Native Tile UN Finding Damns Aust. Govt The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, March 23rd, 1999. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.peg.apc.org/~guardian Subscription rates on request. ****************************** In a major embarrassment to the Howard Government, a special United Nations Committee has found the Government's Native Title Act to be in breach of the UN convention against racism, to which Australia is a signatory. It is the first such finding against a western Nation. Members of an Australian delegation who testified before the UN Committee for Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), have now stated that: "The message to all Australians is clear. The Native Title Act is a racist Act, and Aboriginal Peoples are the victims of Government racism." The UN found that the legislation: 1. does not protect the land ownership of Aboriginal peoples; 2. is clearly the instrument which increases the legal ownership rights over land held by non-Aboriginal people, such as pastoralists; 3. increases the other land ownership rights to the corresponding detriment of the Aboriginal Peoples; 4. in all instances where invalid titles occur through duplication of ownership, prefers the interests in land of non- Aboriginal people over the interests of Aboriginal people; 5. manifestly interferes with Aboriginal landowners' rights to negotiate their interests over their land; and 6. does not have the informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The UN Convention was signed by a former Liberal Government in 1966. In 1997 the current Government was advised by the Australian Law Reform Commission that the Act was in breach of the Convention. The Commission's advice was almost exactly the same as the CERD finding. (The Government at that time pressured the Commission to withdraw from giving evidence to a Parliamentary Committee and to refuse a Senate demand that the advice be released.) Left with no substantial legal argument that the Act was not in breach of the Convention, the Howard Government has nevertheless continued to defend the legislation, at one time describing statements by church leaders that the Act breached the Convention as having no factual basis. Despite every indication that the UN would find against the legislation, the Howard Government has now reacted with outrage to the finding. Federal Attorney General Daryl Williams thundered that: "the report is an insult to Australia in failing to acknowledge that there's another side to the story". Williams has refused to issue an invitation to CERD members to visit Australia, and has indicated that the Government might boycott a visit by them at the invitation of ATSIC, the Labor Opposition and Democrats. Giving a new twist to the idea that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, Prime Minister Howard reacted to the UN finding with the statement that "Australian laws are made by Australian parliaments elected by the Australian people, not by UN committees". Greens Senator Dee Margetts has now called for the Government to enter into new negotiations with Aboriginal people, and has given notice of a motion to debate the issue in the Federal Senate, in the light of the UN finding. Senator Margetts has also criticised the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Bill, currently before the Senate, stating that "This Bill is also discriminatory and will undoubtedly bring further international condemnation of Australia if it is not thrown out of the Senate." Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
