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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lDiplomatic bagging for Irish MP who provoked motion commotion28 When it comes to Australia and matters of international diplomacy, don't mention the 't' word - 'treaty'. Irish MP Michael Higgins did recently, but he didn't quite get away with it. Mr Higgins, from Galway on Ireland's west coast, reckons he got "hammered" when Australia overreacted to his call for a treaty with Aborigines. "It's that word, treaty. That's their sore point. That's what the paranoia is all about," he said. The word caused a diplomatic flurry when the Labour MP and highly respected human rights campaigner included a reference to a treaty with indigenous Australians in a motion he put before Ireland's Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. The statement, in recognition of Australia's federation centenary, spoke of the "warm and friendly relations" between the two countries, but went on to encourage Australia "to seek similar treaty agreements with the Aboriginal people" as those of Canada, New Zealand and the US. It all seemed pretty innocuous, according to the committee's chairman, Des O'Malley, but Australian officials branded it "unfriendly" and likely to "damage Australian-Irish relations". Dispatches were soon winging their way, including a letter penned by human rights experts within Australia's Foreign Affairs Department to the Irish ambassador in Canberra. Australia also sent its ambassador in Dublin, the erstwhile Federal Liberal Member for Casey and former speaker of the House of Representatives Bob Halverson, to address the committee in person. He told the 20 members that the motion was "unhelpful" and based on misleading information. "It had certainly struck a raw nerve," said Mr Higgins, who drafted the motion after meeting a delegation of Aboriginal leaders, including Pat Dodson, last year. Australia's reaction has been "over the top", he said. "I mean, I would have thought that shooting down a plane or sinking a ship in territorial waters would be considered unfriendly - not this." The indignation strikes an incongruous note for callers to the embassy in Dublin, who are greeted with hold music that includes Yothu Yindi singing their hit single Treaty. "Words are easy, words are cheap," goes the song. "Treaty yeah, treaty now!'' But Mr Higgins, a former lecturer in political science, sometime poet and broadcaster, and winner of the Sean MacBride International Peace Award, eventually succumbed. After listening to Mr Halverson for two hours and a further two hours of debate, he decided to withdraw the offending word and add a couple of qualifying ones. The amended text nevertheless urged Australia "to seek similar arrangements and discussions" with Aborigines in a bid to "further" secure the rights, culture and identity of indigenous people. It won universal endorsement. The motion is expected to be tabled in the houses of parliament within two weeks. David Hammond, first secretary at the Dublin embassy, maintained: "We didn't ask, dissuade or in any other form attempt to get the committee to use different language in the resolution ..." But committee chairman Mr O'Malley's recollection is slightly different: "I think the ambassador reacted to something he saw in the paper about it." Mr Higgins has a simple view of it. "What I think happened is that some minor official attached to the committee has contacted Iveagh House (Ireland's Foreign Affairs Department) which in turn alerted the Australian embassy who in turn asked Canberra for a steer on it. "The response, really, was a bit off the wall." Source: The Sydney Morning Herald related links :
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its one year on from the Australian Governments controversial intervention into NT Indigenous communities
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April 2001- Canberra reacted sharply at a distant mention of the 't' word. Simon Mann in London spells out why.
