Draft Email to the Government about the Rights and Recognition of Indigenous People

Tejas.Morisetty@allsaints.wa.edu.au

All Saints College – Ewing Avenue, Bull Creek, 6149

Western Australia

0406 700 299

13 May 2022

Hon. Antonio De Paulo Buti

Minister of Finance, Racing and Gaming, Aboriginal Affairs; Citizenship and Multicultural Interests

Armadale.mp.wa.gov.au

2898 Albany Highway

Kelmscott WA 6111

(08) 9495 4877

Dear Dr Buti,

I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to request your government to take immediate action on the rights and recognition of Indigenous People. Australia is a great country that stands for values such as equality, freedom, and mutual respect. However, the majority of Indigenous People face racial discrimination, and mistreatment by the criminal law system and receive lower standards of health, education, employment, and housing. Currently, unemployment rates for Indigenous People are twice as high compared for non-Indigenous People. This has led to abject poverty and rising homelessness. Almost 30% of all Indigenous households are in income poverty which equates to 120,000 people.

Every human is entitled to their rights and freedoms without any discrimination of any kind. However, Indigenous People are being deprived of certain rights that include:

  • An adequate standard of living, adequate food, clothing, and housing
  • The highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
  • To be safe from freedom and violence
  • Self-determination, incudes guaranteed effective participation in all aspects of public life
  • To have recognition and protection of traditional lands
  • Enjoyment of culture and use of preservation of languages
  • To not be subject to forced assimilation or destruction of culture
  • Being treated equally

The Indigenous People deserve the same rights and freedoms as any other Australian and human. They deserve to have access to different essential services such as hospitals and chemists to reach the aimed standard of mental and physical health. They deserve to have the opportunity to have a proper functioning house with sufficient food and clothing.

I acknowledge the 1-billion-dollar investment made by the government into the Closing the Gap implementation plan that has gone towards mental health, jobs and skills, and aged care. Support and Care Organisations such as NAAJA, ANTAR, Yalari, and Indigenous Crisis Response and Recovery have also helped by providing different essential items in poorer, regional areas.

The areas that the Government need to work on are racial discrimination, the treatment of Indigenous Australians in the Criminal Justice System and fixing the gap between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous People in terms of health, education, employment, and housing. This is why I would like to propose different solutions to help to try and fix the different aspects of Indigenous recognition and rights.

These include:

  • To implement and strengthen the protection systems for Indigenous People. 18.3% of all Indigenous women feel threatened or abused, and are much more likely to experience violence.
  • To create more support care organisations funded by the government so they receive access to more essential items and services.
  • To create more infrastructure in regional, poorer areas.
  • To include more Indigenous people in juries and in the law systems so that it is less biased. Almost 27% of all prisoners in Australia come from Indigenous descent.
  • To invest more money into housing and urban areas to decrease the Indigenous homeless population.
  • Raising more awareness and creating punishments for the mistreatment and racial abuse of Indigenous people and other races. This mistreatment also affects the unemployment rates, which is twice as higher than Non-Indigenous People. 70% of young Indigenous adults are not engaged in work or education.

Thank you for considering this request. It would be highly appreciated if you responded and indicated the steps you will take to address this issue.

Sincerely,

Tejas Morisetty

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