BY PETER JOHNSTON
DARWIN — Larrikiah elder June Mills has been pre-selected as the Socialist Alliance's candidate for the Senate in the Northern Territory.
Mills, who has previously run as a Senate candidate for the NT Greens, will be joined on the alliance's Senate ticket, by Gary Meyerhoff, a prominent campaigner for drug law reform.
Mills brings to the campaign a long history of fighting for social justice, including most recently for the repeal of the NT's draconian mandatory sentencing legislation and the "anti-social conduct" legislation and for justice for the stolen generation.
"We are refugees in our own country", the Larrikiah elder told Green Left Weekly.
"Us blackfellas have to live with exploitation on a daily basis. People think we control heaps of land but it can still be mined and exploited. We can't say no to mining when it is in the national interest."
"Mining is the biggest obstruction to our cultural maintenance. It rips up our cultural sacred sites. Mining always seems to override Aboriginal interests."
Mills argues that the oppression of indigenous people is "underpinned by a colonial attitude of exploitation and paternalism".
However, Mills also spoke with great empathy for those refugees who are seeking to enter Australia as fellow oppressed people.
"People love their land and don't usually want to leave, but when things become intolerable they are forced to flee. These refugees are running from horror" she said.
"If the world was to provide more assistance to people in their homelands they wouldn't want to leave so much. People fleeing terror, hardship and seeking a better future for their children should be welcome here."
To help the Socialist Alliance's Senate campaign, phone (08) 8981 4714 or email <darwin@socialist-alliance.org>.