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Noongar dancers perform a welcome dance at a rally on the steps of Western Australia's parliament house in Perth yesterday. (AAP Image/Denise Cahill) |
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Noongar rally on steps of WA parliament house
Issue 114 - 21 Sep 2006
By Denise Cahill
PERTH, Sept 29, 2006: About 500 Noongar people have rallied on the steps of Western Australia's parliament house, celebrating their recent native title win and urging the state government not to appeal the decision.
WA Premier Alan Carpenter said yesterday lawyers had advised the government to challenge a Federal Court ruling last week to grant the Noongar people native title over more than 9,000 square kilometres of Perth and its surrounds.
Mr Carpenter said the government would announce soon whether it would appeal Justice Murray Wilcox's decision.
"The legal advice to us from our team is that Justice Wilcox's decision was so out of line with every other native title decision that goes before it that he has fundamentally changed the law and that needs to be clarified by appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court," he told reporters in Melbourne yesterday.
"If it was not necessary, I wouldn't appeal it."
Mr Carpenter said he supported native title in principle, but the law had to be applied consistently and that would form the basis of any appeal.
South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC) chief executive officer Glen Kelly said he did not want to comment until the government made its appeal decision.
"Our legal advice said that this decision was consistent with native title," Mr Kelly said.
He said SWALSC was happy to negotiate with the government.
The crowd, many holding the Aboriginal flag and carrying balloons matching the flag's colours, booed and chanted "stop the appeal" and "no appeal" when Treasurer Eric Ripper addressed the rally.
To the cheers of the crowd, the treasurer said the government knew Noongar people were the traditional owners of the state's south-west.
But the government had to consider the "highly technical and complex nature" of native title laws, he said.
"Reluctantly and against our most basic political and philosophical instincts, we have to consider the implications of the decision for the application of native title rights across the state of Western Australia," Mr Ripper told the crowd.
The government would negotiate with SWALSC to reach a "just outcome", he said. – AAP
 
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