In an interview on ABC AM today Sue Gordon was asked :

"How do you respond to comments, that the National Indigenous council (NIC) is not representative of Aboriginal Australia because its members aren’t elected by the Aboriginal community, but they’re appointed by the Howard Government?

Sue answered with:

"But we’re not supposed to be representative. We are there as individual Aboriginal people to give individual advice to the Minister.

So, having asked me that question, why haven’t you asked that question of the two Dodson brothers, Noel Pearson, Marcia Langton, Ross and a few others who are now wish…and Michael Long, who are wishing now to be an alternative advisory body to the Prime Minister?

They’re self-appointed, they’re not elected, they’re not representative. So, perhaps you should ask them the question. I don’t want to say any more on that."

Let’s not be derailed by the lack of homogeneity among indigenous people.
Please.

In the House of Representatives National Two Party Preferred result it was shown that 5,536,002 Australians eligible to vote in October 2004, voted for the Australian Labor Party.

5,536,002 Australians didn’t get exactly what they wanted.
Government was still formed.

Every Australian is free to send a letter, e-mail, message stick to the Prime Minister (or any elected official) and voice their opinion.

If we accept this then why can’t NIC accept the same from Professor Mick Dodson, Professor Marcia Langton, and me and you for that matter?

The most balanced view comes from the Australian Democrats’ Aden Ridgeway, the only Aborigine in Federal Parliament (only until June 2005).

"People should not feel threatened by different views. It is healthy to have debate, what is unhealthy is if nothing comes of it."

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 7th, 2004 at 11:18 pm and is filed under Social justice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Click to leave a comment.