Looks like they're gearing up to ride roughshod over Indigenous wishes again.
Trudy ABC INDIGENOUS NEWS Friday February 8, 2002 MP calls for end to big land councils A Northern Territory-based federal politician has criticised the system of having large Aboriginal land councils, saying their golden age is drawing to a close. The Member for Solomon Dave Tollner made the comments while addressing a Minerals Council function in Darwin last night. Mr Tollner has suggested big land councils are artificially-constructed, administratively expensive, and a government-imposed bureaucracy. He told the function the movement for smaller regional land councils must take on increased importance among Aboriginal traditional owners. The Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Philip Ruddock has already said he will be implementing the recommendations of a review which proposes 18 small councils in the Territory. Mr Tollner has also raised the possibility of opening up under-explored regions such as Arnhem Land to more mining. He says it is a poor state of affairs when the most highly mineralised region of Australia, Arnhem Land, was the least explored part of the country. The MP has blamed what he claims was well-intentioned but badly misjudged federal legislation that gave control of mining in Arnhem Land to Aboriginal traditional owners. He was referring to the Northern Territory Land Rights Act. http://abc.net.au/message/radar/ab-8feb2002-3.htm -- ------------------------------------------------------------ "The power of accurate observation is commonly call cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/ until 11 March, 2001 and Recoznettwo is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznettwo%40green.net.au/ from that date. 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."
