2010 - Volume 13 Number 6

Papua’s abundant natural resources have made it another focus of the ‘resource curse’ – the curse of being resource rich. Significant natural resources often give rise to power struggles to control them and Papua is no exception. The Grasberg mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan and the Indonesian Government is the largest above ground copper mine in the world, but there is a protracted conflict in the area bounded by the mine. 

Imparsial, the Indonesian human rights monitor maintains that violence in Papua often targets human rights activists, whom the Indonesian military presume to be members of separatist groups. Although torture of radical students and separatist sympathisers by security forces was no longer in practice, there were ‘still rights violations, arbitrary arrests and detention of Papuans voicing their opinions, especially the young.’

Countries such as Australia and New Zealand use the approach of ‘quiet diplomacy’ which amounts ‘to polite and ineffective representations on human rights’. Australia and New Zealand are also complicit in providing military training to many of the officers who have breached human rights in Papua. They continue to be complicit in resource exploitation.

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2010 - Volume 13 Number 5

Climate change is happening, is primarily caused by human activity and is complex.

Studies of various scenarios of temperature rise predict that Australia will experience increasing difficulties with its river systems, with water availability for agriculture, industry, residential purposes and broader environmental needs.

There will be coastal flooding due to sea level rise, increasing extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, heat waves, and extreme precipitation. Infrastructure and public health will suffer. For example:

• a 2-3° rise will mean an expansion of the dengue transmission zone as far  as Brisbane and the malaria zones will increase;
• temperature related mortality for those 65 and over will increase by 89-123%, to 200% with a 3-4° rise.

Although Australia has a particularly vulnerable eco-system, it can draw on significant resources to adapt to the changes; resources that it has accrued through GHG pollution.

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2010 - Volume 13 Number 4

The theme for National Reconciliation Week 2010 was Reconciliation: Let’s See It Through! This theme reminds us that, ten years after the historic Reconciliation bridge walks, we have a journey to complete. If we are to “see it through”, Reconciliation must be a part of our lives every day, not simply during one week of the year.

This edition of Just Comment First peoples, first priority: what priority? reproduces an interview given by ERC's Indigenous Education Officer, Cassandra Gibbs, for the May 2010 issue of Just in Time the bulletin of the Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes - NSW. Cassandra asks, as a society, what priority are we placing on indigenous equity and assures us that our small daily actions are just as important as “big picture” ideas.

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