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Aboriginal activist Barbara Shaw has called on Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin to resign. |
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Aboriginal activist calls on Macklin to resign over intervention consultations
ISSUE 180 - 25 Jun 2009
By Amy McQuire
NATIONAL, July 8, 2009: A prominent Aboriginal activist has dubbed Minister for Indigenous affairs Jenny Macklin a liar and called on her resignation after it was revealed that she has deceived Aboriginal communities over the NT intervention consultations.
Documents obtained by NIT reveal that Ms Macklin was warned in March this year that her threat to acquire the Alice Springs town camps on 40-year leases would contravene the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) and raised the possibility of a court challenge when the act is restored.
The RDA was bypassed in order to get the NT intervention legislation through parliament and is expected to be restored later in the year.
The documents advise the minister that a formal consultation process over compulsory acquisition would be expensive and would probably not strengthen support for the government's legal case if a court challenge were to arise.
It reveals that the current consultation process underway in the NT is in part aimed at strengthening a possible legal case for the government surrounding the compulsory acquisition of the Alice Springs town camps.
Aboriginal activist Barbara Shaw, from the Intervention Rollback Action Group on Monday accused Ms Macklin of lying and called for her resignation and as well as that of her advisors.
"These leaked documents show that she [Macklin] considers 'consultation' to be a legal game, rigged to impose policy that we do not want," Ms Shaw said.
"The UN Declaration [on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] demands that Aboriginal people are involved in policy making and that our land is not taken without consent.
"Macklin must resign, along with her advisers who are designing ways to deceive Aboriginal people. "
Ms Shaw said that there had been no action on the government's promise to build houses, despite the five-year compulsory leases over townships, which were one of the most controversial aspects of the intervention.
"Our land was seized under the 5-year lease aspect of the NTER legislation, because the government said they needed to build houses quickly. Two years on and not a single house has been built through this Intervention," Ms Shaw said.
"We can not trust this government and can not wait any longer for housing. But they cannot force us change the way we live together, with our kinship systems. We need appropriate homes where we can continue to practice our culture."
Stop the Intervention Collective's Paddy Gibson said the revelations were further evidence that the intervention was "$1 billion insult to Aboriginal people" and announced a protest.
"We will protest at the Minister's office on Wednesday [yesterday at the time of press] to demand she resign and the racist intervention ends immediately," Mr Gibson said.
"Its time to hand the funds over to Aboriginal controlled organizations who know the solutions for their people."
For more information, please see the related link.
http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=18137
 
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