I am extremely disappointed at Jim Turnour's comments that ":he can't support the building of houses" at Mona Mona, as reported in last week's Tablelands Advertiser on page 7..
I wonder whether the Federal MP for Leichhardt has consulted widely enough in the Kuranda area's indigenous community over this important issue? FNQ is an huge electorate and it must be hard keeping abreast of community sentiment in all its many parts.
If not, I ask him to think again. Why this haste to make an announcement about Mona Mona's future? Mr Turnour has plenty of hard election promises to get on and implement, without making a discretionary, sudden and premature decision about a matter of key concern to Aboriginal people in this area. Why the haste to follow Mr Rudd's nation-healing gesture with a slap in the face to Aboriginal people at local level in the Kuranda area?
It is absurd to claim, as the Howard Government did, that Mona Mona is 'too remote' to merit Federal support. It's within 50 kilometres of an international airport, a university and a major hospital. If that's 'too remote', we may as well close down most of Australia.
I attended a well-attended public meeting late last year in Kuranda about Mona Mona in which every indigenous person who spoke - without exception - expressed support for rebuilding this place of traditional and historical significance to Aborigines in this area as an autonomous indigenous community. Many spoke with a passion that was very moving to observe. If the local Aboriginal community has lost interest in that vision over the last few months, I'm surprised.
Bi-partisanship over Aboriginal affairs is a two-edged sword. It has benefits when policies are good, but can stifle dissent when they are bad policies based on inadequate information.
Unless and until local Aboriginal elders and leaders inform me they have abandoned the goal of a rebuilt Aboriginal settlement at Mona Mona, I'll continue to support what I believe is an inspiring and appropriate goal for this area.
I believe supporting the Aboriginal community over Mona Mona is the least this area's general community can do in practical terms if reconciliation is to mean more than mere words.
For more information contact Syd
Walker on
07 4093 8384 pr 0422 470 300
www.sydwalker.info