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Djerrkura stood up for the rights of Indigenous peoples. We will miss him

By Brian Johnstone - posted Friday, 25 June 2004


I believe those who do have zero tolerance for our legitimate political, social, cultural and economic aspirations. In their eyes we should be a silent minority. Not to be seen by this Prime Minister. And, not to be heard. They have one agenda. To gut ATSIC. And, to gag ATSIC.

Ignorance and arrogance blind them to the fact they have no mandate to do either. Above all else they would have the Prime Minister believe one thing: that the commission that I chair, and associated organisations who advocate for the legitimate rights and aspirations of our people, are riddled with Labor sympathisers.

If I succeed in nothing else tonight I want to nail this political kite to the floor. I stand before you tonight as a former conservative political candidate. I make no secret of it. I make no apology for it. I count many Liberal politicians among my friends. Labor politicians too.

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I came into my job knowing that the Commission could and would work with a small "l" liberal government. What we cannot work with is a big 'C' conservative government.

ATSIC has, and does, work with the liberal elements of the current federal government. We also look back to the days when Malcolm Fraser, Fred Chaney and Ian Viner were in power. Thankfully they are still very active, privately and publicly, in pursuing a liberal agenda for this country.

They were in power at a time when all sides of politics worked together to address the appalling levels of disadvantage our peoples continue to suffer in this country. The division we now see does not cut across traditional party lines. The division which troubles us is clearly within this current government. It has one policy for reconciliation. It has another for recrimination. From where I sit the policy of recrimination is being actively pursued. Reconciliation is not.

You would be aware from the media reports over the past few days that I came here tonight to launch a new ATSIC publication. It is called Please Explain (pdf, 5554KB). It sets out the story of the Howard government, the United Nations and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It explains why this government has received a please explain from a United Nations committee concerned with fundamental human rights. I commend the publication to you and the exhaustive commission report to the committee upon which it is based.

Commissioner Clark and others will be travelling to Geneva over the next few days to hear the government explain itself before that committee. They will travel with copies of both ATSIC documents. They, and the commission, will no doubt face the usual chorus of complaints that we are using taxpayers dollars to go overseas to talk Australia down. We are not talking Australia down. We are talking up for our rights. We have a mandate to do so.

The ATSIC Act empowers us to advocate for the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples both within and without Australia. We would be derelict in our duty if we did not do so. The "please explains" should be sought not from the Commission, but from those who would seek to deny us our legal right to speak up ... both here and overseas.

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He received a standing ovation. It was not the first and not the last. He delivered his last public address in Canberra just a couple of weeks ago at the launch of a book by historian Mark McKenna, on the unresolved hopes for a republic and the difficult journey of reconciliation. The abolition of ATSIC, he said, was being done in "the classic imperial fashion, without negotiation, without understanding and with little empathy".  He noted he had called for Geoff Clark to resign for the good of the organisation, but his harshest words were reserved for the Prime Minister who turned his back on him:

Let me be clear. The Prime Minister has long refused to accept the fundamental difference of Aboriginal people in our community. He was never sympathetic to the principles on which ATSIC was based and founded. He has always rejected any suggestion of Indigenous autonomy and self-determination. Even when the Prime Minister took up my invitation to visit Arnhem Land in 1998, he seemed incapable of understanding Indigenous aspirations.

Those words were ringing in my ears as I listened to the start of the debate on the bill to abolish ATSIC. As everyone I talk to in this debate had long suspected, the bill went far beyond abolition of the Commission.  Bob McMullan put it well: "In practice it does much more: It gives effect to the Prime Minister's long-held desire to dismantle every means available to Indigenous Australians to participate in decisions about their future." We know it. He knows it.

Howard and his big 'C' conservatives want to silence the black voice in Australia and overseas. We all owe it to the memory of Djerrkura to ensure they do not succeed. I'll miss his style, his grace and his humour. Sorry Day will never be the same.

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About the Author

Brian Johnstone is a columnist for the National Indigenous Times. He was Director of Media and Marketing at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission between April 1998 and December 2002. Before taking up that position he was a senior advisor to former Federal Labor Minister, Senator Bob Collins, and a senior correspondent with Australian Associated Press.

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