The Australian Divisions dampen hopes for treaty By STUART RINTOUL 31may00 BARELY a day after the reconciliation march that may have changed the dynamic in Aboriginal policy, the politics of division have emerged to dampen expectations. Early yesterday, Liberal wet Brendan Nelson warned that a push for a treaty would be a Godsend to Hansonism. In the partyroom yesterday, John Howard was congratulated for refusing to apologise to indigenous people. Last night, Patrick Dodson spoke of "a scaring of the horses campaign" that had quickly surfaced on the issue of a treaty. In white Australia, there is a demand for quick answers on what a treaty would involve. In black Australia, the answer (mistaken as a retreat from the complexity of the argument) is that the detail will take a decade to be negotiated. However, in Broome last night, Dodson, who will inevitably be a key player in any move towards a treaty, nominated several areas as a starting point. They were: CONSTITUTIONAL amendments to recognise indigenous peoples as the first peoples; CLARIFICATION of customary law interests; COMPENSATION for the stolen generations; SOME form of regional governance arrangements for indigenous people. Each of these issues would face Coalition defeat. While Corroboree 2000 has been compared with the Vietnam War moratorium marches, Dodson, the "father of reconciliation", did not think he had made a mistake by boycotting the event. "No, I didn't make a mistake, because it is precisely where I believed it was," he told The Australian. "Because there was nothing bedded down with government and we've still got the up-hill battle to get them across the line and stop the fear-mongering that they engage in." The treaty process that Dodson has proposed � supported by his brother Mick Dodson in his keynote address at the weekend � would begin with a treaty commission of eminent Australians, including former governors-general, former prime ministers and former high court judges representing non-indigenous Australia and an Aboriginal leadership still to be determined. This treaty commission would begin a process of dialogue, "before you get anywhere next to agreeing on a treaty". Among the issues it would consider would be a framework agreement to enshrine Aboriginal rights and interests in the Constitution "rather than it just being left to the whim and fancy of the government of the day to say we'll have a discussion with the natives about this, or we won't." Hovering in the background are two hurdles: the first is the prospect of a referendum on the question of whether there should be a treaty with indigenous people. Dodson is realistic about its chances: "Given the history of referendums in this country, it is likely to go down." The second is the long process of representative discussion in Aboriginal communities. Asked whether the treaty process might resemble the mass meeting of Aboriginal people at Eva Valley in the Northern Territory seven years ago to discuss native title, Dodson said he thought it would be "more complex". "To actually pursue this, you would have to adopt something like the Inuit did (in Canada)," he said. "This would include a consultation process, official negotiators, accountability structures and a resourcing arrangement to assist the process to occur. "It took some time," he said. "These are complicated, difficult issues. But compared to another 100 years of blueing and arguing, what's a 10-year period." The issue of a treaty has been the big sleeper in the reconciliation debate. In Melbourne last week, an Aboriginal leader whose people are caught up in a native title case wondered: "They are with us now, but will they support land rights?" The Prime Minister, who believes he called the cards better than his opponents on the republic, is shuffling again on a treaty. He believes he has mainstream Australians with him. Labor is already showing signs that this is an issue it does not want to commit to when an election victory seems achievable. They are informed by the knowledge that Bob Hawke, infused with good intention, committed to a treaty within two years at Barunga in 1988 before retreating to a 10-year reconciliation process. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ 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." 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