Crushing and Contemptuous
I am shocked at the extent to which the legislation, rushed through the Parliament last week, is contemptuous of Aboriginal property rights and of the principle of non-discrimination; authorises an absurd and unattainable level of micro-management of Aboriginal lives far beyond the capacity of the federal bureaucracy that would permit the notorious protector, Mr Neville, to ride again; provides for desert dwellers to be forced into towns, as they were once emptied out of the cattle stations in the 1960s with devastating social effects; and could see successful communities and families returned to dependence, crushing the engagement that is essential to making progress.
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I share these concerns. I am also leery of the appointment of so-called “Counsellors” to these communities. I believe that this is a churches-driven initiative to regain a foothold in Aboriginal affairs and will have the same disastrous psychological consequences as in the past.
It’s disgraceful that the government can take the findings of just one of a series of reports over the years into social problems in aboriginal communities - not the recommendations, mind you - and use them to justify a federal reclamation of indigenous land.
The safety of the children in such communities has been unashamedly brushed aside with the introdution of these new laws, and issues like land tenure and the permit system have emerged as the real agenda.
The government are scarcely concerned for the kids; they are bitter about the fact that the Mabo and Wik decisions have reduced the Commonwealth’s sovereignty over the entire country, including its indigenous population.
The push is for aboriginal people to abandon their communities and move into towns and cities, get jobs, pay taxes, and basically renounce their indigeneity. Assimilation by stealth.
Shame Howard, SHAME!
Anything to stay in power!
This is absolutely contemptuous legislation.
You can’t fool the people of Australia forever - they’re starting to wake up to your spin, lies and innuendo!
I am lost for words - just totally saddened that our government has so little ability or willingness to walk with and not over the aboriginal communities.When will they learn.
Add this to the litany of attacks by this government on social justice, freedoms, distribution of wealth, separation of powers and the rule of law, and you see a party that has long-since lost any shame in policy of partisan convenience. Masters of gradualism and using american saturation marketing techniques, Australians now believe in an economic god which we worship as a disenfranchised & weary milking-herd. It is only this condition that would allow the government to act out this farce - no longer even needing to be credible! In the coming election, who gets in is less important than who we get out. How did we get like this?
Unacceptable! A government, elected by the people, chooses to treat these very people with arrogance and contempt. This legislation has not been read and understood by those concerned, and not even by many parliamentarians We will not be fooled or trodden upon Mr Howard!
My feelings on this issue echo the sadness and anger that previous writers feel - it is Aboriginal land reclamation by stealth using the cloak of care for children. Shameful legislation.
What can be said about John Howard’s push to take over whatever land and rights are left in central Australia? I’m sick of him making up reasons to stomp all over Aboriginal peoples’ rights yet again.
There will be reasons he is not disclosing for doing what he is doing - there always are. If he sincerely cared about children, he would stick his hand into our collective wallet and deliver whatever is needed to the people where they are. No more dislocation of Aboriginal communities just because it is CHEAPER. He is happy to throw away billions of dollars at an overseas war that isn’t even ours, but he is far too stingy to support Aboriginal Australians in a way that helps them.
Does he ever think how it would be if his own family was treated this way?
This legislation, of over 500 pages, has now been passed by both houses of Parliament in obscene haste. I gather that not one of the members has read, or considered the document and its implications for all Australians in the long run and for Aboriginal Peoples in particular now. It is awsome in its contempt for fairness and anti-discrimination, land rights and freedom. Imagine Howard, or his appointee, as the new “Protector of Aboriginals”. If our politicians were capable of shame, they would not be able to face themselves in a mirror, but, obviously they are not. What has this country come to?