By John Nebauer
BRISBANE - Thirty people attended a meeting called by the Foundation for
Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) on November 2 to discuss the
implication of the federal government's Land Acquisition Fund section of the
Native Title Act.
Les Malezer, who had returned from a meeting on the Gold Coast where 14
Queensland Aboriginal land councils agreed to form the Queensland Federation
of Land Councils (QFLC) told the meeting that there were significant
problems with the current Native Title Act.
In particular, Malezer was very critical of the new land fund component of
the act. The federal government will pay $1289 million into the land fund
over a period of 10 years. Malezer told the meeting that the government's
measure will amount to ``$70 per Aboriginal person per year over the
period''. This is less than the sum total the various land councils
currently have available for land acquisition, which will no longer be
available to them.
Malezer compared this sum to the $1 billion spent on the new Parliament
House, or the proposed new fleet of 10 submarines at $300 million each. He
also noted the proposal of the Democrats, who argued that the fund should be
1% of GDP.
The funds are to be administered by a board of seven directors, including
the ATSIC chairperson. Although the appointment procedures ensure that at
least five of the seven must be indigenous persons, all appointments apart
from that of the ATSIC chairperson are to be by the minister of finance, who
must also approve all transactions of the fund. This means that Aboriginal
communities have no say in the management of the fund.
Malezer also told the meeting that a number of land councils had indicated
that land should revert to native title after purchase on behalf of a
community. Without this provision, there can be no ultimate land security
for indigenous communities, particularly those on pastoral leases, which
generally revert to the Commonwealth after 99 years. This proposal was
vetoed by the Labor government.
Another concern was the process of claiming land under the provisions of the
Native Title Act. Essentially the onus is on the Aboriginal community to
prove that title has not been extinguished.
Jeanie Bell, who also attended the Gold Coast Land Councils meeting, told
the meeting that the various Aboriginal representative bodies have to become
political bodies. She said that Aboriginal people were rediscovering their
culture, but needed their land to make that rediscovery meaningful, and for
that to take place Aboriginal representative bodies had to organise
politically.
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