Fed: Mal Brough has no place in commission, says CLC boss

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2008
Fed: Mal Brough has no place in commission, says CLC boss

By Tara Ravens

DARWIN, Feb 15 AAP - The head of one of the Northern Territory's most powerful Aboriginal
land councils says former indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough has no place on a commission
to address indigenous disadvantage.

Central Land Council director David Ross called Mr Brough "punitive, autocratic and
arrogant" and warned that politics threatened to hijack a new direction for Aboriginal
people.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he supported a bipartisan approach to indigenous disadvantage
when he said sorry to all members of the stolen generation earlier this week, ending more
than a decade of federal government resistance to the move.

He called for a joint policy commission to focus on developing and implementing an
effective housing strategy for remote communities during the next five years.

Mr Ross today said he supported that idea and urged politicians to maintain the spirit
of goodwill in which the federal government had made its apology.

"It's extremely disappointing that controversy has already overshadowed the process
before it's begun," Mr Ross said.

"It's important that the possibility of a new way forward is untainted by the mean-spirited
aspects of the last government's policy."

Mr Ross was a vocal critic of the Howard government's intervention into Territory Aboriginal
communities to combat child sex abuse.

Mr Brough, the chief architect of the radical reforms, spoke out yesterday on ABC radio,
saying a bipartisan commission to address indigenous disadvantage would be ineffective
unless the states were involved.

"You don't need a program, therein lies your problem. That's a good bureaucratic answer,
let's have a program," he said.

"We could sit and talk and talk, but every day we do, a child doesn't get fed, another
child starts to suffer from all sorts of things that don't need to happen.

But Mr Ross dismissed the former politician's remarks.

"Asking for Mal Brough's inclusion is just provocative and puts the entire process
in jeopardy," he said.

"Brough's approach was punitive, autocratic and arrogant.

"He deliberately excluded the people who were most affected by his changes, and he
completely ignored any evidence which didn't support his views

"There is no place for him on any committee."

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KEYWORD: COMMISSION CLC

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