Opening of Australia’s Aboriginal Land to the Public

Opening of Australia’s Aboriginal Land to the Public

Indigenous affairs Minister Mal Brough called for input from the public regarding the 30-year-old permit system that allowed Australia’s Aborigines to legally stop people from entering their land. On October 4, 2006 Brough issued his request for input in an attempt to solve problems endemic to the aboriginal population from the nation’s capital.

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“My concern is that the permit system has created closed communities which are restricting the ability of individuals to interact with the wider community and furthermore to participate in the real economy.” According to Brough has not protected vulnerable citizens include women and children. Opening the lands would add an additional layer of protect of these groups who suffer from the high rates of violence, sexual abuse and alcohol abuse.

Frequently, the policies of Prime Minister John Howard have run counter to the polices of Aboriginal leaders. Howard seeks a policy that will provide for greater opportunity to receive better health care and education. He wants to improve the lives of Australia’s aboriginals rather than a “more symbolic racial reconciliation issues such as land rights or an apology for past injustices.” The nearly inaccessible outback communities provide poor access to jobs, good housing, health services and education. Aborigines suffer high rates of domestic violence and alcohol abuse.

According to numbers published in the article, there are approximately 460,000 Aborigines who, although representing only 2.3 percent of Australia’s population, are in control of 20 percent of the land in Australia. This totals to about 593,000 square miles. In terms more understandable to Americans, this is approximately the size of Alaska with only about 75 percent of the population of Alaska.

George Newhouse, an attorney for the Mutijulu Aboriginal community located near Ayers Rock, said that scrapping the permits would lead to Australia becoming a “Aboriginal Disneyland.” Newhouse played the race card by alleging that Australia’s conservative government had a “white superintendent” approach and wanted to win back hard won rights of the Aborigines. “Now it’s time for the black fellas to feel their boot.” Presumably suggesting that the government was using force to gain their way among the Aboriginal people. Despite Newhouse’s misgivings, according to the article, the change in the permit system would not affect freehold land (private property).

This article was biased sensationalistic and sometimes wrong. The first paragraph contains three factual errors that are not supported by the story. First that the government is intending to open up the Aboriginal land, and second that the “Aborigines are set to lose the legal right to stop people from entering their outback lands,” and that there had been protests to prevent their homes would beco…………………