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Calls for the permit system to be abolished on Aboriginal land are motivated purely by self interest the Central Land Council said today.
“It's amazing that 30 years on people still see Aboriginal freehold land as some public space which they can exploit for commercial and recreational purposes without regard for the traditional land owners,” CLC Director David Ross said.
“Claims the permit system slows down economic development for remote Indigenous people are a bizarre twist of logic.
“Unfortunately, economic development faces real barriers in remote communities like illiteracy, poor health and hygiene, a lack of housing, sewerage, bad roads and communications infrastructure, and the inevitable social dysfunction that results.
“The community has no problem with local pastoralists using whatever means of control at their disposal to prevent people accessing their leases without permission but when Aboriginal people similarly control entry to Aboriginal land there are all sorts of objections from the public,” he said.
“The permit system is an essential mechanism to help Aboriginal people protect their sacred sites. It also enables Aboriginal people to have some control over who is able to work on or enter Aboriginal land.
“On a number of occasions the Land Council has been asked by communities to withdraw permits for corrupt or unscrupulous people employed on Aboriginal land.
Mr Ross said that the Land Council does not have a problem with journalists attending Court hearings in communities.
The Central Land Council wrote to the Northern Territory Government in February outlining its view that the justice system must be open to public scrutiny and public access to court proceedings is an essential part of the accountability of the system.
It said that any person who applied for a permit to attend a court hearing would be granted one. However, the CLC has never had an application for a permit to attend a Court hearing and subsequently the CLC has no record of one ever being refused for these purposes.
Last year the Central Land Council issued more than 4000 permits to travel or work on Aboriginal land.
1 June 2006
