police members lying across him and others restraining his arms and legs…Dr Cromarty says that as she tried to approach the Deceased, Fox put his knee on the Deceased’s head, and she heard the head smack onto the floor. She and Dr Lai Heng Foong leant down and clustered around the Deceased’s head and told the Deceased to relax, and that she would try to get the police off him. Dr Cromarty was concerned as the Deceased appeared to struggle less and his face was becoming quite red.

Dr Lai Heng Foong, the lead registrar in charge of the emergency ward:

“…heard screaming from the flight deck and came running to the ambulance bay. Dr Foong shouted at the police in a very loud voice to back off a bit and “ease off the pressure”, “let us talk to him”. She remembers very clearly seeing Fox place what appeared to be his whole weight on the Deceased’s head so his face was completely crushed into the floor. Dr Foong saw the Deceased trying to move his body and lift his head, she believed, in order to breathe and talk. She observed that Fox’s knee was on top of his head whilst the Deceased was turning red and later blue.”

“And do you remember now seeing blood come from the Deceased’s nose while he was on the ground?—I’ll never forget it, yes, I do. And why will you never forget it?—Because this is a patient that was scheduled and supposed to be protected by the hospital and he was being restrained with excessive force, compromising his ability to breathe and, despite my pleas, there was no easing of the pressure put on his face.”

Dr Clarissa Oh said that she saw Fox apply a knee to the Deceased’s head when it was about 15 cm above the ground. Dr Oh saw that when Fox put his knee on the Deceased’s head, it hit the ground, and she heard a significant thud.

…

“Dr Cromarty, Dr Foong and Dr Oh all saw the Deceased begin to turn blue, and that shortly after that he stopped struggling. Dr Cromarty and Dr Foong shouted at the police that he was turning blue and that they had to get off him. Dr Foong said nothing happened and she again had to say: “Guys let go of him. He’s getting blue”.

Therese De Groot said she saw a police officer (Fox) with his knee on the Deceased’s head and heard a thump at least once. Nurse Natasha Roberts heard the Deceased say quite loudly words to the effect of: “Can I get up? Sorry, let me get up”.

Plasto was transferred into the Intensive Care Unit but never recovered consciousness and died 6 days later.

NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh was scathing of the conduct of the NT Police officers:

“In my view the conduct of the police in this matter involved a litany of serious errors and misjudgements that led to the tragic and unnecessary death of the Deceased.

The Police Custody Manual and the Police General Order relating to Transport of Persons in Custody require a police officer apprehending a person apparently suffering from a mental illness to notify a hospital Emergency Department that they are attending with the person. This was not done.

More seriously, the Deceased was not taken directly to Royal Darwin hospital. Instead, he was taken to the police station where he was kept in the back of a caged vehicle for 16 minutes. That conduct is unacceptable. The Deceased was not a prisoner. He was not a suspect. He was not, as Fox described the Deceased during his interviews to investigating police a “person of interest”. He was a person who was a potential patient. The only power the police had under section 163 was to apprehend him and take him to a medical practitioner or an authorised psychiatrist for the purposes of an assessment under s 33.

…

In my view the decision to use force against the Deceased was not necessary and the police did not apply the minimum use of force.

I accept that the Deceased said on more than one occasion in a loud voice that he wanted to go outside to get some fresh air or he wanted to have a smoke…All four police officers were in close proximity to the Deceased at that time he said those words. I do not accept that not a single police officer heard the Deceased say those words or words to that effect. It is telling that none of the police asked the Deceased why he wanted to go outside. That is either because the Deceased had told them why he wanted to go outside or it did not occur to the police to engage in any dialogue with him.

There is no cogent evidence that the Deceased was intending to flee or escape or attempt to hurt himself.

…

I also find that if force was required to be used against the Deceased, the force actually used on the Deceased was unnecessary and excessive…I accept the evidence of the civilian witnesses that Fox applied his knee to the Deceased’s head when it was lifted about 15 cm above the ground causing the Deceased’s head to hit the floor. Fox’s conduct was not in accordance with the training provided by the NT police.

…

In making the decision to use force, the police members failed to take into account that the Deceased was mentally ill, that he was in a distressed condition and was in an agitated and anxious state after an unnecessarily prolonged wait at the hospital.”

Coroner Cavanagh also blasted the training provided to NT Police in dealing with the mentally ill:

“The training received by operational police about dealing with the mentally ill was clearly inadequate. Sergeant Hansen…acknowledged that the NT police were not given any specific training on negotiation or ‘tactical disengagement’ or communications with mentally ill people.

Bronwyn Hendry, the Director of Mental Health in the NT, gave evidence of the training received by NT police and security guards in relation to mentally ill people. She regarded that training as inadequate.”

Acting Sergeant Brad Fox remains on duty.

He has been summonsed to appear in the Darwin Magistrates Court on 9 November.

Coroner Cavanagh made the following recommendations:

1 – The NT Police Custody Manual be amended to provide that members must take any apparently mentally ill or disturbed person apprehended under s 163 of the Mental Health and Related Services Act by the most direct practical route and as quickly as possible for the an assessment.

2 – The NT Police Custody Manual, the Police General Orders and the Memorandum of Understanding dated June 2002 offer no clear guidance to operational police in relation to the handover of patients by police to hospital and should be revised.

3 – That Northern Territory Police ensure operational police are trained and retrained using reality based training techniques in relation to: “to the use of the prone restraint; risk factors; warning signs of a rapid onset of serious injury or death which can potentially occur in connection with certain restraint positions when subjects are in the prone position; prevention strategies; the monitoring of a subject person’s health if practical during and certainly immediately after the subjects are in the restraint positions.

4 – The Northern Territory Police should ensure that all members are trained and re-trained in strategies to deal with mentally ill persons.

5 – The Northern Territory Police should amend the General Order on Transport of Persons in Custody, and Part 6 of the Custody Manual – Mentally Ill Persons to include step-by-step instructions for police members on exercising the power of immediate apprehension for the purposes of a mental health assessment.

6 – The Northern Territory Police should amend clause 6.1.2 of the Police Custody Manual…so that Clause reflect that where legal advice is sought by a member and it is not possible to obtain that advice before the end of the member’s shift, the member should be interviewed as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter.

7 – That the legislature consider amending section 34 of the Mental Health and Related Services Act to clarify police powers and responsibilities after a section 34 recommendation has been made.

The political response has been limited to hand-wringing stop-gap measures and to paying for a series of failed attempts to plug the spill and some apparently ineffective mopping-up operations.

Atlas West oil rig. Photograph: Chris Twomey, office of Ausralian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert

This is a disaster of not only local, but regional and international proportions. And, while the weather conditions in and around the Timor Sea are relatively stable at present, the impending arrival of the seasonal monsoonal cycle in the coming months will substantially change the nature and location of the impact of this massive spill.

The Jakarta Post reports today that the slick is already in Indonesian waters and is causing illness and will have a substantial economic affect on traditional fishers and harvesters on Rote Island:

Four weeks after the oil spill, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) submitted an official report to the Indonesian government mentioning that volumes of crude oil had entered the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone, some 51 nautical miles from Rote Island.

Traditional fishermen operating off Pasir Island found an oil slick resembling a pool around 20 miles from Tablolong beach in Kupand, or around 30 nautical miles from Kolbano, South Central Timor regency.

Last week, fishermen on the coast of Rote Ndao regency started complaining of illnesses as a result of the oil spill that had reached land and damaged thousands of hectares of ready-to-harvest seaweed.

“Seaweed, which is one of the province’s prime commodities, has been polluted. If the farmers fail to harvest their seaweed, they would incur losses of up to billions of rupiah,” said the West Timor Care Foundation NGO director Ferdi Tanoni.

And the Timor Oil spill has been picked up by East Timorese bloggers here and here.

The West Atlas oil rig in the Timor Sea, operated by the Thai-owned PTTEP Australasia, blew on August 21 and has leaked over 400,000 litres of oil, gas and condensate into the Timor Sea at a rate of reported variously as being from 300 to 1,200 barrels a day.

The Fairfax Press reports that Greens Senator Bob Brown believes those figures underestimate the true position – though no material was provided in support of his claim that:

The Greens believe anywhere from 10 to 20 million litres of oil has spilled into the ocean since the leak began on August 21.

Three attempts to plug the hole – by means of intercepting the pipe more than 2.5 kilometres below the sea bed – have been unsuccessful.

A fourth attempt had earlier been abandoned but was apparently to take place sometime yesterday, Sunday October 25.

Photograph: Debra Glasgow/WWF

As Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett told the ABC he is:

…confident everything possible is being done to stop the oil leak.

“The fact of the matter is, it’s a fiendishly difficult exercise – a little bit like threading the needle – to try to get this oil spill stopped,” he said.

And a fiendishly expensive one – estimates by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority given to the Australian Senate are that it has cost more that $AU5.3 million to date.

What 25,000 square kilometres of oil slick looks like. Photograph: MODIS/Terra/NASAS

The most comprehensive report I’ve been able to find on this oil spill is this article published last Friday in The Guardian by Toni O’Loughlin.

O’Loughlin’s article relies extensively on a series of reports by the World Wildlife Fund Australia.

Sea snake swimming in sludge. Photograph: Chris Sanderson/WWF

WWF are the only external independent agency to conduct a survey of the area affected by the spill.

WWF says that:

Dolphins, migratory sea birds and sea snakes were found in abundance in the area, in addition to marine turtles, and many of these species were recorded swimming through the toxic oil affected area during WWF’s recent expedition to Timor Sea…”We recorded hundreds of dolphins and sea birds in the oil slick area, as well as sea snakes and threatened hawksbill and flatback turtles,” said WWF-Australia’s Director of Conservation Dr Gilly Llewellyn, who led the team of ecologists.

Overall the expedition recorded 17 species of seabird, four species of cetacean and five marine reptiles including two species of marine turtle. At least eleven of the species were listed migratory and two – hawksbill and flatback turtles – are listed as threatened with extinction under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

On Wednesday, PTTEP, the company responsible for the oil slick, reported high levels of mortality among oil- affected seabirds. “Clearly, wildlife is dying and hundreds if not thousands of dolphins, seabirds and sea-snakes are being exposed to toxic oil. The critical issue is the long term impact of this slick on a rich marine ecosystem, taking into consideration the magnitude, extent and duration of the event,” said Dr Llewellyn. “We know that oil can be a slow and silent killer…we can expect this environmental disaster will continue to unfold for years to come.”

The true impacts of this most serious regional marine disaster will start to be felt – and recorded – in the Timor Sea in the coming weeks and are already having severe impacts on some parts of the Indonesian archipelago.

Just what will happen when the monsoon season starts and most likely disperses the spill over a greater area in the region – including back onto the Australian north-western coastline, remains to be seen.

But by then it may be too late.

You can see more of the WWF reports and survey here.

And more of the photographs collected at The Guardian’s Environment site here.

We share a fascination with raptors and in her most recent message she said:

Solitary Hawk! LIFER! 4 million migrating raptors for this season – not bad and still expecting four hundred thousand Turkey Vultures…Veracruz – River of Raptors.

Photo: Mercy Njeri

Mercy has been chasing the annual migratory movements of millions of raptors through the northern continental Americas and is now in Veracruz – where there is literally an aerial River of Raptors.

The wonderful people at HawkWatch International tell me will give Mercy and all the other lucky souls great views of:

Each fall, 4-6 million raptors migrate through Veracruz on their way to winter ranges in Central and South America. Because of the region’s geography, raptors from eastern, central, and western North America converge, providing visitors with a display unequaled anywhere on the planet.

As many as 2 million Broad-winged Hawks, 1 million Swainson’s Hawks, and 200,000 Mississippi Kites–nearly the entire world population for these three species–pass through Veracruz each fall. In addition, more than 1.5 million Turkey Vultures join the flight, as do thousands of other raptors, waterbirds, and songbirds.

Combine this with the hundreds of resident bird species in the state of Veracruz, and the scores of Olmec, Totonac, and Aztec archeological sites, all set in the friendly, unspoiled culture of east central Mexico, and you have the adventure of a lifetime.

Anyway – back to the barbie.

As anyone who has spent time in Mexico or the south-western USA will know, Armadillos are relatively common, and, as this entry at Wikipedia says:

Armadillos (mainly Dasypus) make common roadkill due to their habit of jumping to about fender height when startled (such as by an oncoming car). Wildlife enthusiasts are using the northward march of the armadillo as an opportunity to educate others about the animals, which can be a burrowing nuisance to property owners and managers.

Roadkill Armadillo. Photo: Professional Wildlife Removal

Anyway, in Mercy’s travels in Veracruz someone came up with the idea of barbecuing a few Armadillos.

Photo: Mercy Njeri

Mercy says that she is a bit ambivalent about the experience – delicious but:

Spiced Armadillo…poa lakini…ni Bush Meat…though nilimanga…now I am a vegetarian by circumstances…

Shell yenyewe ni ka ya tortoise…ati no nyama…tuiohere mehia maitu nitondu tutiui uria tureka…!

Super delicious, better than Crocodile meat!

Mercy told me that:

I preferred not to look at what i was munching because it gave me memories of our endangered African Elephant Shrew found in the Arabuko Sokoke Forest!

The meal is typical of traditional Mexican food. Eaten by locals and cannot be found in the markets – only occasionally in the homes of the locals. These was brought for us by the father of one of my colleague’s from upcountry.

Mercy didn’t have a recipe – “It’s a Mexican secret!!” – but I found this one from the folks over at Backwoods Bound:

Bar-B-Q’d Armadillo

Thanks to Jason Hunter for sending this recipe.

~ 1 armadillo

~ bacon grease

~ 1 cup butter

~ 1/2 cup ketchup

~ 1/2 cup grated onion

~ 2 tbsp mustard

~ tabasco to taste

In a sauce pan, combine the butter, ketchup, onion, mustard and tabasco. Heat over low heat until the butter is melted. Stir occasionally.

Rub bacon grease into the armadillo.

Grill over a hot fire for 5 minutes.

Reduce the fire by half.

Baste the meat with the sauce until done. Armadillo is cooked like pork.

Serve and Enjoy!

Serve and enjoy indeed! Photo: Mercy Njeri

I’ve written about the NT Ombudsman’s annual reports and the small glimpses that they provide into the various instances of misconduct by the NT Police before here – noting that her annual reports to the NT Parliament only document those matters that come to her by way of formal complaint.

The point that I made then – that Carolyn Richards’ reports into NT Police misconduct present convincing support for the need for an independent authority to investigate allegations of misconduct by NT Police and public officials – are only bolstered by the instances of appalling conduct of NT Police revealed in her latest report.

You can see all of the NT Ombudsman’s annual reports here.

The chapters on NT Police misconduct make for fascinating reading, and there is little to suggest that NT Police conduct, and the quality, supervision and investigation of that conduct, has improved over time.

As Carolyn Richards told the local ABC in Darwin, past NT Police recruiting and training policies may be making no small contribution to these issues:

“…a lack of senior officers in the police force could be a reason why there have been some serious breaches of police duty of care for people in custody. “Because of the influx of new recruitments into the police and because there was a five year delay prior to 2001 where [there] were no police recruitments, we are now in the situation where we’ve got all these young officers out on the beat with six months training.”

The Northern Territory’s Acting Police Commissioner, Bruce Wernham, said: “All new police recruits undergo thorough and intensive training prior to operating under full supervision as probationary constables. “I note the ombudsman’s comments with regards to increased recruiting causing more complaints against less experienced police. “However, I am not aware of any evidence to specifically support this.”

The material in this post comes from just one of the case notes of complaints against NT police documented in the 2008-2009 annual report to the local Parliament of the NT Ombudsman, Carolyn Richards.

Some of the comments made by the unnamed Police Officer in the unidentified NT watchhouse to a prisoner being processed included:

“shut your face.”

“dumb f**k”,

“f**king loser”

“d**khead over there”

“… no brain”

“f**king retard.”

The case note, headed “No brains” detailed the treatment meted out by NT Police to a complainant who was arrested:

“…for breaking and entering. This person had fallen asleep outside the premises, due to being highly intoxicated, and was arrested at the scene. A complaint was subsequently lodged relating to his treatment whilst at the watch-house.”

Even before he made it to the cells he was getting the full benefit of the cop’s limited vocabulary:

“The complainant could be heard mumbling something whilst he was seated on the bench, although it was not discernable as to what was said. One of the attending officers responded with “shut your face.” Further comments made to or about the complainant within the next 30 minutes included, “dumb f**k”, “f**king loser”, “d**khead over there”, “… no brain”, “he’s from CSI, one of our smart criminals who breaks and enters and then collapses outside the scene” and “f**king retard.” There were several officers present during the comments, not one of them suggesting they were wrong or inappropriate.”

And it just doesn’t get any better – for the poor guy in the cell or the cop with the potty mouth.

Further examination of the audio and footage from the watchhouse cameras revealed this tasty little incident:

“…the duty officer was eating a piece of toast. He was pointing to the toast and then himself and later pointed to another breakfast behind the counter. In the officer’s statement he claimed he was indicating to the complainant that his breakfast was behind the counter. However on viewing the video it appeared the duty officer ate the complainant’s toast that was sitting with the complainant’s weetbix. He then went to a box sitting on the bin containing breakfast rubbish and took out a white bag with toast and a carton of milk. The duty officer then poured the milk on the weetbix and brought this, along with the toast in the white bag, to the complainant. It was concerning that the duty officer provided the complainant with toast and milk which appeared to have been taken from rubbish sitting on the bin.”

And thanks to the watchhouse cameras we now know that:

In addition to the inappropriate comments identified above the duty officer was heard and observed making the following statements to or about the complainant:

• “stupid f**king idiot”

• “make things quite clear, …, if you wanna f**kin’ play up I’ll make things hard for you”

• “god, he f**king stinks”

• “didn’t bang head for too long coz it hurt” one officer apparently mocking the complainant to another officer

• Two officers were joking about the complainant hitting his head against the cell door because he

wasn’t given a blanket. One officer stating that the complainant had said he would jump in the air

and land on his head killing himself. The officer then stating “go ahead, do it.” The other officer

stating “make sure you do it in front of the cameras”

• “piece of s**t that he is”

• After the officer established that the complainant was dialling his wife whom he had a domestic

violence order against, the officer said “get back in your f**king cell you spastic”; “you’ve got a

domestic violence order that says you are not allowed to contact her, you f**king wanker. You’re

not allowed to approach her, you’re not allowed to contact her directly or indirectly you f**king

wanker”

• “how about you shut the f**k up”

• “spastic c**t” whispered by officer

And what was the sanction meted out to the officer?

Here again from the NT Ombudsman’s annual report:

It was determined that some of the conduct was highly inappropriate for police officers and in breach of the NT Police Code of Conduct and Ethics and General Orders. The JRC recommended that the officers receive managerial guidance in relation to appropriate conduct when dealing with detainees. The JRC noted that it had already been recommended that the officers receive formal counselling.

The investigation also revealed that appropriate entries were not made into the watch-house log or offender journal.

Great – “counselling” and “managerial guidance” – no mention of the slap on the wrist, an apology to the complainant or any action against those other officers who, by their silent acquiescence, condoned their brother officer’s conduct.

As Glen Dooley of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) , which provides legal services and representation across the Top End of the NT, told the local ABC:

“…there should be tougher sanctions and more transparency.

“If we had a field officer and that field officer started calling that client a dumb whatever, a whatever loser and a whatever retard and then served them some food out of one of our garbage bins, that person would be sacked on the spot,” he said.

“The report here recommends the officers receive managerial guidance in relation to food hygiene and appropriate conduct when dealing with detainees. That’s limp to me.”

For the benefit of those members of the NT Police reading this who may have forgotten what it says – and for the rest of us who have most likely never seen it before – here is the NT Police Statement of Ethics:

STATEMENT OF ETHICS

Each member of the Police Force is to act in a manner which:

- upholds the rule of law;

- preserves the individual’s rights and freedoms;

- places integrity above all;

- seeks to improve quality of life throughout the community through involvement with the community;

- strives to attain maximum citizen confidence and satisfaction;

- strives at all times for professional excellence;

- strives to maximise the effectiveness of available human and other resources; and

- tempers authority with common sense, discretion and sensitivity

Any bids on how many of those points have been contravened here – all of them? – or none?

Have any thoughts about the effectiveness of the current investigative process for complaints against NT Police?

Your thoughts please!

Marie Munkara

In Part One of this interview here we talked about the great threads of humour and sarcasm that run through the Every Secret Thing and what seemed like an amazingly easy run that Marie had writing this book.

She didn’t get blocked, doesn’t seem to get too stressed and popped Every Secret Thing out like a perfect child in under 12 months.

In this second half of the interview we turned to the other, less funny threads that run though Every Secret Thing – the sexual politics and the lasting impacts that church-based institutionalisation has upon individuals and the broader community.

The Northern Myth – Correct me if I’m wrong but I think that there is this other undercurrent apart from the humour and the wonderfully drawn characters – and that is the sexual politics. There is a lot of sex in the book – and it seems like almost everyone is at it at different times with all sorts of other people…

Marie Munkara – even the geckos, yeah…

TNM – Yes, even the geckos! But there is the more serious side. You’ve got the religious members of the institutions and their staff having it off with just about everyone – sometimes in circumstances that would now be called pedophiliac conduct. Would many of your readers have a problem believing much of what you are saying here?

MM – You know, on the whole everyone…most except for one, have said “Oh, we’ve heard about things like this but no-one has ever said it.” I think that there is an understanding that this kind of conduct has gone on in the past. I think that it is just because it is the Church, because it is clergy and most people would think that they just don’t act like that and you just shouldn’t say it or talk about it. We are supposed to respect them, we have to show this…respect for the authority of the clergy.

TNM – And Every Secret Thing is not just about a couple of islands off the coast of the NT is it? It is really about a thick slice of life for a whole lot of people – Aboriginal and white – in the NT, isn’t it?

MM – Yes. Even though I didn’t want to focus too much on the sexual politics and the influence of the Church in the book it was there and it is a real fact of life for a lot of my family and it was a very sad part of their lives. It had to be there in the book- I just couldn’t have written Every Secret Thing without speaking about those issues.

TNM – Are you trying to get this off your chest?

MM – Yes I think you are probably right. I’ve never thought of it that way but I probably did have to get it off my chest.

TNM – And this is one of the great – and largely untold stories in the NT, isn’t it? Do you think there is a need for a broad investigation of what has gone on in these institutions in the past?

MM – Yes I do. It is not right that these horrible things were done when the Church was supposed to be protecting children. I think it should be investigated, we shouldn’t just let it go. For many people there was, and still is, a real fear of the church at times.

I remember one time that I was talking to my grandfather – I’d asked him, “Why do you put up with the church being here when you know that they do certain things?” and he said, “If they go, we won’t have a school, or the clinic or things like that anymore” And I told him “No, that’s paid for by the government – the church are just running those things”. And he had the belief, and a lot of people had the belief, that the church had paid for all of this and were paying for it all out of the goodness of their own hearts. And I would say to these old people, “No, no, no – they are getting their funding from the same place as everyone else – the government.”

A lot of people don’t like to speak up, because they are afraid that they might lose something if they make a noise or make a fuss, because they don’t know the full facts and I’m sure that the Church has been very happy to let people go on believing that they are the ones that are providing all of these services, and doing the good things.

TNM – People have told me that places like the institutions run by the Catholic Church in the NT posed very real threats to many people’s wellbeing – that rather than being a sanctuary for children they were places where children were harmed…

MM – I was only very little when I was there – I was very small. But the stories I’ve heard from people – they weren’t kind places. As I say in Every Secret Thing, the half-caste kids were just shaped into what the people in control of the institutions wanted and then they were just bundled off. And from the perspective of those in charge of the institutions it wasn’t fair for someone like the character Marigold to come back. “Hello, one of them came back!”.

MM – A very strange thing happened when I worked in central Australia as a public servant a few years ago. My department used to fund the Santa Theresa mission and I went there for work one time. One of the nuns in the clinic said “Come back to the convent for lunch” and I said “Okay”. And who should be there but two of the old nuns from Garden Point when was a little one there. They had looked after me when I was tiny. And do you know what one of them had the cheek to say to me?

She said “God we were sad when you had to go.” I said “But what about my Mum? You were sad when I had to go!” I was so freaking angry. I think I restrained myself from saying too much. But I was stunned that these two, they were lovely old nuns…but they said “Oh, God we were just so sad when we had to let you go.” It was nice that they cared about me but…

TNM – As if you were a possession…

MM – Yes! And what about my Mum?!

TNM - What happens to people when they are cast out of these institutions?

MM – For many people there is an absolute sense of helplessness – many of them come out with a total lack of control over their lives or understanding of how to live a life away from that control. And nowadays, with this Intervention, for many people it is just like back in the old days when people were told “You can’t do this, or that, God is the one.” People do not have any control over their lives because they cannot even decide what they can do with their kids, or their money. Someone in the government are making those choices for them. It is no wonder that so many people just give up.

TNM – You also talk about – how despite all of this despair there are still amazingly strong women out there…

MM – They have to be strong – the men are strong in their own way as well but the women always needed to have to hold things together. That is one thing that doesn’t change. I think we are genetically imprinted that way. The men go away to war and die the women still have to hold things together.

Have you read Marie’s book?

Got a view or a comment?

Post your comment here and join the discussion!

111 Catalpa St, Clarksdale, Mississippi

With the $AUS getting close to parity against the $US this must be one of the bargains of the year – if not the decade.

Clarksdale is one of those small towns that was always going to be on its uppers when the Mississippi River decided to wander on it relentless course away from the town and it then lost a whole lot more when the railway closed down a few years ago.

When I was there earlier this year the town felt just a little bit like one of those “cultural museums” in that much of what was going on now was related to people and events from the past.

But there was also a very real sense of cultural, economic and community re-creation – the downtown area had some new storefronts, new business and ventures are finding their way into town and there is a very busy roster of blues music and literary events and festivals in and around this part of the Delta.

Plus you can all kinds of fun just cruising around the bayous and backroads and dropping into great jook joints like Po’ Monkey’s down the road at Merigold for a cooling ale and some of the raunchiest R & B you won’t hear on any radio – anywhere.

Roger Stolle and Cathead Music – among others – have led the rejuvenation of Clarksdale.

Today, Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, Inc. is a 6-day-a-week store that features a full selection of blues CDs, DVDs, books, magazines T-shirts, artwork and collectibles. It’s kind of like shopping in a juke joint, I like to say. It’s the kind of store I always dreamed of finding but never did. It has become a base of operations for other blues projects and a clearing house of information about area musicians, juke joints and festivals

The cool thing is that Clarksdale, Mississippi, has a lot to offer. Great blues music four or five nights a week, every week — plus killer festivals a few times a year. Wonderful musicians, artists and characters live and work here. Since I moved here, I’m sure at least a dozen others have as well — from the Netherlands and all over the United States. Clarksdale is lucky also because in addition to its rich cultural history, it’s an hour or less from Memphis, Cleveland, Helena and Tunica. Because we’re part of the “roots music corridor” that runs from Memphis to Chicago, we get tourists from all over the U.S., Europe and Asia every single week. They come in search of the “land where blues began” and when they finally reach the blues mecca of Clarksdale for the first time, and they drop by Cat Head, I know they’re hooked!

And if you like the idea of cruising on the Sunflower or Mississippi Rivers on a canoe then John Ruskey and the folks at the Quapaw Canoe Company will look after you in the finest way.

One of Quapaw’s specialities is making hand-carved replicas (and modern versions) of the wooden canoes that local first nations peoples used on the rivers for hunting and travel – they are truly magnificent creations.

Launching the Wanbli Eagle

Quapaw’s website says that:

More blues musicians come from Clarksdale & surrounding Delta region than any other single place on earth. The main channel of the Mississippi River used to flow adjacent downtown Clarksdale, and it was once the center of a thriving Native American community of 2 – 3,000 known as Quiz-Quiz. There is evidence that Hernando de Soto and his conquistadors passed through this area during their 1540-42 ravage of the Southeast (and became the first Europeans to view the Mighty Mississippi River, which they called “The Rio Grande”). Jolliette & Marquette (1673), LaSalle (1681) and John James Audubon (1820) traveled this section of river.

…

Quapaw Canoe Company provides custom-guided canoe & kayak expeditions, day floats and other paddling adventures along the Lower Mississippi River from Cairo Illinois to St. Francisville, Louisiana. Spectacular reaches include the Kentucky Bluffs, Bessie’s Bend (20 mile bend of the river to go one mile), the 4 Chickasaw Bluffs, Memphis to Vicksburg (300 miles of remote river, only 2 bridges, only one town), Confluence of the Arkansas River & surrounding wilderness areas (rich habitat for the Louisiana Black Bear), Vicksburg to Natchez-Under-the-Hill, Natchez to St. Francisville. Long stretches of river, almost no industry or point-source polluters, few towns, few bridges, big islands, big forests, most varied inland fishery in North America, 60% of America’s songbirds, 40% of its migrating waterfowl. Longest free-flowing River (1160 miles). No dams. No schedule: we go whenever our clients are ready.

Sitting in one of Quapaw’s big canoes, doing not very much but watching that big river slide by under you with a soundtrack of the world’s finest blues and the American outback’s songbirds surrounded by the vast wildness of the Mississippi River – couldn’t hope for much better that.

And the house?  By Australian standards it is pretty well fitted out – and at this price…you’d be laughing!

And I just love this pitch from Roger for his house for its frankness and humour:

The front porch really is pretty big and cool. When you walk into the house, you find spacious, connected living and dining room areas that are loosely separated by built-in bookcases (that also work for blues CDs). There’s a long hallway with plenty of wall space to hang cool stuff, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a back office/sunroom, main floor washer/dryer, kitchen and butler’s pantry. There are decent closets throughout. The kitchen has a walk-in pantry and includes the built-in stove, dishwasher (sold to me by one of bluesman Big George Brock’s 42 kids) and garbage disposal; the two small fridges and the deep freeze are negotiable. (By the way, a full-size fridge fits/works fine; I just didn’t own one when I originally moved in.) The attic is unfinished but very very large and could be finished out, frankly, as an office or guest room. The basement is mostly crawl space; like most in the Delta, it’s fairly useless… except for housing the hot water heater, pipes, ductwork, etc. The house has modern, forced-air central heating and air conditioning, by the way; I like to stay comfortable. The yard is pretty nice sized and includes holly bushes, magnolia tree, etc. There’s a tool shed in the backyard that’s nothing special but holds plenty of junk. The backyard is mostly fenced in. The house is wired for cable/internet and has two ornamental fireplaces with mantles. A long driveway runs along side the house, conveniently linking Catalpa Street with Maple Street (nice for parties/visitors — though at least one visiting bluesman with the alias ‘T-Model’ has parked in the front yard, anyway, to my dismay!). In short, 111 Catalpa is a cool house located just across the Sunflower River from a neat little Delta downtown, and priced well below $100,000 — now at just $79,900 — it could easily be your next home or home-away-from-home! By the way, I’m only moving into a different house because my sweetie and I want to buy one together that is truly ‘ours’ if you know what I mean.

You can see the flyer for Roger Stolle’s house here.

Got a tip on a bargain-basement house of the week – anywhere?

Got some thoughts about what you’ve read here?