Dear Senator Kernot,
PLEASE DO NOT SELL OUT THE RIGHTS OF FIRST PEOPLES.
The Commonwealth Government has a double responsibility to
ensure the well-being of Aboriginal people in the Northern
Territory.
This comes from the amendment of the Australian Constitution
in 1967 and from the Commonwealth's acceptance of the Northern
Territory from South Australia in 1911. The indigenous people
came with the Territory. Land management matters, in so far as
it affects the well-being of Aboriginal people in the Northern
Territory, is a Commonwealth responsibility (irrespective of
the limited form of Self-Government).
It is of crucial importance for the well-being of the
survivors that their surviving common law rights to their
living countries are not unilaterally extinguished, without
their informed and genuine consent, by the Government's Native
Title Bill. The Government does not have that consent.
For decades, many of these people have struggled to live by
their Dreaming laws even though the Crown had issued pastoral
leases over their living countries. They have managed, to
varying degrees, to achieve a form of coexistence despite
successive Governments' 'cattle before people' approach.
The existing reservations on pastoral leases to protect
peoples rights have been demonstrated repeatedly to be a
farce. Naive title rights, to the extent that they have not
been inconsistent, would provide a sounder footing for a
partnership as proprietors of the soil - as they indeed are.
The present provisions of the Native Title Bill put pastoral
leases in Category A instead of Category B. This is a sell-out
of the Commonwealth responsibility to protect the interests of
the First Peoples in its own Territories.
The gentle voice of the First Peoples in this marginalised
position has not been heard in the rush. The Commonwealth
Parliament, and the Australian Democrats, should ensure that
these people are properly consulted before the Native Title
Bill is passed.
Yours truly,
(signed)
Bruce Reyburn