This is my edit of the front page article for the next 'Just Us', the Jusice Action newspaper for prisoners and their communities. The concept of Terra Nullius is one of the more odious concepts created by white Australians to justify the slaughter and mistreatment of Aborigines.

Prisons are Today's Terra Nullius.

It is no coincidence that Aboriginal people are imprisoned at 13 times the rate of white Australians. Ever since the colonization of Australia, the penal colony authorities choose not to see certain people if it happens to suit their colonial agenda. They see "empty land", and by doing so, criminalize the people in it.

With the white people came the penal colony, and Terra Nullius. But did the antipodean conquistadors declare Terra Nullius, or did they build it? Australia was one big jail cell so that the English didn't have to see or deal with the social crises happening in their own home. So they sent them to Terra Nullius. The prime lands were cleared and fortresses built. The first white government of Australia consisted entirely of prison guards. Since then, the percentage of the country's resources devoted to imprisonment has diminished, but scores of prisons still remain as the foundation of the "free", civilian government we claim as our democracy. But there was never a point, in over 200 years, when the "free" citizens of Australia demanded that the power of the prison-guard government be checked by any other authority. And so we find ourselves with an unbroken line of prison guards with the power to make people disappear.

These pockets of Terra Nullius are anything but fortresses today, with their 'invisible' inhabitants coming and going on a regular basis. Recidivism has increased from 2% in the penal colony days to 40% today. During our stints in this modern Terra Nullius, they try in various ways to make us into non-people, before sending us out again into the communities of whole people. Prisoners have been stripped of our right to vote, to smoke, to reproduce, to participate in our own community, and to pray to Allah without being labelled a terrorist.

Visitation rights and access to family and loved ones are receding with the tide of compassion from those in Parliament House. This reached a new low recently when the government attempted to remove the use of technology to preserve sperm and eggs for inmates, an attack on the fundamental ability to reproduce (regardless of incarceration).

The injustice does not stop at loss of liberty. The entitlement to practice the religion of our choice was removed when Muslim converts in the HRMU were paraded on the front page of the Sunday paper amid claims of terrorist rings operating within prisons. The attacks on Hicks, Habib and Haneef show that the Rule of Law and due process are neither respected nor available as viable mediators between the government and its citizen.

There are even prohibitions against participating in communities of prisoners. 'Framed', a previous Justice Action magazine by and for prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families and friends was banned from the prisons for being critical of Corrective Services. The President of The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC), John von Doussa QC, found that the government's practices breached the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: "...the right to freedom of opinion and expression... includes freedom to hold opinions without interference to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

But in this Terra Nullius, there can be no human rights where there are no humans. Consider the case of Craig Behr. He was kicked to death after being placed in a cell with a psychotic, homicidal prisoner who once thought he was the champion race-horse Phar Lap. That's one way to make people disappear.

Another way is to deny them a voice. Consider the NSW Government's response to the case of Cory Brough, a mentally ill Aboriginal boy who was stripped naked and placed in isolation in an adult prison when he was just 16 years old. He managed to file a complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The government argued that he had other options of redress such as the proper channels or even a court challenge. Cory observed that, "...complaints within the prison are received by the prison governor, the very person who authorized (my) conditions of detention...". The Committee noted that, "Australian courts will not interfere with administrative decisions of prison authorities..." (CCPR/C/86/D/1184/2003).

Is this not a wink and a nod reminiscent of that wink and nod that must have happened some time in the 1770's between Cook and Phillip? 'Do you see anybody, Art?' 'I don't see anybody, Jim.'

It is beautifully ironic therefore that an Aboriginal woman prisoner recently fought the government and won back the right to vote. In 2006, the Howard Government passed legislation which denied all prisoners the right to vote. This law was challenged in the High Court by Vickie Roach, an Aboriginal woman at the Dame Phyllis Frost Prison in Melbourne. In orders made on August 30, 2007, the High Court struck down the blanket prohibition on prisoners voting.

Speaking after the decision was handed down, Philip Lynch, Director of the Human Rights Law Resource Centre which ran the case, said, "This is a common sense decision. The Howard Government disenfranchised prisoners on the spurious ground that to do so would promote respect for the social contract and the rule of law. Far from achieving this, denial of the fundamental human right to vote results in social exclusion, isolation, resentment and unaccountable and unrepresentative government."

We wonder who she's going to vote for...

When will they learn that simply refusing to see us does not make us go away? If you feel like an invisible person, you can get involved in Just Us. We publish to give voice to those who are told to be quiet and so that prisoners can stay informed about their rights. Justice Action encourages all prisoners to submit articles, letters or poems in any language or format. Those of you reading Just Us on the outside can help us by donating money and volunteering. Contributions keep Just Us relevant.