Tim Stewart & Paul Benedek
"My vision is a very simple one: I just want a place where every child born on this land is able to grow up in an environment free from hostility and insecurity, realise his or her potential and make a worthwhile contribution to his or her community."
This is how Sam Watson, Murri community leader and Socialist Alliance candidate, envisages Australia's future. Watson and 29-year-old Aboriginal mother-of-four Nicole Clevens are contesting the Senate in Queensland on an all-Indigenous Socialist Alliance ticket.
Clevens is outraged at the appalling living conditions her people are forced to endure. Her mother, the Reverend Alex Gaitor, inspired her thirst for justice: "It can't be simply an idea, it has to be something we all live and struggle for."
In NSW, Ray Jackson, well-known Indigenous activist and president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association is also running as a Socialist Alliance Senate candidate. Jackson decided to stand "because I firmly believe that the mainstream parties have had more than 200 years to fix the so-called 'Aboriginal problem'. They've shown they cannot — at the very least I am sure that the Socialist Alliance will do more."
Jackson was stolen from his mother at the age of two, and placed with a white family when aged about three. From this experience, Jakson developed a firm commitment to justice for Aboriginal people, and opposition to all forms of oppression.
As a teenager Jackson became active in trade unions. He was a coordinator of the Aboriginal Deaths In Custody Watch Committee from 1991 to 1997. In 1997 he became a founding member of the Indigenous Social Justice Association.
According to Jackson, "The two most critical justice issues for Australia are, firstly, to come to terms with Aboriginal sovereignty, a treaty and social justice; the second is to free the refugees and treat them humanely."
Watson is concerned about the future for Indigenous people after the abolishment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). "We need a structure to deliver health, legal, medical and other services to Aboriginal communities", he said. "We don't need to reinvent the wheel — we need to go out and consult with our community leaderships. We have to utilise structures already in place. We need a representative body with real decision-making power."
Watson is particularly concerned about "justice issues", including "the case of the young man in Redfern killed earlier this year" and the way in which "the police were absolved by the NSW coroner".
Watson also cited "the situation in Townsville where a white driver ran over and reversed over and drove over again an Aboriginal boy and killed him. That driver has faced no penalty.
"That's why I'm campaigning with Socialist Alliance as I believe we need a bill of rights. Once the election is out of the way, we need to establish a campaign for a basic bill of rights. We don't have anything in our legal system that protects our right to a basic living standard."
According to Watson, "October 9 is an opportunity to punish John Howard for the lies. I can still remember his words after his election victory in 1996, saying he was going to unequivocally 'govern for all Australians' and he was going to support reconciliation. But his first act was to order special auditors into ATSIC.
"To this day his allegations of financial corruption in ATSIC have been unfounded and he has never come back to apologise for this. He also punished ATSIC by stripping $400 million — meaning legal and medical services went without staff, Aboriginal families went without services. October 9 is time for payback."
Jackson concluded that a better Australia is definitely possible. "But not under the two-party system. We need representation for all."
From Green Left Weekly, September 22, 2004.
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