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Both sides playing race card: Dodson

by SOPHIE DOUEZ

15 October 2001 - The Howard Government was highlighting race and cultural difference for political advantage in the lead-up to the federal election, Aboriginal leader Mick Dodson claimed yesterday.

He said the government was "not so silently" being supported by Labor, which helped the government pass the border protection legislation in Parliament.

Mr Dodson was speaking at the release of a joint statement by more than 50 charities and community organisations calling for both major parties to commit to a treaty to reverse the trend of disadvantage suffered by indigenous Australians.

He described the government's border protection legislation as appalling legislation that involved "draconian violations" of the principles of law-making.

It was of deep concern that Muslim Australians were having their places of worship vandalised and burnt down, Mr Dodson said.

"This is something that in my opinion is being fostered by the present government's approach to race and cultural difference because they see enormous political advantage in it," Mr Dodson said.

"That's not leadership. That's plain, blatant, raw, unadulterated political opportunism and populism."

Mr Dodson was supported in his comments by the chairman of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, Phil Glendenning, who said the government was appealing to the baser instincts of Australians by playing the same "race card" it played in the lead-up to the 1998 federal election over the issue of native title.

Australian Council of Social Service president Michael Raper said none of the political parties was showing leadership on issues of asylum seekers or indigenous disadvantage. Instead they were appealing to the "dark side" of human nature in the election campaign.

Clip from The Sydney Morning Herald

related links :

• Australian Election 2001
• We must fight for indigenous-led solutions
  November 2001 - News reporting has been dominated by only a few topics recently. You may not be aware that the Federal Government was recently forced by public pressure (including ANTaR's) to release a damning report which it had suppressed for six months. The Commonwealth Grants Commission's report put beyond doubt what ANTaR and many Indigenous organisations had been trying to draw attention to for many years, that: - Indigenous people's access to mainstream commonwealth funded health, employment and education services is scandalously low.
• ANTaR - Major Political Parties need to lift their game on Reconciliation and Indigenous Affairs
  November 7, 2001 - "The Coalition's policy confirms its assimilationist and paternalistic ‘practical reconciliation’ approach to Indigenous Affairs. If returned, the Coalition offers the bleak prospect of a further stifled Reconciliation process, already stalled after 6 years of the divisive Howard Government.”
• Coalition plans bigger role for Aborigines
  October 18, 2001 - Aboriginal communities would be given a greater say in how government services were delivered to them under a re-elected Coalition government.
• Aboriginal candidates are few, but determined
  October 15, 2001- Four out of five Labor Aboriginal candidates may have been elected at the recent NT poll, but at the federal level there is still little indigenous representation. And safe seats for indigenous aspirants are few and far between.
• Tackling Indigenous disadvantage demands new election commitment
  October 14, 2001 - A new call for the major political parties to commit to overcoming Indigenous disadvantage by negotiating an agreement or treaty with Indigenous Australians has been issued by over 50 charities and community welfare organisations in the lead up to the Federal Election.
• Excerpt from leader's debate
  October 2001 - ".. Not while I'm PM. Could I just finish? I think a treaty is divisive. A treaty is something one country makes with another .."
• Black list opens road to parliament
  June 12, 2000 - NSW Labor has never sent an Aboriginal politician to either Canberra or Macquarie Street but the weekend endorsement by the ALP State conference to give indigenous candidates a 20 per cent weighting in preselection contests is aimed at redressing that fact, initially at the local government level.

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