NT minister in denial

May 31, 2000
Issue 

NT minister in denial

BY ANDY GOUGH AND DAVE MURPHY

DARWIN — Country Liberal Party MP Chris Lugg labelled the stolen generations "a fraud contrived by Aboriginal activists and their supporters and legal advisors" for the purpose of "obtaining large amounts of money" in Northern Territory parliament on May 23.

The speech was too opinionated even for chief minister Denis Burke. Burke, who has stonewalled demands for changes to his territory's mandatory sentencing laws which target Aborigines, "rebuked" his colleague but plans no further action.

Cath Mills and Maurie Ryan Japarte, both members of the stolen generations, told a forum organised by Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation on May 24 that Lugg's comments showed the need to end a culture of denial in this country.

Mills and Japarte said what members of the stolen generation were seeking was formal recognition of the injustices done in the past; appropriate compensation for that injustice should be seen as a democratic right.

Former Labor Senator Bob Collins said that denial was also a major feature of the federal government's submission to the Senate committee into the stolen generations.

"The unequivocal sweeping statements" from the government, Collins said, including "repeated assertions" that the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents was benign, "are far more fatally flawed and historically wrong than any of the alleged 'misrepresentations'."

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