A crime against humanity

Comment by Yaluritja (Clarrie Isaacs)

PERTH — The West Australian Liberal Party's anti-Mabo legislation is a crime against humanity.

Running true to form, the West Australian Liberal extremists are determined to validate their own leases at any cost.

Richard Court and his Liberal brethren have relit the fires of Nazism and fuelled the worst elements and fears in society in order to create the environment for his monstrous legislation to dispossess the blacks in West Australia and to put to death any notion of native title once and for all.

They have put aside any sense of level-mindedness in the process. The mad go-it-alone by the Liberal Party is an act of bloody small-mindedness intended to draw the support of the party faithful, who react with glee when any Liberal "sinks his boots into the blacks".

The 62-page Land (Titles and Traditional Usage) Bill 1993, now known as the "Liberal Pravda", is certain to create a lot more division and reaction, rather than to get down to the real issues to be addressed.

The act of dispossession of Aborigines has been put aside by non-Aborigines because they would say, "It happened a long time ago", "I wasn't in this country at the time" or "It's not my fault, I didn't do anything".

Well, today it's different: Mabo is here, and it is your choice. Any person who wants to go along with Richard Court's legislation must now shoulder the responsibility of their actions. And once it is done, they can stand up and say, "Yes, I dispossessed Aborigines of the last vestige of meaningful life".

Such legislation will make Australia's Aborigines the most disadvantaged indigenous people in the British Commonwealth.

People should rally against the West Australian Liberals' legislation and fill out petitions and say "Yes" to native title.

From GLW issue 122