Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Morning mail: Noongar rebels renew land battle

Morning Mail

Morning mail: Noongar rebels renew land battle

Thursday: Indigenous group in dispute over native title rights in WA vow to return to high court. Plus: Queensland triumph in State of Origin II

Noongar dancers perform a welcome dance at a rally on the steps of Western Australia's parliament house to celebrate their native title win in Perth in 2006.
Noongar dancers perform a welcome dance at a rally on the steps of Western Australia's parliament house to celebrate their native title win in Perth in 2006. Photograph: Denise Cahill/AAP

Eleanor Ainge Roy


Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 22 June.

Top stories

Traditional owners who had their veto power over one of Australia's largest land rights handovers quashed by federal legislation say they are raising funds to renew their fight in the high court. Mervyn Eades, one of four dissident Noongar representatives who undid a $1.3bn deal to give up native title rights over 200,000 sq km in Western Australia, said parliament's move to validate the deal four months later was a bitter pill to swallow and the group would now "fight on".

Gerry Georgatos, a suicide prevention and prison reform researcher, said extinguishing native title rights for the Noongar would "come at the cost of wellbeing and hope" in an already disadvantaged community, half of whom lived below the poverty line.

The Guardian has revealed the Grenfell Tower in London was inspected 16 times over a two-year period by two local councils, with all of the inspections failing to flag the fire danger of the aluminium cladding. At least 79 people died in a fire in the tower last week. Judith Blakeman, a local Labour councillor who represents the Grenfell residents, said: "This raises the question of whether the building regulations officers were sufficiently competent and did they know what they were looking at? It also begs a question about what they were actually shown. Was anything concealed from them?"

A Senate inquiry has called for Centrelink's controversial automated debt recovery system to be suspended until its many flaws can be resolved. The inquiry report released on Wednesday night has also recommended all debts calculated using the error-prone "income averaging" process be reassessed. Horror stories have continued to emerge about false debts imposed by the system, despite the government announcing a series of changes earlier this year. One man became suicidal over Centrelink continuing to pursue him for a $4,000 debt he did not owe.

Miranda Kerr has been asked to hand over millions of dollars in gifted jewels that were allegedly purchased using money stolen in the world's biggest financial scandal. US prosecutors say the jewellery – including a $3.8m, 8.88-carat diamond pendant – was given to to the Australian model by a financier at the heart of the corruption case. Now SABM Australia, an NGO that advocates for enhanced governance in Malaysia, said it was "not alleging any wrongdoing by Miranda Kerr" but called for her to "hand over all jewels gifted to her".

Two boys fired plastic pellets from a toy gun at the King of Thailand as he rode past on a bike in a Munich suburb. According to German media reports of the 10 June incident, which emerged this week, the king and his bodyguards continued on their way after being shot at, but police were alerted to the incident an hour later "via official channels". The Bavarian state prosecutor in Landshut is now investigating the 14-year-old for attempted criminal assault. The 13-year-old is below the age of criminal responsibility. As our Berlin bureau chief Phillip Oltermann writes, the incident is unlikely to have consequences as historic as the ambush of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Sport

Jonathan Thurston's boot gave Queensland a thrilling victory following Dane Gagai's late try as the Maroons kept alive their State of Origin hopes with an 18-16 win over New South Wales in Game II in Sydney. With a quartet of champion veterans on the field against New South Wales in Game II it was perhaps foolish to doubt Queensland's State of Origin dynasty, writes Matt Cleary following the Maroons' victory at ANZ Stadium.

The Socceroos play Cameroon looking to bounce back from their opening Confederations Cup defeat to Germany in the wee hours later tonight. Join Sam Perry at 1am AEST Friday morning for the latest updates on the game in Russia.

Thinking time

Daniel Day Lewis iIn the Name of the Father 1993 Ireland UK
Daniel Day Lewis in the Name of the Father 1993 Ireland UK Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Peter Bradshaw looks back at Daniel Day Lewis's extraordinary career of acting artistry after he announced his retirement at the age of just 60. The recipient of three best actor Oscars – the most in history – he has joined Steven Soderbergh, Ken Loach and Jack Nicholson in the ranks of movie greats who have announced retirement earlier than expected.

A community legal centre in the Northern Territory is auctioning off donated Indigenous art to raise urgently needed funds to continue offering advice on enviromental issues in the top end, which is besieged by numerous mining projects intruding onto ancestral lands. After funding to the centre was cut in 2015, the auction – which is online and open until Thursday – now provides a third of their operational budget. Well-known artists exhibiting include Jack Green, Nancy McDinny and Stuart Hoosan.

Nail salons have become a staple of life in the suburban landscape of Georgia in the US with even the hard men of the south regularly stopping by to have their heels exfoliated, and their calves rubbed. My Ngoc To talks to the women who spend their days hunched over gnarly feet – still trying to forget the wars and poverty they fled in Vietnam.

What's he done now?

Donald Trump has returned to Twitter with a vengeance, tweeting hard to support the republican candidate Karen Handel , who just won a congressional seat in Georgia in a special election. "Well, the Special Elections are over and those that want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN are 5 and 0!" Trump tweeted, victoriously. "All the Fake News, all the money spent = 0".

Media roundup

The Daily Telegraph reports that the NSW police fraud squad has been called in to investigate taxi drivers using hi-tech card skimmers to steal from passengers in Sydney. The Mercury says a booming property market in Hobart is leading the nation and breaking records. For the ABC, Stan Grant writes that the 10th anniversary of the intervention in the Northern Territory, when soldiers were brought in as part of a crackdown on the Indigenous population, "is another moment to reflect on generations of failed policy". He writes: "Whatever the moral arguments at the time – some Indigenous people supported the Howard initiative – the results have been predictably poor. Yet the policy has been maintained – with variations and a name change – by successive governments, both Labor and Coalition."

Coming up

The New South Wales coroner will hand down his findings into the death of Davey Browne, 28, who was knocked unconscious during a semi-professional bout at Ingleburn RSL in September 2015 and died three days later.

Fairfield city council, in Sydney's west, is launching a refugee settlement action plan. Fairfield has the highest intake of refugees out of any local government area in Australia, due in part to its culturally diverse community.

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