Working Papers

For Aboriginal people in Australia rights have been a bitter battleground. For this reason I read with interest and often agree with Marcia Langton and Noel Pearson’s frequent powerful political assaults that show up the hypocrisy of anyone who crusades from some position of political purity, whether green or Labor or bleeding heart. Marcia and Noel are often right but also sometimes off the mark. In her latest piece in the Saturday Paper Marcia Langton implores us, with her usual power and passion, to support the so-called McGlade amendments to the Native Title Act which in effect mean that the power of a democratic majority of a native title group must be endorsed and recognised by a court. If that was the only thing Marcia was arguing for then perhaps we might be able to agree with her but the implications of her arguments go much further.