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           Shipping Stevedoring Port Services Hydrocarbons Diving  Jul-Aug 2008        |
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MUA solidarity with Aboriginal Australians12 February 2008By MUA news -
Maritime workers from Melbourne, Sydney and Port Kembla will converge on Canberra on Wednesday morning in solidarity with Aboriginal Australians and in support of the Prime Ministers' apology. The delegation is led by Deputy MUA National Secretary Jim Tannock. MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin called on branches to demonstrate solidarity with Aboriginal Australians in a memo circulated on Monday this week. "An apology has been a long time coming," he said. "Hopefully it will be a genuine milestone in a return to a genuine and sustained policy of justice and reconciliation in Australia." The Union has a long history of supporting Reconciliation, land rights and a Treaty with our indigenous people that secures the long term justice and the dignity that secures all they are owed and properly deserve. It has campaigned for wage justice for Aboriginal stockman. Aboriginal Australians have been actively recruited and welcomed within the union ranks, notably Terry O'Shane, chair of the North Queensland Land Council, former seafarer and ATSIC commissioner. (see www.mua.org.au/journal/spr_2007/gulf.html) Sorry transcript PM Kevin Rudd tabled the government apology this afternoon. It was written in consultation with Aboriginal leaders and apologises for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss, and especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, communities and their country. "For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry," the text reads. "To the mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. "And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry." The PM admitted it was only a first step where the Parliament resolves the injustices of the past must never happen again. Federal Parliament opened today with a traditional welcome to country by Indigenous elders for the first time. The MUA delegation is co-ordinated by Rod Pickette - National Research and Communications officer from the union's Political Resource Centre in Canberra.
For further information
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