National Indigenous Working Group
OLGA HAVNEN is the executive officer for the National Indigenous Working Group, which represents Aboriginal land councils, ATSIC and the Indigenous Land Corporation. She spoke to Green Left Weeklys JENNIFER THOMPSON about the Wik bill.
Havnen said changes to the bill beyond those made in the Senate last year are needed, but doesn't hold out much hope. “The role of the working group this time around is to make sure that people like Harradine and the ALP and the Greens and the Democrats remain committed to the principles that were achieved last year.”
Havnen listed the differences the working group had with the ALP and Senator Harradine. Of major concern is the validation of unlawful land grants by state governments since 1994.
“We agreed to validation back in 1993, so it seemed a pretty tall order to come back to us some years later and say, `Well, we now want you to go through a revalidation process' because state and territory governments operated outside the Native Title Act.”
Also “unfair and unjust” is the requirement to have ongoing physical connection with the land in order to have access to pastoral leases, said Havnen. “In many cases, Aboriginal people have been locked out or they've been moved away.”
The working group has also proposed land use agreements like that negotiated in the Cape York Peninsula Heads of Agreement between the Cape York Land Council, the ATSIC Peninsula Regional Council, the Cattlemen's Union, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Wilderness Society.
This is a model for land use and land development arrangements, a “much fairer process all around”, said Havnen. The proposal was adopted by the Greens and the Democrats, and also the ALP “in a slightly modified form”. But it was voted down by the Coalition with the support of Harradine.
