home | news l

Brough's secret meeting with Yunupingu

By Lindsay Murdoch

15 August 2007 - GALARRWUY Yunupingu, the Northern Territory's most powerful Aboriginal leader, has secretly met federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough and other indigenous leaders to discuss his concerns about the Howard Government's intervention in remote indigenous communities.

Mr Yunupingu, a former Australian of the Year and former head of the Northern Land Council, had earlier described the intervention as "sickening, rotten and worrying".

Mr Brough travelled to Mr Yunupingu's homeland in Arnhem Land last Sunday, where the two men discussed the intervention and other issues, Mr Brough's spokesman Kevin Donnellan confirmed last night.

Other indigenous leaders, including Noel Pearson, director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, were at the meeting, which took most of Sunday.

Mr Pearson had earlier urged the government to listen to the criticisms of the intervention by the Territory's leaders, including Mr Yunupingu.

(Prime Minister John) Howard will engage with Yunupingu and the traditional leaders of the NT on the way forward," Pearson wrote in a newspaper article published on Saturday.

Mr Brough then travelled to Canberra, where he presented the controversial intervention legislation in Parliament that will allow the government to effectively seize control of 73 Northern Territory communities.

"They had a constructive meeting on a range of issues, including obviously the intervention," Mr Donnellan said.

Mr Yunupingu has been one of the strongest critics of the intervention, telling people at the Garma indigenous festival to fight "the sickness of this government setting out to simply take away what's rightfully ours."

Mr Yunupingu criticised the government for failing to consult with indigenous people before deciding to go ahead with the intervention.

Mr Brough was scheduled to attend Garma, one of Australia's biggest indigenous festivals, but cancelled.

Source: The Age

Further information: child protection enquiry issues and action page - includes news index and external links