Social Justice
Indigneous Issues
Peace Parade in Yeppoon 2007
The SWBTA falls within the traditional lands of the Darumbal people. Despite being the recognized as the traditional owners and Native Title Claimants, the Darumbal have not been given Native Title to their land nor do they have equity in the decision-making process about military activity. They are allowed only occasional and temporary access to Shoalwater Bay, and not fairly represented or consulted on its use.
Despite claims that efforts have been made to consult with indigenous people, we feel that this effort has been inadequate. In preliminary documents for the recent parliamentary submissions regarding the upgrading of Shoalwater Bay Training facilities, the ADF did not even list Traditional Owners as “stakeholders” to be consulted. The ADF then claimed that they had not had consultation with traditional owners because the traditional owners were “not contactable”. Friends of the Earth and other community representatives, however, have had no trouble contacting Traditional Owners, and question the sincerity of the ADF’s attempts. Furthermore, the ADF repeatedly implies that the fact that an environmental consultation committee exists for the region ensures that Traditional Owners are represented. It is our understanding that only one indigenous person is on that committee, that the committee meets infrequently, that there is no guarantee of any indigenous presence when the meeting convenes and that the community elders are rarely directly consulted.
We believe that access to traditional land, ability to speak for country, and the ability to practice traditional culture is a human right being denied the Darumbal people. Their land should be returned to them to be protected and honoured for the future.
Social Issues
Needs of growing human population in region
The increasing human population in the Capricorn region will lead inevitably to increased conflict of land and sea use with the military. Many local inhabitants want to see the Shoalwater region better protected and do not want increased military activities in their region – their opinions should be of great importance in decision-making.
Instances of conflict in recent months include: the washing ashore of phosphorus marine markers (Bangalee Beach, 2006) and naval garbage, an incident where helicopter gunships menaced a family yachting in Shoalwater Bay (July 2006) and incidents of stress caused by increased military activity in the adjacent towns of Byfield and Yeppoon. Byfield residents have long been forced to tolerate the seismic events associated with bombing runs in the nearby Dismal sector of the SWBTA.
In one of the latter instances, a local resident who complained of noise from low flying helicopters was told by a ADF spokesperson that he had “no sympathy” for people who live near military facilities. This does not represent good PR to say the least, and demonstrates the increasing tension between military uses and civilian uses of the area.
The incident involving a yachting family is a particularly disturbing one. Children were made hysterical by the menacing nature of the helicopter gunship in question and the family forced to leave safe waters in bad weather. The army, although later apologising to the family, has refused to provide safe harbour for boats caught in bad weather.
In addition, there have been concerns that the drinking water of Yeppoon may be endangered by weapons use in the Dismal sector, as it forms part of the water catchment for the town and runs into Waterpark Creek. Of particular concern is perchlorate which I have discussed above.
Sexual assault
In addtion, anecdotal reports indicate to us that there is a significant increase in sexual assaults, drink spiking, crime and public drunkenness in the area where troops participating in war games recreate. It is known that incidents of sexual and interpersonal violence are a problem within the troops. In 2005 there were 2, 374 sexual assaults in the U.S involving military personnel. Punitive action was taken in less than a quarter of these cases. Researchers estimate as many as 67,000 women veterans, 29 percent of those who visited U.S. Veterans Affairs clinics, say they experienced sexual assault in the military. The amount of assaults in the ADF is not made public. The amount of sexual assaults on civilians is unknown.
It is our understanding that rapes and sexual are more often than not, unreported. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs says only 20% of women report, other studies have found that even fewer report. Thus these figures could easily be ten times larger. Substantially more effort should be made to protect women and to reign in the behaviour of troops. We should not be exposing women to this kind of threat.
The Peace Convergence is a biannual peace protest held in various locations Australia wide. It's primary goal is to oppose the U.S.-Australian joint military excercises, Talisman Sabre. We believe that the excercises pose a risk to people and the environment, firmly entrench Australia in the U.S. regime of "preemptive" warfare and are not conducive to peace-making. More broadly, they are training Australians to die and kill in more U.S. led wars.
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