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MEDIA RELEASE Friday
29 September 2006 Indigenous
Poverty to Be Focus for Anti-Poverty Week Brisbane’s Catholic Justice and Peace
Commission and the Social Action Office
of the Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes Queensland will
host two major events focussing on Indigenous poverty during Anti-Poverty
Week this year. The Fifth Annual Common Wealth for the Common
Good Address will be delivered by the Executive Secretary of the National
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission, Mr Graeme
Mundine, on Tuesday 17 October at 7.00 p.m. at the TLC Building, 16
Peel Street, South Brisbane. Mr Mundine’s address is titled From Boiled
Lollies to Shared Responsibilities and will reflect on Indigenous
poverty in Australia today in the light of the Australian Catholic
Bishops’ 1992 report on the distribution of wealth in Australia, Common
Wealth for the Common Good. Mr Mundine will also speak at the Brisbane
launch of the Make
Indigenous Poverty History Campaign.
The launch will take place at the West End Uniting Church, Sussex
Street, West End at 6.00 p.m. The Justice and Peace Commission’s Executive
Officer, Peter Arndt, said that the two events offered a good focus for
action in the wake of the Australian Bishops’ 2006 Social Justice
Statement, The Heart of Our Country:
Dignity and Justice for Our Indigenous Sisters and Brothers, which
was launched recently. “The Social Justice Statement urged Catholics
to continue to work for the dignity of Indigenous people and action to end
the poverty experienced by Indigenous Australians should be an important
focus for this work,” Mr Arndt said. “We need to understand the nature and extent
of the problem of Indigenous poverty and Graeme Mundine will help us to do
this,” he said. “We hope that his address and the launch of
the campaign will draw greater attention to the problem and to the
substantial resources which have been prepared to enable Christians to
take an active part in the campaign,” he said. “Both the Commission and the Social Action
Office will be working hard to provide Catholics with opportunities to get
involved in the campaign,” he said. People wishing to attend either event should
RSVP to Alana on (07) 3336 9351 or by e-mailing emericka@bne.catholic.net.au For
further information, please contact Peter Arndt on (07) 3336 9173 or 0409
265 476. NB
This release is issued with the approval of the Commission or its
Executive under the provision of its Charter which enables it to speak in
its own right. The views
expressed in it do not necessarily represent the views of the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane. |