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Australian PM finally wins black support

By James Grubel CANBERRA

25 July 2005 - (UK Reuters) - Prime Minister John Howard has been demonised by Aborigines for a decade, but on Tuesday one of Australia's most influential black leaders said Howard could be the person that ends generations of black squalor.

After years of racial tensions over Howard's tough practical approach to improving aboriginal living standards, prominent black leader Mick Dodson said Howard had an historic opportunity to do what no other prime minister has achieved.

"You may be the best-placed prime minister in Australia's history to do what needs to be done for the sake of my children, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren and yours," Dodson told a racial reconciliation conference in Melbourne.

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines have a life expectancy 17 years lower than the rest of the country's 20 million people, with the majority living in remote outback communities where there is little access to good housing, health or education.

With Howard sitting a short distance away on the same stage, Dodson said Aborigines would put aside differences on spiritual issues to work with Howard to improve the lives of Aborigines.

"I'm here today to tell the prime minister that I am ready to walk alongside him in taking the next steps towards reconciliation," said the long-time Howard critic.

Six years ago, Howard angered black leaders at a similar conference when he refused to apologise for the wrongs of white settlers and past government assimilation policies of removing aboriginal children from families to be raised in white homes.

On Tuesday, Howard told the conference his government and black leaders must focus on programmes to improve opportunities, rather than symbolic debates, such as land rights and sovereignty over Australia before European settlers arrived in 1788.

Source: Reuters © Reuters 2006

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