Fed: Howard makes headway on reconciliation

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2000
Fed: Howard makes headway on reconciliation

By Rod McGuirk

CANBERRA, April 14 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard has made headway this week in answering
critics who say his heart is not in reconciliation.

Stung by Labor accusations last week that he was playing wedge politics - the divisive
tactic of setting majority groups against minorities - the prime minister has since scored
some victories on a series of indigenous issues that have exploded in the government's
face in recent weeks.

He was widely praised early in the week over the deal he struck with Northern Territory
Chief Minister Denis Burke on mandatory detention of children - a sentencing regime condemned
by Aboriginal groups.

For $5 million, Mr Howard has ensured more alternatives to detention will be available
for juvenile offenders in the NT and that 17-year-olds will no longer be sent to adult
jails.

While Mr Burke did not budge far in the compromise, it was enough to quash a federal
backbench revolt, force Labor to surrender on the issue and to take the heat out of mandatory
sentencing at the Liberal Party national convention this weekend.

Two meetings with indigenous groups this week have had particular significance in the
prime minister's fight back on the reconciliation front.

A landmark dinner at The Lodge - the prime minister's official residence in Canberra
- on Tuesday involving all 18 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission leaders,
the prime minister, his embattled Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron and Reconciliation
Minister Philip Ruddock has proved so far to be a strategic winner.

ATSIC commissioners - who had considered boycotting the dinner to protest against the
government's denial of the stolen generation, its refusal to apologise and failure to
heed a United Nation's racism committee's criticisms - universally hailed the meeting
as a turning point in souring relations.

It also lifted their expectations that the government would look favourably on contentious
issues including leaving indigenous housing in ATSIC's budget and recognising customary
law.

ATSIC chairman Geoff Clark interpreted the new era of cooperation as a honeymoon period
of government leading into the international spotlight of the Sydney Olympics.

The prime minister's second significant meeting was a hurried shaking of hands with
four Aborigines and their lawyer representing NT members of the stolen generation.

The Aborigines had planned and eventually executed a silent protest in the public gallery
of parliament house during question time yesterday.

They stood and turned their backs to the prime minister in a gesture harking back to
the Reconciliation Convention in Melbourne in 1997 which Mr Howard counts as a low point
of his first term.

The focus of their protest was their claim that attempts to meet the prime minister
had been stonewalled by his office for 10 days.

The prime minister's office said Mr Howard had only learned minutes before question
time that they wanted to see him.

But significantly he made a few minutes available to greet them in his office and,
hopefully, to avert the protest.

This is an indication of how keenly he currently feels negative perceptions on indigenous
issues and, more particularly, on the stolen generation issue.

The government's denial of the stolen generation has prompted the Council for Aboriginal
Reconciliation to call a crisis meeting in Sydney tomorrow to consider the impact on their
reconciliation agenda.

It's unlikely there will be consensus at the meeting, with the council's deputy chairman,
Australian of the Year Sir Gustav Nossal, predicting the furore may have a positive spin-off
by drawing public attention to the stolen generation.

Mr Howard had declared the reconciliation process alive and well this week, despite
his refusal to support an apology setting him at odds with the reconciliation council
when it unveils its declaration of reconciliation at the Sydney Opera House on May 27.

The prime minister has put himself back on the front foot this week on indigenous affairs.

But his critics are waiting for actions to match his words.

AAP rmg/mfh/jtb/br

KEYWORD: NEWSCOPE FEDERAL

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.