(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The tragic history of Coalition treachery towards Indigenous Australians continues to be written [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-16 Since Australia’s federation in 1901, which marked separation from British rule and the states joining to become one nation, there have been six major landmarks in Indigenous affairs. The Coalition of two right-wing political parties – the National Party and the mis-named Liberal Party – has reversed or opposed them all One searing narrative throughout Australia’s parliamentary history is of reformists responding to calls for justice from the First Australians, only to have conservatives block progress. Every time. This played out again last Saturday, when a referendum to give Indigenous people ‘a Voice to Parliament’ was defeated. The first significant reform was changing Australia’s Constitution to include Aboriginal people fully as Australian citizens. Liberal Party prime minister Harold Holt called a referendum in 1967 knowing he had the support of the Country Party and the Labor Opposition. With all sides of politics and all major community groups on board, the referendum was won with 90.8% of the nationwide vote. That shows what happens when all political parties back sensible reforms to reverse past injustices. Land rights – at last! The second major development was the 1976 Land Rights Act which gave Aborigines freehold title to their lands and power to veto mining and other intrusions. The third was replacing in 1990 the Canberra-based Aboriginal Affairs Department with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Council (ATSIC), a decision-making body comprised of elected Indigenous men and women. The fourth advance was the 1992 Mabo case in which Australia’s High Court overturned the legal fiction that Captain Cook had “discovered” an empty, unoccupied land – what Cook and other whitefellas have falsely called a terra nullius. It was widely believed that the combination of those four paradigm shifts had established the framework for Indigenous leaders to learn the processes of administration and, in due course, implement solutions to their multiple challenges. Relentless opposition through the Howard years Gradually, however, the rights of Indigenous peoples were whittled away, particularly during the prime ministership of the hard right John Howard, as mining companies, state departments and other interests undermined Aboriginal self-determination. Howard amended in 1998 the Native Title Act (1993) which given effect to the High Court’s Mabo ruling on land rights. The changes completely reversed its intent. Howard abolished ATSIC in 2004. The rights conferred by the 1967 referendum were virtually entirely removed by the Howard Government’s so-called Intervention, which began in June 2007. A Taskforce led by a white magistrate was authorised to implement highly oppressive measures in the Northern Territory, including discriminatory changes to welfare, and appointing white managers to run the Aboriginal communities. Former Northern Territory MP John Ah Kit said at the time that this signalled, “the end of Aboriginal culture; it is in some ways genocide.” Howard effectively acknowledged his Government was indeed pursuing the end of distinct Aboriginal identity when he said at Ntaria in August 2007 that “Their future can only be as part of the mainstream of the Australian community.” Apology to the stolen generations The fifth major advance was the formal apology to the stolen generations delivered by incoming Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd on the first business day of the new Parliament in 2008. This made jubilant headlines in France, Spain, China, Japan, Russia, Indonesia, Slovenia, Britain, the USA and most other nations. That apology was celebrated worldwide, but not by all Coalition MPs. Some, including current leader Peter Dutton, displayed their contempt by conspicuously absenting themselves. Statement from the Heart And now we have the devastating outcome of the decades-long campaign by countless Indigenous people which led to the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. This petition to the people of Australia by delegates to the First Nations National Constitutional Convention simply requested a constitutionally protected First Nations Voice to the parliaments and a Makarrata Commission to advance practical reconciliation. Not a big ask. Tragically, but not surprisingly, the Coalition government rejected this. Labor leader Anthony Albanese welcomed the Uluru Statement, promising before the 2022 election to implement it in full if he was elected. Last Saturday’s referendum which fulfilled that commitment was resoundingly defeated, as was, of course, inevitable once the craven Opposition decided for political advantage to oppose it. Leader of the right wing Coalition Peter Dutton opposed the petition by Indigenous Australians for a Voice to Parliament, thus ensuring its defeat at the referendum. The nation must now reflect on this, and find some way to live with it for the foreseeable future. The only positive seems at this stage – from the perspective of those who wish to see Indigenous Australians occupy an honoured place with a significant voice – is if this hastens the demise of the Liberal and National parties at future elections. * This is an edited version of an article published earlier today in Independent Australia, available in full for free here: https://independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/the-tragic-history-of-coalition-betraying-indigenous-australians,17990 * Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. He gained his awareness of this topic through visiting more than 80 remote Indigenous communities as a print and radio reporter between 1975 and 2004, many of them multiple times. 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