Birth certification in Australia and the need for reform
Birth certification in Australia and the need for reform Share
In Australia, the birth certificate is of fundamental importance as the document that unlocks all the rights and privileges of citizenship. While the national rate of birth registration and certification is very strong, this is not the case for a number of minority and often marginalised communities, writes Nesha Balasubramanian.
Chief among these is Australia’s Indigenous community who, in Queensland for example, see their births under-registered and under-certified at a rate of 15- 18 percent.
But what are the key barriers related to obtaining birth certification in Australia? And how can these barriers be removed?
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The Traditional Owners of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters are marking the one-year anniversary of the sacred site s destruction with a warning that government and industry need to act quickly to prevent another tragedy .
Mining giant Rio Tinto blew up the 46,000-year-old rock shelters in Western Australia s Pilbara region on 24 May last year to extract $188 million worth of high-grade iron ore.
The incident devastated the Traditional Owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, and prompted a global backlash.
PKKP Aboriginal Corporation spokesman Burchell Hayes says governments and mining companies are still not doing enough to protect sacred sites.
WA rules out veto power for traditional owners
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Western Australiaâs Labor government has ruled out giving traditional owners the power to veto mining activity, despite Indigenous leaders renewing calls for such power on the anniversary of Rio Tinto destroying Juukan Gorge.
The impasse over veto powers threatens to derail WAâs long-awaited introduction of new Aboriginal heritage legislation to replace the 50-year-old laws that Rio used to gain government approval to blast Juukan Gorge last May.
WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Stephen Dawson discussed the veto powers with the stateâs biggest native title groups last week.
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Peter de Kruijff
Orica gives staff power to stop work at mine sites over heritage fears
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Workers at explosives giant Orica have been permitted to stop laying charges at mine sites if they have concerns about impacting Indigenous heritage, as Rio Tinto’s destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves last year heightens caution across the industry.
Orica chief executive Sanjeev Gandhi said the blasting of the 46,000-year-old site in Western Australia’s Pilbara, which has been attributed to Rio Tinto’s failure to adequately engage with the land’s traditional owners, had prompted a reassessment of Orica’s own internal controls to help prevent such disaster happening again.