By Michael White
BRISBANE — At a rally held at Roma Street Forum on March 15, Aboriginal elders deplored the rising tide of racism in Australia.
Murri Watch coordinator Sam Watson said politicians like the new member for Oxley, Pauline Hanson, the member for Kalgoorlie, Graeme Campbell, and the National Party's Bob Burgess, "who denigrate, humiliate and attack Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, should be exposed and condemned consistently until we drive them out of politics".
Hanson was disendorsed as Liberal Party candidate after she claimed that Aborigines received special treatment in the provision of services. Following her election, she was quoted in the Australian as saying she would fight for the interests of her electors, "anyone apart from the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders".
This prompted Cec Fisher, an Aboriginal resident in Hanson's electorate, to lodge an official complaint with the anti-discrimination commissioner. Hanson will be the first politician to be investigated for a possible breach of the Race Discrimination Act.
Rally participants were also angry about the announcement, by new Aboriginal affairs minister John Herron, of an audit of Aboriginal spending across all government departments.
The Coalition's pre-election promises included that spending on Aboriginal services would not be cut. In announcing the audit, Herron said, "Aboriginal people are Australians and they must bear the burdens like everyone else. I don't hear any clamour out there from the Australian public that they want to pay higher taxes so more money can go to Aboriginal people."
Brisbane elder Ruth Hegarty told the rally that Aboriginal people were taxed in a discriminatory manner from 1894 to 1973 through the confiscation and misappropriation of their wages under the Aboriginal Welfare Fund. "We have contributed, whether we wanted to or not, to the welfare of this state", she said.