Australia: Riot squad called to shut down Aboriginal community

Scores of officers from the recently formed New South Wales Public Order and Riot Squad, joined by highway patrol units, were mobilised around the Gordon public housing estate in the rural town of Dubbo, about 400 kilometres west of Sydney. The May 11 encirclement of the estate by police in full riot gear produced shock and anxiety among the mainly Aboriginal residents, who wondered what great crime had occurred to warrant such a massive police presence.

As it happened, no crime had been committed, at least not by any resident. Rather, the police presence was requested by the state Labor government and its housing minister, Cherie Burton, to announce—with no prior warning to the 5,000 residents—that the government intends to close down the estate and sell off its 278 homes. Most will probably be bulldozed to make way for private developers.

This event marks a further sharp turn in social policy. Entire public housing estates have been torn down in NSW in recent years, including at Villawood East, in Sydney’s western suburbs, in order to cut social spending and make way for real estate profiteers. Other estates in Sydney’s west, including at Bonnyrigg, Macquarie Fields and Minto, are being partially demolished.

Over the past 18 months, riot police have also been called out to put down riots and unrest sparked by the impoverished and run-down conditions on the Gordon and Macquarie Fields estates, as well as in the traditional inner-city Aboriginal district of Redfern.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/dubb-j07.shtml