Proposed changes by a govt immersed in idiocy

CM -Courier Mail

posted by Lin Powell

Lin Powell

I wonder how many local people read this article in yesterday’s CM. How, you may ask, could this have happened?

A popular foreshore closed to all except a select few.

It came about because a group of people living on Mer (Murray Island), on the far northern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, became alarmed with what was occurring on nearby Yorke Island where commercial fishermen were using Yorke as a base and introducing unwanted practices into the Island.

The Mer people determined that that should not happen to them but when they approached the then Director General of Aboriginal and Island Affairs, they were told in no uncertain manner that he, the DG, had control over what could and could not occur on the Torres Strait Islands.

Needless to say, the Islanders were enraged and set about to obtain tenure over their Islands, places where they had lived, worked and cultured for ever.

Not too many people disagreed with their proposal but they encountered the usual bureaucratic red tape so that a spokesman was chosen and Eddie Mabo was tasked with leading the battle.

Whilst most supported the Mer proposal a few cautioned what would happen if that was extended to the mainland.

Some supported an extension to include the mainland communities such as the communities in Cape York, Cherbourg and the like. Eventually the issue was taken to the High Court that overrode all other jurisdictions and granted land rights to Aboriginal and Islander communities who could prove continuity of tenure.

So, an innocent claim by Mer and other Torres Strait Islanders was granted and given to mainland Aborigines.

What has happened at Burrum Heads is a consequence.

The Albanese Government claims that by changing the constitution to provide for the Voice, we will not be making a gigantic change.

The original proponents of the Mer Island proposal thought the same and when I spoke to those very people on Mer they were quite scathing in the suggestion that their claim could be used on the mainland.

All this is written to explain the reason I’m totally opposed to changing the Constitution to allow a race based entities to have constitutional power.

Who knows what will be the ultimate outcome, no one, least of all those campaigning for the change.

Just to clarify my interest in Torres Strait and Fraser Island, my paternal grandfather was born on Goods Island where his father was the lighthouse keeper and pilot and my grandmother was born on Fraser Island where her father was a Crown Ranger.

No wonder I have salt and sand in my DNA.