Gerry Georgatos

This article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (May 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (May 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article reads like a press release or a news article and is largely based on routine coverage or sensationalism. Please with properly sourced content to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, event notability guideline, or encyclopedic content policy. (November 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Gerry Georgatos (Γεράσιμος Γεωργάτος), born in 1962,^[1][2] is a university researcher^[3] and academic^[4][5] and a social justice^[6] and human rights campaigner,^[7] who has campaigned for prison reform,^[8][9] as well as championing the rights of the impoverished^[10] and marginalised^[11] and the homeless.^[12]

Journalism[]

Georgatos has won awards for his investigative journalism.^[13] However, Georgatos has never been a career journalist and "forayed"^[14] for three years only into journalism, using the opportunity significantly to raise awareness of social justice crises, particularly of suicide crises.^[15] He has published investigative reports with several publications, including the National Indigenous Times, the National Indigenous Radio Service and The Stringer.^[16] In 2013, Georgatos was the recipient of Journalist of the Year at the Multicultural Media Awards.^[17] He attracted attention for advocating the innocence of Schapelle Corby, who was convicted of drug smuggling in Indonesia.^[18][19]

Human rights advocacy[]

He founded Students Without Borders^[20] at Monash University. Georgatos also launched Students Without Borders at Murdoch University and developed the statewide 8Ball recycling program which students and volunteers refurbished computers and Georgatos donated the computers right throughout Western Australia and to developing nations.^[21] Students Without Borders and Georgatos won awards in the 2008 Western Australian Community Service Awards, with Georgatos winning the individual category, WA Community Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution.^[22] He was a former Murdoch University Guild President and also sat on the University's peak academic planning body and for four years on its Board of Directors (The Senate).^[23]

He has done extensive research into Aboriginal incarceration, suicide and deaths in custody, and worked on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project.^[24] Georgatos was significant in campaigning for the release of Indonesian minors from Australian adult prisons. After he blew the whistle he was banned without explanation from visiting prisons.^[25] He campaigned for the release of what he argued were up to 100 Indonesian minors languishing in prisons.^[26][27] During March and April 2015 Georgatos campaigned publicly for a 25-year-old asylum seeker from Iran, Saeed Hassanloo. Hassanloo's hunger strike had been kept from the Australian media for 35 days.^[28] Georgatos said that if Hassanloo died he would be Australia's first hunger strike death and called on the Prime Minister to intervene.^[29][30]

He was instrumental in advocating for and brokering the rollout of the "life-saving" Custody Notification Service in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.^[31][32]

Suicide prevention[]

Georgatos is a researcher in suicide prevention particularly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention. In November 2013, his research was front page of Australia's leading newspaper where he reported that Australia's Aboriginal people are dying of suicide at among the highest rates in the world. His research found that 1 in 12 of all Aboriginal deaths were by suicide.^[33][34]

Georgatos at government levels and through the national media has been campaigning for a response to what he describes of the high rates of suicides as "a humanitarian crisis" and as "racialised" and "racism".^[35][36][37]

Georgatos' research found that Australia jails Aboriginal people at among the highest rates in the world. In October 2014 he stated on a national television program that one in 13 of Western Australia's Aboriginal adult males are in prison. His research reported that from a racialised lens this is the highest jailing rate in the world.^[38]

In January 2017, he helped establish the suicide postvention Federal Government taskforce, the National Indigenous Critical Response Service, and he was the inaugural national coordinator of the taskforce till he stepped down May 2019.^[39][40][41]

He presently leads the suicide prevention focused National Critical Response Trauma Recovery Project.^[42][43][44]

In 2021, Georgatos and the National Suicide Prevention & Trauma Recovery Project^[45] were instrumental in launching a Class Action by people incarcerated and formerly incarcerated in Western Australia's only Juvenile Detention correctional centre, Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre. It is the largest Class Action of its type.^[46][47] The Class Action is led by Levitt & Robinson Lawyers. Senior Counsel, Stewart Levitt is leading the Class Action. Levitt successfully led the Palm Island Class Action - Wotton v Queensland (No 5).

Homelessness[]

Georgatos has worked extensively with homelessness. For years he argued that homelessness is worse than realised in the Kimberley region of Australia. His research reports that seven per cent of the Kimberley is homeless in some form. He said that nearly all the homeless people are Aboriginal.^[48]

Georgatos has launched campaigns to house large homeless families.^[49]

In July 2015 Georgatos launched a campaign for Homeless Friendly Precincts.^[50][51]

In 2020, during hard border COVID-19 lockdowns in Western Australia, Georgatos condemned the State Government for failing to accommodate and protect the street homeless. Georgatos led the National Suicide Prevention & Trauma Recovery Service^[52] to accommodate as many street homeless as possible during the lockdowns - they accommodated twice as many street homeless as the State Government.^[53]

Wheelchairs for Kids[]

Georgatos has had an association with Wheelchairs for Kids and pro bono headed the Foundation arm of the charity, raising funds for rough terrain children's wheelchairs to be donated around the world.^[54][55][56] The charity operates a factory with around 100 volunteer workers on a typical day. It manufactures wheelchairs and sends them to children in impoverished countries. According to an ABC Television news report in 2013, Wheelchairs for Kids donated around 25,000 wheelchairs to children in over 60 countries.^[57]

WikiLeaks Party[]

Georgatos was initially endorsed as the Greens candidate for an anticipated 2009 by-election for the seat of Willagee in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, but given that former Premier Alan Carpenter waited longer than expected to resign, the preselection was later re-opened and Georgatos was defeated by Hsien Harper. He then ran as an independent, winning 9% of the vote, and declared his intention of forming a rival Greens party.^[58]

In 2013 Georgatos was endorsed as the lead Wikileaks Party candidate for Western Australia in the Senate. He was embroiled in controversy for using Australia's preferential voting system to direct votes towards the centre-right National Party ahead of Scott Ludlam of the progressive Australian Greens. The preference deal was said to alienate Wikileaks Party supporters. Georgatos said the decision was made because of his admiration for the Nationals' Indigenous candidate David Wirrpanda, rather than for the National Party.^[59] Georgatos claimed that his effective first preference was always Ludlam and that Wirrpanda was not a threat but that Georgatos wanted to send a message to all political parties to elect into parliament more Indigenous candidates. He was initially endorsed for the 2014 special election following the voiding of the Western Australian Senate result after the Australian Electoral Commission ruled Julian Assange ineligible to contest.^[19] He withdrew from the contest shortly after citing personal reasons.^[60]

References[]

External links[]

• Getty Images shows Georgatos making a speech at an Aboriginal protest (Photograph)
• ABC Television News Studio interview with Georgatos regarding Australia-Indonesia prisoner swap (Video)
• NITV News Studio interview with Georgatos regarding National Indigenous Times (Video)
• The Drum Live cross to Georgatos about Indonesian prisoners (Video)