In recent years that has all been changing.  Partly due to natural social change and partly due to significant work put in by the local community, City of Sydney Council and the Redfern Waterloo Authority (now part of the Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority – SMDA)  Redfern is becoming a vibrant, exciting place that people want to live in and visit.   The area’s unique culture, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, is now seen as a cause for celebration.

The shutters on the corner of Regent and Redfern Streets, as they were.

One of the most noticeable signs of the suburb’s chequered past is the roller shutters that cover the front of many shops in the main streets.  At night and on weekends these security measures of a bygone age close the shops off from the street and present a message of danger, giving visitors the feeling that they take risks by being there and should probably leave.

I was therefore thrilled to be able to witness this week the removal of nine roller shutters from the corner of Regent and Redfern Streets, one of the main gateways to the suburb.  This was done as part of the Roll Up Redfern initiative and shop owners have been bristling with anticipation, ordering new stock and shop fittings and bringing student designers onboard to revamp the look of their shops.  Things are looking up for Redfern!

Regent and Redfern Street, as it is after the shutters were removed this week

Sadly not everyone has gotten behind the new look, new reality of Redfern.  The local police continue to patrol Redfern station with sniffer dogs at an all too frequent rate, occasionally catching young people for minor drug possession offences but mostly just humiliating innocent commuters who are far too often dragged off trains, forced up against walls and publicly searched just because one of the dogs (which give false leads 73% of the time) looked at or sniffed them.

The local community, Council and the RWA/SMDA have done a great job of changing public perception of Redfern, and in doing so changed what life and business are like in the suburb.  However it’s hard to feel that a place is safe and inviting if you’re harassed by a sniffer dog and accused of being a drug dealer the moment the step off the train, so we wont see Redfern live up to it’s full potential until the Police join the party and stop labelling the place, for all the world to see, as a hive of drugs and crime, a label that belies the changing face of the area.

The police are now swooping on the Occupy site in Martin Place a number of times a day and confiscating goods deemed rubbish. Of course one man’s rubbish is another’s precious clothing, books, swag or diary. In the case of Occupy Sydney this decision is made by the police and any attempt to protect an item is deemed police harassment.

On the front of one of two small tables was a list of items that had been seized by the police and not returned, these included two laptops – hardly garbage by anyone’s sense of the word. One of these computers belonged to a 17 year old schoolgirl.

No receipts were given to the activists when their belongings were taken to either The Rocks police station or the dump.

To my shock my visit to Martin Place was interrupted by a demonstration of this police tactic when a dozen police officers turned up, made show of putting on their heavy gloves and seized a few cardboard boxes and milk crates.

When one girl tried to protect a roll of canvas a male officer yelled in her face that she would be arrested for police harassment if she didn’t let go. It was obvious the police were looking for any excuse to arrest the demonstrators, as they even tried to take back packs from people’s hands.

Since October 69 have been arrested, 33 charged and 42 fined, though the pettiness of many of these arrests has been shown when charges resulting from them are later dismissed by the courts.

Another quaint reassessment of the law relates to homeless people who police claim are no longer homeless if they join the Occupy site. Although many of the young people who are part of the movement are now virtually homeless themselves apparently their activism changes this and police are arresting or fining them for camping.  Not only is the idea of arresting a homeless person for sleeping outdoors absurd and cruel, it is also in direct contradiction of the NSW Government’s Homeless Protocol.

What is it about having a political message that puts people on such a collision course with the authorities? How can a homeless person become not homeless because they spend time with political activists? Why do the authorities waste their time and our money harassing a handful of demonstrators when Martin Place is occupied 24 hours a day anyway by businessmen or party goers? Why aren’t receipts given when belongings are taken to the police station? How do police decide in the middle of the night what is garbage and what is private property?

In Dunedin and Auckland in New Zealand police refused to act on orders to remove tents and other structures from Occupy sites. In Scotland, Edinburgh officially supports the occupation while many counties in the USA have accepted the sites as expressions of free speech. In Eugene City the council provided lights and increased the homeless budget to support the movement.

This is a very far cry from the tactics being used by Sydney’s police who seem determined to destroy Occupy Sydney by attrition.

The most offensive of the three articles see’s the paper aggressively purporting the opinion that the cycleways should be ripped up.  It seemed like a typical Telegraph editorial so I was rather shocked when I noticed a line at the bottom of the print version directing to an editorial elsewhere in the paper (in fact there were two official editorials along with this unofficial one).  It seems the opinions of the Telegraph’s reporters count as headline news these days.

One particular cycleway, on Bourke St in Alexandria, is currently being reviewed after the City reached an out of court settlement to do so with a local business manager who had launched legal action against it.  The Telegraph were happy to report on the manager’s kind and benevolent attitude in saying “I wasn’t going to play God and tell them to demolish it” but were less keen to give the background to the story.

The legal case was initially intended to be a class action on behalf of 102 businesses, however the lawyers pursuing the case never consulted with most of those businesses before claiming to act on their behalf.  Many of them had no idea the action was being pursued in their names and wrote demanding to be removed from the list once they found out.  The story from August last year is spelled out clearly here and it’s somewhat curious that the Telegraph thought a business manager “not playing God” and an unflattering photo of Clover in a bike helmet were more newsworthy than the highly unorthodox beginning of the court case.

The Telegraph are asking their readers to make submissions to the City’s review of the Bourke St cycleway, presumably with the hope that they will parrot the paper’s line of “tear it up”.  I’d therefore ask that anyone who uses Sydney’s cycle ways, knows someone who uses them or simply appreciates the benefits of being able to cycle away from traffic in a congested urban environment to go to the cycleway feedback page and add a voice of support to counter the anti-cycleway madness being promoted by the Murdoch Press.

I was asked to speak at the commemoration and my comments on the state of Human Rights in Australia, still a shocking affair in 2011, have been placed online by the Occupy Sydney collective at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3_4-DKicjk.

While the policy was well intentioned it sadly consisted mostly of “motherhood statements” – the right words were said but they carried little in the way of substance.

One sticking point for me was the issue of special leave.  The  USU had suggested that employees experiencing domestic violence should have access to up to 20 days special paid leave per year to assist them in dealing with the health, legal and other issues associated with domestic violence.  The policy as presented to Council for approval lacked this.

After some debate, the policy was amended to include the provision for some special leave, however such leave will be available only at the discretion of Council officers, an outcome I feel is not as positive as the provision of 20 days leave would have been.

Below is a copy of the statements I made to Council on the matter.

I spoke previously in support of the 20 day leave provision in this policy and I stand by that position. Although putting “paid” in front of the words “special leave” helps, it still leaves applicants unsure of what they are entitled to and leaves the amount of leave given up to the discretion of the council officer.

I believe that the requirements of proof for domestic violence support are very onerous and must admit that during my experience of domestic violence workplace support was not pursued or considered although it would be essential in this day and age.

I worked in market research, which had a very fluid, casual workforce and I had to change jobs 3 times as the person harassing me kept getting work at the same company I did.

At the time it never entered my head to complain to the management or explain to strangers what was happening to me.

I did not report my problems to anyone, as like so many victims of domestic violence I was ashamed, blamed myself and didn’t really want to get the other person into trouble.

It is not how I would handle things now but for many people these concerns still rule how they respond to domestic violence.

It was only after I had secretly moved one night into what I thought was a safe place and found myself being violently assaulted and choked that my girlfriend rang the police.

Even with the riot squad in attendance this person was hard to manage as the rage that accompanies domestic disputes easily overcomes common sense.

For many people experiencing domestic violence it takes a long time to even recognise what is going on and to break away from the tendency to blame oneself and to try and make excuses for the violent partner. This is even more true of women with families who are trying to save their family unit and shield their children from the violent behaviour of their father.

I would be delighted if the provision in the policy implied that more than 20 days could be given but nowhere is that clear.

Today staff may be aware of this discussion about a domestic violence policy but in the future it will only be what is actually in the policy that staff will be aware of. That is why the policy needs to be very explicit in what it is offering.

I must say I do not understand why the city is so loathe to include the terms as requested by Councillor Burgmann and the union.

The ACTU was on the ABC news this morning and they spoke about research they had done into domestic violence. Of the over 600 responses they received to their survey 30% reported experiencing domestic violence. Of these 1 in 5 were harassed at work, 15% said it affected their capacity to get to work. Both issues I have mentioned above.

The campaign will also attempt to amend the fair work act to have the domestic violence provisions included in the legislation. We should be ready for this move by including the provision of 20 days now like other progressive councils and organisations have done already.

The argument goes that sulphur crested cockatoos were never found east of the great dividing range prior to European invasion, when changes in land use and possible deliberate introduction made them go from absent to thriving.

The 1788 painting of a sulphur crested cockatoo by John Hunter

I’d long suspected this was simply an attempt to justify the shameful killing of these magnificent creatures and I’ve recently come across some historical evidence to back this up.  The evidence comes in the form of a painting of one of these birds along with a description of their local Aboriginal name, “garraway”, in the 1788 book “Birds and Flowers of NSW”, written by John Hunter, the man who would succeed Author Phillip as Governor of NSW and after whom the Hunter Valley and numerous other locations and landmarks were named.  

Further evidence of this traditional name was provided by Les Bursill, historian and archeologist of the Dharawal people, who inhabited the area that now forms southern Sydney and the Illlawarra.  The name (this time spelt “garrawi”) can be found on Les’ collection of local Aboriginal words at http://lesbursill.com/site/aboriginalwords.htm.  Les claims that the suburb of Kirrawee derived it’s name from the cockatoos, although some other sources claim the name comes from a local word for “lengthy”.

The evidence from local Aboriginal groups and early European settlers both point strongly to sulphur crested cockatoos having a long history of occupying the Sydney basin.  It’s my hope that this confirmation that they form part of our living heritage may help dissuade those who consider culls in the future and I’ll certainly be making sure that the true history of this species is understood by the relevant decision makers. 

This story is also a great lesson in why we should do our utmost to protect our history and the traditional knowledge of the first Australians – you never know when the past may come in useful in protecting the present.

This is one of the most important cultural items to come to Council and  is a highly significant project for all Australians.

In particular it is an important recognition for the first Australians and their hidden history that spans tens of thousands of years.

Recorded European history is a mere 8,000 years old while the Aboriginal occupation of “Warrane”, as Sydney Cove was known to the local people, and the surrounding area is somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 years old.

Burnam Burnam described the Sydney area as the largest outdoor art gallery in the world with 10,000 works of art on rock faces across the region. Few of these site are known to current Sydneysiders as many have been lost or fenced off or hidden from common sight.

Under our feet are countless sacred sites, burial sites, ceremonial sites, campsites, tool making places and middens – the tangible history of the Cadigal people of the Eora nation lost under the built environment of European settlement.

The Eora Journey is a wonderful opportunity for the City of Sydney to honour this lost history and to honour the original Peoples of “Warrane”.

I believe a project such as this, which is long overdue and strongly supported by the residents of the city via their input to Sustainable Sydney 2030, must be overseen, devised and executed by Aboriginal artists, curators and historians.

I would like to acknowledge the wonderful work of curator Hetti Perkins and designer Julie Cracknell in reviewing international practice in contemporary interpretative artworks and the directions they have identified for the Eora Journey.

A range of projects have been suggested, all of which I strongly support, particularly the long overdue recognition of the Coloured Diggers project.

I have been following the struggle that Pastor Ray Minnecon, the Coloured Diggers and Babana men’s group have been through over the past few years in trying to bring this dream to fruition and believe it is a project whose time has come.

One of the main impetuses for the Coloured Digger is the tragic stories told by the Kincella men and in particular the story told by Uncle Cec Bowen whose father went off to serve in the World War II only to return and find his children had vanished into government care. Uncle Cec’s story highlights the great military service of Aboriginal Australians and the injustice they returned to.

Where the Coloured Digger sculpture goes will be up to the Eora Journey Steering Committee and the City’s Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Advisory Panel to decide but I know that the original preferred position was at First Fleet Park, which was sadly not supported by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, and acknowledge that the sculpture needs to go in a meaningful place. 

Hyde Park south would be an ideal location.  To quote Associate Professor Grace Karskens, from the School of History and Philosophy at UNSW, the southern end of Hyde Park has enormous significance for Aboriginal people and the history of Sydney as part of  ”The great Aboriginal contest ground.”  The site:

“was used for contests where Aboriginal law was enacted and which attracted Aboriginal people from as far away as the Hunter Valley, the Illawarra and west of the Blue Mountains.  Non-Aboriginal people also thronged to watch the contests and the results were sometimes reported in the Sydney Gazzette.

Governor Macquarie did try to ban the contests in the colony’s towns through his order of 1816, just after the Appin massacre.  However, since the last contest for which we have a detailed report occurred in 1824, it is clear that Aboriginal people continued to hold contests despite the order.”

Whether the sculpture does end up in south Hyde Park or elsewhere it must be a place of respect and great sensitivity. It must not be hidden away in the botanical gardens, it must be prominent and appropriate.

Another idea which I believe very strongly resonates with that lost history that I described earlier is the harbour lights idea which remembers the wonderful Eora women who went out at night in their  bark canoes to fish with small fires lighting the harbour night. This is an important memory of the Eora that resounds through the years.

Finally I would like to talk about interpretation and historical sources.

One of the first lessons we learnt as history majors at Sydney University was to always question your sources and to analyse the positions of the historians.

We must always understand that history is written by human beings who often reflect the current worldview of the age or who have their own influences and agendas.

We have the “big man in history’ theories, bourgeois historians, class analysis and especially relevent in early australian history the romantics.

Bernard Smith in his important book on Australian art “taste, place and tradition” points out the power of romanticism in the letters, histories and art of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

As we move into the later twentieth century we are very aware of the highly contested nature of whitefellas interpretations of Aboriginal history and must be very careful and knowledgeable about the nature of the historical sources we use.

This is why it is so important that Aboriginal people and particularly our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander panel have input into how these ideas for the Eora Journey are interpreted and executed.

I congratulate council on this wonderful initiative and look forward to an exciting outcome which acknowledges and highlights the role and importance of aboriginal culture and history in Sydney– past, present and future.

Following my recent motion in support of occupy Sydney I was asked to address the rally.  The speech I delivered is below.

I’d like to acknowledge that we are meeting on Aboriginal land, Gadigal land, land that was never sold, ceded or given away. I pay my respects to elders past, present and future.  This is Aboriginal land always was and always will be.

 As many of you will know I am one of the Greens councillors on the City of Sydney Council and I put up the notice of motion 2 weeks ago seeking support for the Occupy Sydney movement and calling on the Lord Mayor to contact the ombudsman asking for a review of police violence during the occupation and eviction of Martin Place on October 23^rd.  As you will know that motion was defeated by the lord mayor and her party who made statements of support for the police’s handling of the occupation. Only the 2 greens councillors and Labor’s Meredith Burgmann spoke in favour of my motion and the occupation.

 Although I was not surprised by the lack of support for the occupation I think the result showed how much the council is part of the establishment and thus connected to the 1%.  This was made very clear when the lord mayor put up her alternate motion committing to a City Talk to be addressed by community and business leaders and state and federal elected representatives. No mention of Occupy Sydney speakers or non-establishment speakers.

 I amended this motion to include a speaker from Occupy Sydney but the make up of this panel shows how out of touch with the sentiments of the movement the Council is.

Because the lord mayor refused to contact the ombudsman the Greens councillors have sent off their own complaint with photos and youtube links to the local area command, the Police Minister, Police Commissioner Scipione and the ombudsman.

 I will read you a little of the submission:

It is with great concern that I am writing to you in regard to the matter of the police response to the recent Occupy Sydney protests.  While Assistant Commissioner Murdoch has indicated in media statements that he felt the actions of Police in Martin Place on the morning of October 23^rd were justified and not overly rough I have spoken to numerous members of the public that were present when the action took place who feel otherwise and I would request that the matter be further investigated.

 I visited the site many times and found the police presence to vary greatly from a few officers observing the general assembly meetings to lines of riot police intimidating demonstrators at what was an extraordinarily peaceful event. I have been told by numerous witnesses at the scene that activists were dragged out of their sleeping bags with minimal warning while some received facial injuries. Many had their belongings taken to the dump.

I believe the tactic used to evict the protestors in the dead of night when there was little or no chance of media scrutiny was particularly concerning and will add to the general fear of activists to protest in this way in the future.

I also note that at the rally on the 5^th November eight ambulances were parked near Martin Place adding further insecurity and fear to the feelings of the protestors while being a waste of overstretched health and emergency response resources.

While there is little clear footage from the breaking up of the protest in Martin Place on the 23^rd of October, due to the fact that the action took place in the dark and that most protestors were asleep at the time overly rough police actions are visible in this online video from October 22^nd – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyXMm4bb1MM  (most pertinent images at time code 0:44 -1:04) and the aftermath of the Martin Place action can be seen in a protestor with a bleeding face in http://www.youtube.com/user/copwatchnews#p/search/0/fRldxEivKtc. 

There is much clearer footage available from the Police action of November 5^th in Hyde Park that is consistent with the reports from the Martin Place action.  Footage from November 5^th, viewable online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zBlC0I1EL4 (most pertinent images around timecode 3:38) and http://www.occupysydney.org.au/2011/11/06/report-from-the-nov-5-rally-occupation-of-hyde-park/ (1:50) show a large number of officers surrounding and dragging away two protestors because of their failure to remove a small sun shade from Hyde Park.  Around time 3:38 in the first video a police officer can even be seen diving onto one of the protestors as she is dragged along the ground. 

One would imagine that the actions shown in these videos aren’t standard police procedure for removing tents from areas where camping isn’t permitted.  Any physical confrontation has elements of unpredictability and can easily escalate to the point of serious injury, potentially life altering or life threatening, to any parties involved.  To expose both protestors and police to such risks, even if they are small, over such a minor incident is incredibly disproportionate and I would therefore request some action be taken.

I must admit I don’t believe that any action will be taken but the Greens believe it is essential that police heavy handedness be noted and that someone speaks out for the democratic right of citizens to have their voices heard in a peaceful and non threatening way.

We have seen the incredible violence used against peaceful protestors across the world and in Melbourne and we know that what we are seeing is the desperate face of the guardians of the 1% trying to silence the voices of the 99%.  This was highlighted by the fact that the police actions were taken in the dead of night when there was no media present and few witnesses to their over policing.

What we are seeing here is the top end of town protecting their corporate interests in the face of democratic calls for an end to corporate greed and a more just society for workers, the disadvantaged and the average person.

We are sick of hearing about the millions of dollars in bonuses given to ruthless individuals like Alan Joyce from Qantas, the CEOs of the major banks, the likes of James Packer and the mining billionaires like Gena Reinhart and Andrew Forrest.

We are sick of hearing about the desperate battles of unionised workers to get some sort of justice over their wages and the continuing casualisation of the workforce that leaves workers with no rights at all.

Most of all we are sick of business as usual in the face of drastic climate change, the rape of our natural resources and the dire impacts on biodiversity and our unique wildlife and indigenous peoples.

The occupy movement is one of the most exciting political movements to inspire the western world in many years and its ongoing resilience is uplifting. It provides an umbrella for all the movements from those opposed to coal seam gas mining to the anti-bases movement, which is now more relevant than ever as we see Australia embracing US pacific imperialism.

Unlike the Australian government’s slavish undemocratic desire to be America’s proxy in Asia, the Occupy movement has committed to grassroots democracy and consensus decision making – a hard process but one fully supported by the greens whose 4^th principle is grassroots democracy.

The Occupy movement makes the powers that be nervous as we question the very basis of neo liberal capitalism and the right of the elite to manipulate society for their own interests. The more nervous they become the heavier will be the response as we’ve seen in New York and Oakland.

This is the challenge that the movement and Occupy Sydney in particular will face in the future – standing fast, staying peaceful and growing the supporter base.

It is always inspiring stopping by the Occupy Sydney site in martin place and you have my utmost respect for your courage in the face of violence, your hardiness in occupying one of the most uncomfortable places in town and your continuing commitment to the ideals of opposing corporate greed and calling for a just society.

Thank you

At last Monday’s Council meeting I moved this motion to bring about a peaceful and amicable solution to the ongoing dispute between police and protestors and to help get the message of the protests out to a wider audience.

Sadly the motion was voted down by the Clover Moore Party and the Liberals, producing this much more watered down and effectively toothless version of the motion. 

Below is the text of the speech I gave supporting my motion. 

***

The global Occupy movement has done an amazing job of highlighting issues of social and economic inequality that are widespread across the world. 

 But sadly the response to this grassroots social justice movement has been one of violence and intolerance.

In Sydney on the 23^rd of October at 4.50am peaceful protestors, who were asleep at the time in Martin Place, were violently dragged from their sleeping bags with 40 being arrested and restrained in paddy wagons. Many were dragged by their feet and hair and received black eyes, bloody noses and abrasions.

Their belongings were yet again removed by a City of Sydney truck with many items being taken straight to the dump. This is in contradiction to assurances given to me that our staff would not assist in the police actions against the demonstrators.

The irony of this happening under the “what if…” banners has not gone unnoticed as many of these banners called for people to stand up for what they believed in.

No matter what you think of the principles of the Occupy movement surely Councillors do not support peaceful protestors being treated in this way which is draconian and inherently thuggish and violent.

The Occupy Sydney movement is being hounded by the police and a rally last Saturday, which was attended by up to 1500 people, had to go to the Supreme Court to deal with objections by the police to the peaceful rally and march route.

The movement is being represented by noted lawyer Stuart Littlemore who is defending those arrested and the movement’s right to free speech and to demonstrate publicly.

I can’t believe that Sydney, a city that prides itself on diversity and the community’s right to free speech can support such aggression and it is important that we as the Council of the City of Sydney complain about the unnecessary brutality of the NSW police. This is why I am calling on the Lord Mayor to seek an investigation into the way the removals of protestors was handled.

I think it is worth noting that the top end of town are making a fortune while the ordinary citizen is struggling more and more to make ends meet.

I would like to highlight the actions of Qantas chief Allan Joyce who received a huge benefits package of over $3 million while trying to shut down the workers claims for a just pay rise and I note that bag handlers and other ground staff earn as little as $42,000 per annum.

In another example we have James Packer fighting against poker machine reform to help those who can least afford unlimited poker machine losses while he earnt over half a billion dollars last year.

The great gap between the top few % and the vast majority of ordinary workers is growing across the world and we only have to look at the huge rallies in Europe and Britain against the extreme austerity measure that are being introduced to cope with the results of the GFC to see how damaging this growing disparity is becoming.

Instead of the bankers and corporations who caused the problems being forced to take a cut in their profits, the ordinary people are the ones who are paying. We only have to look at the huge bank profits to see the injustice of how the existing system is being seen across the world.

It is well known that countries which allow a huge gap between the rich and the poor are likely to become more and more unstable and it is an issue that desperately needs public discussion. In Sydney we have the chance to allow this discussion to take place in an ordered and democratic way rather than resorting to the alienating effects of police brutality.

I know that to some people the protestors presence was an eyesore but in reality it was held at the top of Martin Place which has the least visibility and was one of the most peaceful and inspiring actions I have seen, with a great deal of positive interaction between the protestors and passersby. I heard of one suited employee of the Reserve bank coming down and giving the group a couple of hundred dollar donation.

I personally went down daily to check on the Occupy Sydney site and found it to be extraordinarily peaceful, run on an inclusive democratic system of general assemblies, engaging in very friendly and constructive discussions with passersby, respectful of the Martin Place site and any official objects within it and kept as neat and tidy as was possible. It was regularly tidied up every few hours and it did not block any throughways.

For weeks the Occupy Wall Street protests went unmentioned in the mainstream media, but since activists in Australia and around the world stood up in solidarity with their American counterparts the issue can no longer be ignored. 

While police have dragged non-resisting protestors from the streets in Melbourne, hit civilians with capsicum spray in New York and seriously injured a man with a tear gas canister in California, Sydney could be the city where we carried out peaceful negotiation.  Sydney could be the city that shows the world that, when people raise concerns about the operation of our democracy, we listen. 

While the protests have shown how widespread these views are many people may vehemently agree with the sentiments expressed by the demonstrators but do not feel safe attending a protest rally where they risk arrest and police brutality.

A forum hosted by the City would be an excellent opportunity to allow these concerns to be heard in a forum that can’t be ignored by those who dismiss the protests as a rabble or the “anarchist left”.

It would also be a powerful show of solidarity that would echo across the world if the City of Sydney, Australia’s iconic global City, were to sit down and negotiate a way for the protestors to continue their important action rather than standing by while they are manhandled and persecuted by the police.