SMH - Letters page July 18, 1999 Land rights law better left alone We were in the Parliament that introduced then passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. We all voted for the passage of that Act. The Act has worked well and has brought benefits to the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory. Changes proposed by the re- commendations of Reeves QC would centralise control of Aboriginal lands in an authority appointed and controlled by the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments and take away title now vested in land trusts for the traditional owners. This is turning Aboriginal land rights on its head despite the rationale of the Act in returning Aboriginal lands to the traditional owners. We believe that the Act should not be amended in ways which ignore traditional property rights of established traditional owners or which remove legal protections which allow those rights to be enjoyed. - Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister, 1975-83, Ian Viner, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, 1975-78, Fred Chaney, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, 1978-80, Peter Baume, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, 1980-82, Ian Wilson, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, 1982-83, Sydney. ------------------------------------------------------- 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/
