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Aboriginals urged to enrol to vote

4 September 2004 - Aboriginal Australians were today urged to enroll to vote in the October 9 federal election.

ALP vice-president and Aboriginal leader Warren Mundine said there was a significant number of Aborigines who were not on the electoral roll.

"The Howard Government has ignored the indigenous community and indigenous issues - and will continue to do so unless we do something about it," Mr Mundine said in a statement.

"My message to indigenous Australians is simple - get on the electoral roll, turn out, turf Howard out."

Voters must enrol by Tuesday (September 7) to be eligible to vote in the federal election on October 9.

Source: The Australian

Call for ATSIC demise to be election issue

September 4, 2004 - The National Indigenous Postgraduate Association Aboriginal Corporation is lobbying for the continuation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) to become a federal election issue.

The corporation's president, Vicki-Ann Speechley-Golden, says the election gives the major parties a chance to reconsider their policies in regards to ATSIC.

She says it took decades to get a body to be recognised by government and it is not good enough to fully abolish the commission now.

"Granted we're only 2.2 per cent of the population, quite small, but you have got to remember once we were 100 per cent of the population - it's taken us 200 odd years to get that far - if they take our voice away from us it'll be like we don't exist again," she said.

Source: ABC

Further information: election 2004