FED: Committee rejects Reeves report

AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-1999
FED: Committee rejects Reeves report

A parliamentary committee has rejected key law proposals that Aboriginal leaders argue will
wind back indigenous rights in the Northern Territory.

The Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs unanimously
rejected all the core recommendations of the controversial Reeves Report on the Land Rights
(Northern Territory) Act.

These include fragmenting the expansive Northern and Central Land Councils - described by
former deputy prime minister TIM FISCHER last year as blood-sucking bureaucracies.

And they recommend abolishing the permit system that traditional owners use to restrict who
crosses their land.

In his report, former Labor MHR JOHN REEVES, QC, recommends the present four independent
land councils in the NT be replaced by 18.

The councils would rely on funding from an umbrella organisation that would collect all
royalties and government funding.

But the committee has rejected any changes to the Act without the approval of traditional
owners.

AAP RTV rmg/wz/jn

KEYWORD: REEVES (CANBERRA)

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