Rallies oppose ATSIC abolition

Kim Bullimore, Melbourne

More than 500 Aboriginal people and supporters rallied outside the Victorian state parliament on May 10 to protest the proposed abolition of ATSIC and cuts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services. Both the Coalition government and the ALP opposition were condemned for their bipartisan racist attacks on Indigenous rights.

Speakers included long-time Aboriginal activist Gary Foley; Richard Frankland, field officer with the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in the 1980s; and Martin Kingham from the Victorian Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

Foley told the crowd that it was time for Indigenous people "to get back in the streets" and fight for their rights. He added that the new generation should not be sidetracked by promises from governments that never intend to deliver real rights for Indigenous Australians.

Frankland announced the formation of a new Indigenous political party, Our Voice, which was founded through a series of meetings between Aboriginal, church and social justice groups. He said it would seek to run candidates in the federal election for both the upper and lower house.

Frankland told the rally that the idea of the party was to "take the Indigenous voice right up to [Prime Minister] John Howard's feet, right up to his chin, and tell him: 'You've been there too long, buddy. Get out of the chair.'."

Referring to Labor leader Mark Latham's support for the abolition of ATSIC, Frankland warned him that it was "too late to apologise now ... You should have just kept your bloody Liberal shirt on."

Jim McIlroy reports from Brisbane that several hundred people rallied at the Roma Street Forum on May 1 to protest the abolition of ATSIC. A large placard at the rally proclaimed, "They took our land, now our voice".

Speakers included Aboriginal leaders Boni Robertson, Jackie Huggins, Steve Mamm, Sam Watson and Bertie Button. Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett said, "Howard has failed on Aboriginal affairs. Why not sack Howard?"

Robertson pointed out that "different opinions" existed in the Indigenous community about the role of ATSIC, but that the Aboriginal representative body had been blamed for being unable to "overcome 200 years of government neglect".

Watson said that "ATSIC is not the core issue. There is one main issue: the right of Indigenous people to determine our own future. We need to mobilise across the country to defend our right to have our own voice."

From Green Left Weekly, May 19, 2004.

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From GLW issue 582