Dear Minister Macklin

John Howard sent our soldiers into battle on the basis of a fabricated story of WMDs and corruptly disseminated mistruths about the Children Overboard scandal and Tampa. Did we say that the democratic process was flawed and we ought to regress back to Imperial control from the mother country because Australian politicians are corrupt and greedy?

Furthermore, when Pauline Hanson and her One Nation political representatives at federal and state level started a movement based on xenophobia did the government of the day throw them out of office? Even when there were major concerns about their propriety as a legal entity, did the government close the door on them?

The answer to all these questions is a resounding No.

What happened in all these instances and what should now be afforded to Indigenous Australians in the light of the demise of ATSIC in 2004, is the opportunity for us to determine, through the democratic process, who should lead us in these uncertain times.

And if you think Indigenous people are not intelligent enough to make an informed decision about their national representatives then publicly come out and say so, and then at least we will know exactly where we all stand with you.

Please don’t keep instigating more national reviews, at considerable cost to the tax payers, just so you can come up with one that will finally give you a quasi mandate to eliminate an elected representative body from the national dialogue.

The Labor Party would like us all to think of them as “the” party for the blue collar worker; the supporter of the underdog; and an active proponent of the egalitarian adage of “giving everyone a fair go”. As such we ask for no special privilege but rather an equal say, as offered to mainstream Australians at election time, to vote for our elected representatives.

As Aristotle once said, “Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal”.

Minister Macklin, I’m sure you can find it in your heart to grant Indigenous people their democratic right to determine who should lead them at the national level; in much the same manner as your constituents in Jagajaga offer you that same privilege every three years.