THE AGE Use ballot box, Dodson urges By MICHAEL GORDON NATIONAL EDITOR Saturday 26 August 2000 Patrick Dodson, one of Australia's most respected indigenous leaders, last night challenged supporters of reconciliation to be prepared to hold politicians accountable on the issue at the ballot box. "We want to shift the basis of our relationship in a way that we can have some more unifying pride about it, rather than spasmodic stages of euphoria," he said. Referring to those who have walked for reconciliation across the country, he said: "They've got to let them know that this has not just been a pleasant Sunday walk - that this has been something that has been heartfelt and sincere and desiring of transformation. "If that hasn't been picked up, they need to let their politicians know either now, in advance, or at the polls when they're called, and turf them out." Mr Dodson said a lot of people were frustrated by the performance of the Federal Government, adding: "Their stupidity is that they don't appreciate that - I hope to their detriment at the polls the next time around." In Melbourne to open The Age Melbourne Writers' Festival last night, Mr Dodson said he believed the euphoria evident in events such as the walk across Sydney Harbor Bridge in May was still "simmering away". In his keynote adderess, he appealed to writers to "push the envelope of understanding in our society" to create a beter appreciation of the complexity of reconciliation. He lamented the lack of political leadership on reconciliation and applauded the call by former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser for a new approach, including consideration of a "bill of rights". "A bill of rights that enables us, not only indigenous people but other groups in this country, to have some legal remedy against the whims and fancies of the government of whatever persuasion is very important," he said. Mr Dodson's remarks came after Prime Minister John Howard rejected Mr Fraser's advocacy of a bill of rights, saying there were plenty of examples of countries with "beautifully written bills of rights" where democratic aspirations were swept aside. Mr Howard told ABC radio that New South Wales Labor Premier Bob Carr agreed that a bill of rights would simply open a whole new avenue of litigation. Despite his disappointment at the performance of the Federal and Western Australian Governments in particular, Mr Dodson said some institutions were willing to be accountable. He applauded the performance of the Bracks Government in Victoria and took some comfort from the recent Federal Court decision rejecting claims for compensation in a "stolen generation" test case, although he questioned the choice of the applicants. The message from the court, he said, seemed to be: "We understand the legal confines in which these people are trying to seek justice and we know we can't deliver - there has to be a political solution to this. "As a nation we've got to rise above these debilitating things to work our way through to some lasting form of reconciliation," Mr Dodson said. While he believed a treaty was essential to sucha settlement, Mr Dodson agreed with Mr Fraser that it could simply be called an agreement. "A treaty should be a natural consequence, but a treaty doesn't mean we threaten the nation's sovereignty," he said. "It would mean we begin to accord the appropriate respect to indigenous and non-indigenous people in a proper manner - rather than saying indigenous people are just part of the mainstream and there's nothing unique about the oldest living continuous culture in the world." Mr Dodson said a message to other Liberals from Mr Fraser's Vincent Lingiari Memorial address in Darwin on Thursday was to take courage, to "step out into the deep" and to seek to have a reconciled Australia based on new thinking. He believed the Olympics would result in an international focus on the condition of indigenous Australia, but added: "I think a lot of people from outside will find out for the first time that there are actually Aborigines in this country and it's just not an enclave of the British. "Once they realise that, and then they realise the conditions under which the indigenous people live and the appalling social indicators that keeping getting repeated year in year out and the lack of any real progress in relation to this, they'll wonder what it is the governments of this country have done." Mr Dodson said he did not support protests, but believed indigenous Australians would find ways of transmitting their message to the world. He would be in Broome during the Olympics, watching events on television. -- ********************************** '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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