home | news l

ANTaR Supports HREOC call for Senate enquiry

17 July 2002 - ANTaR Media Release - Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) today joined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Dr Bill Jonas, in calling for the Senate's Legal and Constitutional References Committee to conduct an inquiry into the implementation and responses to the reconciliation process.

Speaking at the launch of Commissioner Jonas' annual Native Title Report and Social Justice Report, ANTaR National Vice-President, Stuart Stark, said today:

"It is timely to remember that the conclusion of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation was always meant to be a beginning rather than an end.

"The multi-partisan support which gave birth to the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation always intended that Parliament would receive a report with recommended actions beyond its ten year term. Discussion and reflection upon the Council's recommendations is suppressed by the dominant political discourse.

"This suppression of debate has allowed for complete inaction by the Government in implementing recommendations put forward by the Council, one of which was that Commonwealth and State Governments enter into discussions for a Treaty or series of Treaties with Indigenous people which would lead to greater self determination.

"We strongly support the report's recommendation that there should be a Senate inquiry into the Government's responses to the Council's final recommendations.

"The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation represented ten years of community and official consultations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous interests. What have we now? Our Prime Minister says we don't want to develop 'enclaves' or 'ghettos' of Indigenous people and our Government's policy of 'practical reconciliation'.

"We say practical reconciliation amounts to practical assimilation - a regression in thinking, not progress."

For further information contact:
Stuart Stark, National Vice-President
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) Inc

Further information: social justice issues page - includes news index and external links