The Administrator of the Northern Territory, Justice James Muirhead, said yesterday that Australia “”desperately needs a change of attitudes” on Aboriginal reconciliation.
He called for an end to political point-scoring and for more dialogue and less “”debate by press release”.
He was opening a conference on “”Constitutional Changes in the 1990s” held by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory.
“”A great difficulty for us all has been the politisation of so many issues particularly those relating to Aboriginal land including National Parks, sacred sites and the mining of resources,” he said.
(Last month two Northern Territory ministers, the Attorney-General, Daryl Manzie, and the Minister for Tourism, Roger Vale, driving Mr Manzie’s ex-Los Angeles Police Department Chevrolet, attempted to defy a ban imposed on cars from the Variety Bash Club from entering Uluru National Park which is jointly managed by the Aboriginal owners and the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service.)
Justice Muirhead called for greater dialogue which would resolve matters more certainly, cheaper, more quickly and more equitably than by litigation-type processes.
Justice Muirhead, who was the first Royal Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody said, “”There is much to do.”
All governments had a responsibility to change custodial methods and practices.
“”Much of our population is confused as to current Aboriginal aspirations,” he said.
Australians, whatever the colour of their skins, “”should lift the blinkers off our eyes, be they blinkers of shame or the blinkers of anger”.
On the subject of the law, he questioned whether juries were any longer appropriate in long trials. The jury system had been praised as an essential feature of democracy, however, “”we don’t talk about verdicts which at times defy logic or understanding, the costs, the delays, the inefficiencies of the system, nor the impact or influence the modern media coverage may exert.”
(Justice Muirhead was the trial judge in the Lindy Chamberlain case.)
Justice Muirhead also questioned the move to make Australia a republic. “”What presently justifies the stirrings for the Republic of Australia?” he asked. “”Will we be a happier, wealthier or safer society as a republic? How then will government be more efficient, more cost effective, more decisive?”
He compared 100 years since federation under the monarchy and compared it to “”the misery and convulsions” of other countries.
The Northern Territory Minister for Industries and Development, Steve Hatton, called for statehood for the territory by 2001. He said: “”Government by remote control by people in the south-east corner is frightening.”
A free, just and harmonious society depended on greater knowledge of constitutional affairs.
He said that with 25 per cent of its population Aboriginal, the Northern Territory could not marginalise Aboriginal issues, as had been done elsewhere where the proportion was lower.