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Greens vow to push Indigenous rights

22 November 2007 - The Australian Greens say the major parties are not doing enough to address the disadvantages faced by Indigenous Australian.

Greens leader Bob Brown says the Howard Government has “turned its back” on Indigenous people, while the Labor party has “rubber-stamped” policy like the Northern Territory intervention.

The senator has criticised the intervention for its lack of consultation with Indigenous communities.

Intervention ‘a bad look’

“Governments moving in - they did not even discuss it with the Parliament - in they went, and they led off with the army going in,” Mr Brown told SBS’s Living Black earlier this month.

“It was just a bad look, it was a bad strategy, and it was rude.”

The Federal government announced its intervention plan earlier this year to address the problem of child sexual abuse in remote communities.

Communities seized

As part of the intervention, the government seized control of 73 Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, and introduced sweeping bans on alcohol and pornography.

The federal government also made changes to the permit system, which controlled the entry of non-Indigenous people onto Aboriginal lands.

Mr Brown says despite the intervention, the federal government has done little to address Indigenous issues.

“…It needs readjusting by the next government to make sure AboriginaL communities are not only taken into account but have the say in how we get the restructuring, the money put into all the things that need to be done to make up for the lost 11 years when the Howard Government turned its back on Indigenous people in Australia,” Mr Brown says.

Apologies to Stolen Generation

Apart from revise the intervention, the senator says the Greens would apologize to the Stolen Generation for their forced removal.

Mr Brown says the move is symbolically important.

“I think it is important because it says we recognise... the enormous destructive impact that there has been on first Australians right across this country since 1788.”

‘Celebrating first Australians’

Mr Brown says if the Greens win the balance of power in the Senate they will stand up for Indigenous people.

“The Greens will be in there - whether it is Labor or the next coalition government - pushing them to do what they ought to have been doing for decades in terms of health, education, housing, and empowerment of Indigenous people.”

‘It is up to us as legislators and as people who are representing Australians to make sure not only that that gap is closed, but we really work to get better outcomes and we get parity, at least, for Indigenous Australians on our way to celebrating Indigenous Australians as the first Australians and the people who so much describe what we Australians are.

Source: SBS

Further information: election 2007 issues page - includes news index and external links

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