Seven Steps for Justice

Early in the new year, ANTaR will be writing to both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, to urge them to adopt a cross-party approach to the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. This approach should be developed through genuine negotiations with Indigenous people.

We will seek to personally present them with ANTaR's Seven Steps For Justice, and call on all sides of Parliament to implement the following Seven Steps as a priority:

1. Put in place an adequately resourced plan including targets, benchmarks and a transparent evaluation process to meet the deadlines proposed by Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma to close the Indigenous life expectancy gap within a generation.
2. Reform the Native Title and Northern Territory Aboriginal Land Rights Acts to restore land justice for Indigenous people as well as the timely resolution of claims.
3. Introduce a Social Justice Package to complete the Federal Government response to the High Court's Native Title decision as promised by the former Prime Minister, Paul Keating.
4. Apologise to the Stolen Generations as part of the full implementation of the 54 Bringing Them Home Report recommendations.
5. Replace the Northern Territory intervention with a child centred, evidence based approach to overcoming abuse and violence that is developed in conjunction with Aboriginal people and includes addressing historic backlogs in housing, infrastructure and education.
6. Achieve constitutional change that entrenches the rights of Indigenous Australians in the legally binding body of the document, not just the preamble. This change could include a Treaty or some other agreement and should be consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
7. Support and facilitate the establishment of an independent National Indigenous Representative Body, the form of which should be negotiated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This last point is absolutely vital because governments cannot continue to dictate to Indigenous people what they can have, or what is going to happen to them. They must have a voice.

Please add your name to the pledge. By demonstrating your support for Indigenous peoples' rights in this way you will be lending weight to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pleas for justice and sending a clear message that this is an issue about which non-Indigenous Australians also care very deeply.

(Providing your postal and email address will allow ANTaR to keep you informed of developments in the campaign. ANTaR will not disclose these details to third parties.)