The Canberra Times Thursday, 9 March, 2000 Herron used security chief to probe black groups By ABAN CONTRACTOR The Federal Government admitted yesterday it had called in the nation's top security watchdog to probe the affairs of Aboriginal groups. Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron confirmed that Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Bill Blick, had been commissioned to investigate the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations. Sources said the report contained an extensive list of recommendations about how ATSIC and the registrar should deal with each other with regard to Aboriginal corporations, many of which were set up solely to hold the title to land. Mr Blick, charged with monitoring the legality of phone taps and secret files kept on people by organisations like ASIO, declined to comment on the details of the inquiry, saying it was now in the hands of the minister. The relationship between ATSIC and the registrar, Noureddine Bouhafs, soured recently when hundreds of Aborigines faced eviction after he forced into liquidation the incorporated bodies holding land on their behalf for failing to file annual reports. Sources said there had been tension between ATSIC and Mr Bouhafs ' over his heavy-handed and over-zealous approach' which had seen Aborigines in remote communities, many of whom spoke little English, lose the title to their land. Opposition Aboriginal affairs spokesman Daryl Melham said when reconciliation was on everyone's mind, the decision to use Mr Blick sent the wrong message. ' At best it is insensitive to use someone in Mr Blick's position to investigate indigenous organisations,' he said. ' It takes us back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover who used the FBI to investigate black civil rights organisations.' Despite having the report for several months, Senator Herron has declined to table it or discuss its contents. -- ********************************* Make the Hunger Site your homepage! http://www.thehungersite.com/index.html ********************************* ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
