NT blackfellas labour for a better life

A couple of weeks ago the incoming National President of the Australian Labor Party, Warren Mundine, turned up on the opening day of the annual conference of the NT branch of the Australian Labor Party.

The minute Mundine walked through the door on the opening morning of the weekend conference a couple of left-wing delegates made a beeline for Territory Labor Party president Warren Snowdon. Their message was simple and direct.

Mundine was a Howard Government stooge. He had no status and no speaking rights at the conference. The minute he opened his mouth the Left would immediately move a motion of no confidence in him for his role in the Howard Government’s assault on the aspirations of Aboriginal people. The no confidence motion would also include Snowdon, and NT Chief Minister Clare Martin. There was no need to repeat the message.

President Snowdon instantly assured them Mundine would not speak and he himself would be taking a thinly-veiled crack at Mundine in his speech to the conference. Snowdon is a left-wing warhorse. He’s a veteran at avoiding or inciting a conference blue.

He’s the longest serving member of the federal parliament ever produced by the Northern Territory ALP. He’s a hard working journeyman politician with a long, deep and abiding association with the territory’s Aboriginal land councils and the wider Aboriginal community. He’s also a fierce advocate of Aboriginal self-determination. Politically, he and Mundine are poles apart.

Snowdon also knows a thing or two about numbers. It was clear to him the Left had control of the conference floor.

The message from the delegates was quietly delivered to Mundine. He had travelled all the way to Darwin to sit mute in a corner of Darwin’s Italian Club for an entire day. He did not appear on day two.

This story speaks volumes about Mundine’s personal political nous. It also exposes the inept political advice to NT Chief Minister Clare Martin.

Why Mundine was invited, and what he was there to do, has never been properly explained. But his presence, and its effect on the dominant faction, clearly ensured a rough conference ride for Ms Martin. The conference showed just how far her star has waned with the territory’s Aboriginal community and its long-time supporters in the NT ALP, black and white.

Readers may recall the euphoria which greeted her election to office in August 2001. She had led the ALP to its first win in the history of the territory. Long-time NT Labor party members had never dreamed they might see their party in government in their lifetime.

The election was full of promise for Aboriginal territorians who had been used and abused by the ruling Country Liberal Party for more than 20 years. The CLP had elevated race politics and push polling to an art form.

It dominated the political landscape by ensuring its key anti-Aboriginal policies were heard loud and often in Darwin’s predominantly middle class northern suburbs. All elections were - and still are - won and lost in the all-important northern suburbs.

The ALP had been sustained in the political wilderness for two decades by the support received from predominantly Aboriginal bush electorates. CLP officials openly taunted their rivals about the political attraction of the Aboriginal Labor Party.

The election of a Martin Labor Government was seen by Aboriginal people throughout the territory as the start of a new era of inclusion. A victory for the true believers. They would finally have a champion in a position of power. An ally in a position to change the wretched socio-economic conditions in the bush.

It was to prove a false hope. People now talk of a victory for the true deceivers.

Things looked encouraging in the beginning. Martin made all the right public noises about governing for all territorians. She was feted at the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land shortly after the election. But relations soon soured when two ALP officials turned up at the offices of the major territory land councils and delivered a clear message: The focus for the first term of the new government would be the northern suburbs.

There would be no public antagonism to the aspirations of Aboriginal territorians but the government’s eye was firmly set on re-election. Its future depended on keeping sweet with the voters in the suburbs. The strategy worked.

The Martin Government was re-elected last June for another four-year term. The election saw five Aboriginal members elected to the treasury benches but there was little celebratory song and dance in the bush.

Veteran Labor stalwarts shook their heads in disgust when the Martin Government began the election campaign by rolling out the race card in the form of an anti-social behaviour policy which announced habitual drunks would get treatment or face jail. No one in the territory was in any doubt about who the policy was directed against and to which voters it was directed.

It followed increasingly virulent attacks by the government on traditional marriage and customary law and unilateral discussion with the Howard Government and Mundine, as a member of Howard’s hand-picked National Indigenous Council, on changes to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.

Precious little had been done by the government to improve the appalling infrastructure for Aboriginal communities. Those same stalwarts had long suspected the chief minister had been captured by a bunch of conservative bureaucrats and political advisers imported from southern states.

The feelings of old party hands is best reflected in an urgency motion which was carried by the recent conference. It was a clear public slap-down for Chief Minister Martin and her special guest, Mr Mundine.

The four part motion read:

Territory Labor:

1. Confirms its policy that there should be no amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (“ALRA”) without the informed consent of all traditional owners;
2. Opposes any amendments to ALRA which has the effect of changing or replacing the existing leasing and licencing arrangements provided for in section 19 of ALRA, EXCEPT for the amendments to sub-section 19(8) agreed between the Northern Territory Land Councils and the Northern Territory Government in the 2003 joint submission to the Commonwealth;
3. Opposes the establishment of any special stand alone Northern Territory Government entity for the purpose of holding leasehold title to and administering ALRA land; and
4. Endorses and encourages the negotiation by existing Northern Territory Government departments and agencies (including Territory Housing) of subsection 19(3) leases from Aboriginal Land Trusts.

What the motion does is to block the publicly announced deal between the Howard and Martin governments to set up an NT entity to control the head leases proposed under the recently announced changes to the ALRA.

Most political pundits know that such motions have little effect on most governments. Most just ignore them and merrily go about their business. Unfortunately for Ms Martin, the motion adds weight to the political arm of an increasingly strident Labor Caucus, which includes those five Aboriginal MPs.

I understand the proposal was originally knocked back in Cabinet and a caucus committee established to investigate the land rights changes. The caucus committee has since advised the chief minister that it has no confidence in the establishment of the entity and recently adopted a motion ensuring that all future negotiations on these issues would be referred to caucus. The committee also ensured all work on the establishment of said entity was stopped.

Where Ms Martin goes from here is anyone’s guess. One thing is certain.

The bush is biting back.