Yes, Massa! --- Trudy ====================== THE AGE Howard warning on black funding By MICHAEL GORDON NATIONAL EDITOR Friday 19 May 2000 Prime Minister John Howard has warned that government funding for a new reconciliation body will depend on how well it represents "mainstream" Australia. Mr Howard has also criticised the soon-to-be-disbanded Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, saying it has become an advocate body rather than a vehicle for reconciliation. The Prime Minister's comments were interpreted as a response to the council being out of step with his views on a range of indigenous issues, including the vexed question of an apology for past injustices. Mr Howard's remarks, made during the coalition party room meeting last Tuesday, angered some MPs. According to one who attended the meeting, Mr Howard said the council was not supposed to be advocating doing things beyond reconciliation. "He said he would be prepared to back financial support for a body that represented mainstream Australia attitudes to reconciliation and proposed helping people to improve their lives," the MP told The Age. "The Howard doctrine is now that if people don't agree with him, they're not mainstream. So Sir Gustav Nossal (the deputy chair of the council) is not mainstream," the MP said. The Prime Minister's remarks follow his unsuccessful attempts to have the council endorse his preferred Declaration Towards Reconciliation, one that made no mention of an apology, customary law or self-determination. There has also been tension with the council over a government submission denying there was "stolen generation" of children taken from their parents. Under its legislation, the council will wind up on December 31. It has proposed that a new body, Reconciliation Australia, be established to maintain "a national leadership focus" for reconciliation and to report on progress. Mr Howard has already told the executive of the council that he does not believe its members should stay on the new body. His remarks about "mainstream" attitudes follow polling for the council earlier this year showing strong support for government programs to assist indigenous Australians, but a majority view that Aborigines do not do enough to help themselves. The polling also found 57 per cent of Australians shared Mr Howard's view that the government should not apologise for past injustices. The executive of the council will meet in Sydney today to discuss the composition of the new body, which it had hoped to launch at Corroboree 2000 in Sydney on May 27. Mr Howard this week denied reports he had banned government ministers from taking part in the May 28 walk across Sydney Harbor Bridge apart from Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron and the minister assisting the Prime Minister on reconciliation, Philip Ruddock. After a month of speculation over whether the Governor-General would speak at Corroboree 2000, the council has confirmed Sir William Deane as a key speaker as well as the Prime Minister and ATSIC chairman Geoff Clark. But it has not been determined whether Sir William will launch Reconciliation Australia during his address. Sir Gustav earlier this week said he would like Sir William to launch the body at Corroboree 2000. The declaration towards reconciliation will be presented to all dignitaries during the event. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
