GetUp’s First Nations Justice team has already travelled thousands of kilometres across the NT making sure people are enrolled, have the information they need about where and when to vote, and feel empowered by voting.
From Miniyeri to Ngukurr and Borroloola to Tennant Creek, the issues defining this election are clear: stopping fracking and gas development in the region, ending the racist over-policing of Aboriginal communities and ensuring safe housing for all Aboriginal families.
GetUp’s First Nations Campaign Director Larissa Baldwin said:
“First Nations communities are stepping up and taking power into their own hands this election, politicians have taken remote communities for granted for too long.
“Across the Territory we’ve already had countless conversations with people as part of a community enrolment drive that will put First Nations issues at the top of the political agenda.
“This is work that the government should be getting right: making sure people are enrolled and know when and where to vote.
“But the enrolment numbers are clear, it isn’t working, so we are stepping in and ensuring that Aboriginal communities across the NT are an electoral powerhouse.
“Parties and candidates that do not prioritise First Nations communities will face the consequences at the ballot box .
“Families are living in overcrowded, unsafe and dilapidated housing, the gas industry is desperately trying to open up the Beetaloo Basin with no social license, and just last year a policeman shot dead an 18 year old Aboriginal man in his home in Yuendumu.
“Ignoring these ongoing issues is a political choice, we need leaders committed to a ban on fracking, investment in housing for all Aboriginal families, and ending racist police violence.
“Just a few hundred votes can shift an election result in the NT, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do.