Forwarded from Christine Howes: 2/2/2000 GOOLBURRI COUNCIL TAKES INITATIVE ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE The Goolburri Regional Council has set aside a substantial amount of its funding to tackle the occurrence of domestic violence in Aboriginal communities in its region, ATSIC Commissioner for the Queensland South Zone, Mr Ray Robinson announced today. Commissioner Robinson said the Council had today agreed to earmark up to $400,000 from its annual budget to employ domestic violence counsellors in major communities in the region. "This is a great initiative and I commend all members of the Council for making such a wise and timely decision despite the fact that it will place great strain on its budget," Commissioner Robinson said. "The Council recognises this is a problem for our communities which needs to be sorted out at community level but we need as much support as we can get "We need the full backing of the State and Federal Government to ensure we obtain the right outcomes." Commissioner Robinson said Council members wished to invite the Queensland Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ms Judy Spence, and the Federal Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Senator John Herron to the Council's next meeting in May to discuss the initiative. "It's time they sat down with elected community representatives and discussed practical responses to the Robertson Report which flowed from the work of the Indigenous Womens Task Force established by the Queensland Government," he added. "This report was tabled late last year. There have been far too many Government reports on Aboriginal affairs which have been written and simply allowed to gather dust in a filing cabinet. "We are determined this will not happen in this instance. "Talk is cheap. It is time for action and we are calling on the State and Federal Government's to respond with enough financial resources to ensure we can adequately tackle domestic violence in our communities." Commissioner Robinson said the Council proposed employing counsellors in Cherbourg, Toowoomba, Cunamulla, Charleville, Dalby, Roma and St George. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
