Crispin Hull

Women in Australia, 292 pages, is published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It was jointly researched, written and co-ordinated by Julie Cole, Evan Jones, Colin McDowell, Lydia Rutter, Natalie Bobbin, Norma Briscoe, Beth Wright, Robert Letheby, Dot Russell amd Marion McEwin.

It is available from ABS bookstores in capital cities for $30, including postage and handling.

The ACT Government took another step yesterday in its policy of taking back land development from the private sector.

It called for expressions of interest from developers interested in taking part in joint ventures in which the Government would have a far greater say than previous joint ventures or previous purely private land development.

The Minister for Environment, Land and Planning said in a statement that the new joint ventures would be for 630 dwellings in West Belconnen.
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The committee hinted that in the long term Canberra would expand into NSW over the ACT’s north-western border.

The committee look a sub-regional approach, looking at how the city sat in the whole region, not just the ACT.
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Tickner’s use of the 1960s textbook is not, alas, an anachronism as evidenced by the events in the Australian Football League recently. There crowd behaviour and racist taunts have be exacerbated by the comments of Collingwood Football Club president, Allan McAlister, who said that as long as Aborigines “”conduct themselves like white people, well, of the field, everyone will admire them.” The comments were a bizarre 1990s echo of the 1960s textbook.

On the brighter side, the 1990s comments have not been allowed to stand. McAlister has be forced to see the error of his ways and went to the Northern Territory to meet Aboriginal footballers and has promised that his club will play and Aboriginal all-stars team.

In a way it is an educational-awareness program for McAlister. From Tickner’s point of view, meeting, talking directly can be far more effective that crude legalistic mechanisms. There could hardly be a better result for reconciliation than a bi-annual Collingwood-vs-Aboriginal All-Stars game.

add two ….. Mabo has, of course, caused concerns among miners and pastoralists. Oddly enough, the vigorous expression of those concerns by miners and pastoralists enabled Aboriginal groups to say with some force that the land rights issue is urgent, cannot be put off, must be addressed and must be settled.

Three leading community groups have condemned a north Canberra redevelopment project which has attracted federal Better Cities funding so it can be a model for urban-renewal. The Royal Institute of Architects, the National Trust and the Conservation Council of Canberra called on the Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, seeking the inquiry into a joint ACT Housing Trust-private redevelopment on Section 22, Braddon.

Mr Coe, speaking on the Ten Network’s program, üMeet the Press,@ said the High Court had not given sufficient clarity to native title.

He thought test cases could be run in the High Court. It was scaremongering to say they would take years to resolve.

“”If people acknowledged that Aboriginal people have a right to land and resources that attach to land, and first asked the consent of the owners of the land as to how that land should be used, you’d find that most Aboriginal groups would agree to some form of land usage and mining by non-Aboriginal people,” he said.
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There’s been some jockeying for positions over at The Little House of the Limestone Prairie is the past couple of weeks.

Part of it results from the drawing of the electoral boundaries.

The electoral committee carved out three electorates and we may as well get used to the new names now: Ginninderra equals Belconnen; Molonglo equals the centre and Brindabella equals Tuggeranong. I’ll use the new names from here on.

It’s a big problem for the major parties. The Labor Party has too many sitting members in Ginninderra and not enough in Brindabella. The Libs on the other hand have too many in Molonglo and no-one in Ginninderra.
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The following are some major events and policy issues on Aboriginal affairs.
1967 referendum: Gave Aborigines full citizenship rights and gave the Federal Parliament power to make laws with respect to Aboriginal affairs, if necessary over-riding the states.

1972-75: Major boost to funding for Aboriginal programs under Whitlam Government with varying success at reaching targets. Push for land rights.

1976: Fraser Government passes Northern Territory Land Rights Act. It enables Aboriginal people to claim unalienated Crown land in the NT provided they can show a connection to the land through usage and sacred sites. Land vests in a land council which can never sell the land.
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The anger at the appalling statement recently by Collingwood president Allan McAlister that as long as Aborigines “”conduct themselves like white people, well, off the field, everyone will admire them” should now be channelled into constructive change.

The reason for the poor record of Australian rules is a combination of its Melbourne base and the nature of psychological warfare in sport.

Psychological warfare has always been part of sport. Undermining your opponent through taunts and muttering is part of the sport from the highest to the lowest. Often the crowd joins in, and the crowd can be worse than opponents.
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Canberra is joining in. The Legislative Assembly commissioned a study of what Canberra would and should be like in 2020, using a pun on twenty-twenty vision.

It is to issue the third of four quarterly reports on Monday. The first was a quick demographic projection. The second was some 300 pages on recycled paper. Third will perhaps be as long and will come down a few days after a information technology academic, UC’s Professor Mary O’Kane, called for more government data to be available electronically.

IT is the bore-word for Canberra’s future, along with tourism. If that is the case it is a shame that history is becoming so easily disgraced. It is a shame it is being replaced by sociology and “”communications” and other mumbo-jumbo, because history can tell us so much about the future.
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