August, 2012

Johns, Price and her supporters and advisers and the editorial team at The Australian need to wake up to the realisation that as much as they may dislike it the politics of racial division have little place in the contemporary Northern Territory.New Chief Minister Terry Mills has made clear that in relation to Aboriginal issues his CLP government will concentrate on the politics of unity – not division.

Robyn Lambley is seen as a safe – and perhaps the only choice – for the CLP deputy. With strong representation outside of Darwin it was only logical that the deputy should come from the bush. Problem is that the CLP member for Braitling, Adam Giles, seen by many as in no small way responsible for the CLP’s recent success in the bush and thus best deserving of the deputy’s job, is a key ally of MLA for the Darwin seat of Fong Lim, Dave Tollner

Mills and the CLP got smart – and got some smart advice and advisors – and realised that government in the NT was theirs for the taking – not by the usual head-butting over seats in the northern suburbs of Darwin but by concentrating on what had long been accepted as Labor’s heartland, the bush seats. And they didn’t forget that they only needed one seat to get them over the line. By close of the count Saturday night the CLP had taken government.

Paul Henderson’s NT Labor is a shoo-in to win the NT election next Saturday. Not because its policies or political performances are any better than the opposition Country Liberals (they aren’t) or because it has won the battle for the hearts and minds of the NT electorate (what battle?) but because it has sold the party to voters better on screen and in the press. Henderson (“Hendo to you, mate”) set the tone from the start — this election would be a presidential contest between he and the Country Liberals’ Terry Mills.

Bess Price, CLP candidate for the massive seat of Stuart (think Victoria plus Tasmania), kicked off her election campaign with an attack on local Amnesty International workers and a senior Aboriginal activist that smacked more of Pauline Hanson’s politics than the sedate election campaign conduct we are used to in Territory politics. Price went on national TV to join a debate that for most in the NT had long faded into history — intra-racial envy.

While I’m prob’ly not black enough for the likes of Andrew Bolt and Bess Price, I’m damn certain I’m still not white enough for the rest of you. Half-breeds like me, we’re still pawns in the middle of a big, nasty, lateral violence fueled discourse, led by self-interested types with ulterior motivations. And that’s why I fight.

In December 1961 an important meeting took place in the sand hills at Lee Point in Darwin that led to the formation of the Northern Territory Council for Aboriginal Rights. Its first President was Jacob Roberts and first Secretary Davis Daniels, two Roper River (now Ngukurr) men. Two well known Darwin members of the Communist Party Brian Manning and Terry Robertson were also elected as Assistant Secretary and Vice President respectively.

The new Timorese Government is not an oligarchy. For Aristotle an oligarchia designated the rule of the few for the few, rule that was exercised not by the best, but by bad men unjustly. Aristotle differentiated an oligarchy from an aristocracy where government by the few is vested in the best individuals. In the case of Timor the people (civil society) decided the best individuals are those that formed the government led by Xanana. It may be an aristocracy but it is an elected one.