August 10, 2007
It is clear by now that John Howard's intervention indigenous affairs in the Northern territory represents a dismantling of the old paradigm with its three-fold agenda of land rights, self-determination and reconciliation. It has been replaced by a model that Aboriginal Australia is a failed state within the nation and this invites an emergency-response military model to establish law and order. Hence we tough laws that are imposed without consultation. Realism rules.
The illliberal tendencies within this (and the tacit racism) cut little ice with the cultural warriors and have been justified by Noel Pearson's strong support for Howard's intervention, even though Pearson's retention for aspects of customary law is at odds with the government's assimilationist agenda.
The cultural warrior's argue that the social liberal advocate self-determination encourages Aborigines to cling to inferior and doomed cultures. What is missed in this argument is the rootedness of Aboriginal Australian's in their distinctive culture after the segregation in Christian missions and reserves.
What we have is legislation that takes control away from indigenous communities. It allows government bureaucrats to force themselves into indigenous boardrooms. It takes over their land. It takes away their ability to have a say on who can come onto indigenous freehold title land. It places bureaucrats in charge of indigenous lives. And it exempts these and other actions from the Racial Discrimination Act, which means it acknowledges that some of its measures may be racially discriminatory.
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