RR.Terry
20 September 2007, 01:17PM

I fully endorse the contents of this letter, and encourage Mr Howard to endorse this treaty even now!  “Doing it my way” for the Indigeous people is not the best way.  Let’s do it their way for a change.

Lace
19 September 2007, 08:56AM

I can not believe the Australian and Canadian Governments would want to to oppose such a positive step forward. It is vital these Governments join the world and support the adoption of such an important declaration.

Toni-ann Dowd
19 September 2007, 01:04AM

All Australians are equal I like to be able to tell fellow travellers how beautiful and wonderful are caountry is. It`s a shame when our own goverment can not say sorry or will not respond to the the rights of the first true Australians.

Jack Maghan
18 September 2007, 05:29PM

Shame on you both! I wish your children had have been stolen from you Mr Howard, only then would have known what the indigenous people of this country have been through!

Christine Stratigos
18 September 2007, 12:16PM

It is time, not only for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, but Indigenous peoples everywhere to be treated equally and with respect. Try being a visionary for a change Mr Howard, rather than perpetuating long-standing injustices make a positive difference by supporting the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

sean crockford
18 September 2007, 11:39AM

Here is truly an opportunity to acknoweledge the misguided blunders of our ancestors, children in the dark as they were, and to stand up now as adult nations with clear heads, free from guilt, and say, the way you have been treated is wrong, and we wish to make it right. To this end we are prepared to give over some of our power to a truly independant judge in case we, or powers yet to come should lose our way again.

Mandy
18 September 2007, 09:18AM

Until we recognise the rights of indigenous people and replace all that was taken away from them so long ago, we cannot claim ourselves a whole nation.  The plight of indigenous Australians is at the heart of who we are and our response to this issue is a measure of the type of society we want to be.

Eileen Grichting
18 September 2007, 05:36AM

Having recently returned from a study tour in Brazil, I realised anew that the horrors still afflicting the indigenous people there have are not much different from those which happened to Australian and Canaian aborigines. (To say nothing of the native Indians in the USA.)  Surely humanity is at last realising that human rights and land rights beling to all races and ethnic groups- that none of us have the right to displace and dispose of ‘the others.’

SCK
17 September 2007, 10:57PM

Did you know about the Certificate of Exemption in Queensland?  It was abolished when indigenous people got the right to vote.  If they signed the certificate it meant they were exempt from being indigenous and that they were not allowed to mix with their own kind.  Another part to our sadistic history.

Elizabeth
16 September 2007, 05:33PM

The treatment of and policies regarding indigenous people in Australia (especially by our current government) has long been concerning me. Signing this Declaration would begin to make amends for the unwise and at times inhuman action of the government.

Louise Whelan
16 September 2007, 04:41PM

Why do the needs of ‘the economy’ come before the needs and rights of the people, all the people equally and inclusively ? The economy is supposed to serve the people not the other way around . I am tired of governments trying to keep us in fear and keep us consuming, I am sick of people being more interested in what their house is worth rather than just living in their house, if they are lucky enough to have one, and taking more interest in what happening to people around them and contributing to their communities as people , not individual financial units.  Human rights needs to be be put before economies and corporations.

Margot Lloyd
16 September 2007, 08:28AM

I support the above

Henk G.
16 September 2007, 01:40AM

Reading the actual text of the declaration, I am deeply disturbed by the language in it.  Most western countries already have a declaration of rights of some form; it is time and past to apply that equally to all people in the country, rather than making some people more equal than others, as this declaration would.  Anything else will only continue to foment division and ethnic tension.

Kathleen
15 September 2007, 03:24PM

PM Howard,

Your Government’s refusal to progress and ratify this UN Declaration is a national shame. It demonstrates your failure to accept the realities of our country’s history since invasion and colonisation and address the marginalised/oppressed status of Indigenous Australians. You have stated that we can ignore this history, yet you embrace other aspects of our country’s history, eg Anzac, the Kokoda trail. It makes a complete mockery of the recent NT legislation that abuses the Constitutional amendment of 1967. It shows no commitment to addressing the impact of colonisation and ongoing individual and institutional racism perpetrated against Indigenous Australians.

As a non-Aboriginal Australian, I am deeply ashamed that Australia is presented like this to the world community - a ‘cut and run’ approach to Indigenous and human rights. Demonstrate integrity and courage, and support the ratification of this bill, as a minimal statement of Indigenous peoples’ rights globally.

diana newland
15 September 2007, 08:59AM

with john surely gone   we must have a chance to hold our heads up high .  will Robert Hill be withdrawn.  I hope so
actually he may be able to change his spots
  who knows?

Milton
15 September 2007, 12:40AM

Didn’t Mabo take care of most of this already? From what I’ve heard the recommendations are for separate laws for indigenous people, which will permanently keep them marginalized. The way to end discrimination is (partly) to treat everyone the same legally. If aborigines are seen as “different” or “special” then they will always lose out, because the majority will never discriminate positively toward a minority group, only negatively. That’s human nature.

David Pecotic
14 September 2007, 11:40PM

I am in full support of this UN Declaration and it is only just that the Australian Commonwealth ratify it. Morally, there is no other option; everything else is rationalization.

Jessica Nash
14 September 2007, 10:51PM

Telling people what to do and how to do it doesn’t work.  We can work together and it is a good start from the top.  Consutation and action for inclusion and recognition.

Anastasia Delaporta
14 September 2007, 10:22PM

The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People will finally give a voice to those who have been voiceless in their native lands.Your party has been in power for 11 years. Let this be the one positive thing it has done.

Jessica Dowdell
14 September 2007, 08:00PM

Mr Prime Minister, I find it hard to understand how you can lead a country filled with such diversity within its population and still appose a Declaration such as this. Can you not understand that unless our contury unites, unless we start to accept and respect the diffrent traditions of our indigenous people the issue of rasism and violence with in the community will continue. Don’t you understand that as the leader of this nation you have the obligation to begin this by accepting the declaration and put in to action its recomendations.