"Government doesn't listen to us blackfellas anymore"

In a recent conversation I was told: "Government doesn't listen to us blackfellas anymore."

Four and a half months after Labor won federal government, it is unfortunate but not exactly surprising that this feeling still exists here on the NSW North Coast.

 

Labor MPs Janelle Saffin and Justine Elliott and Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker would do well to consider that it takes more than bi-partisan token gestures to bridge the divide perpetuated and often deepened by previous governments and parliaments.

 

Apart from Andrew Hegedus as a Clarence co-facilitator, how many people from local indigenous communities actually attended the two Labor sponsored three-hour Clarence Valley 2020 local summit meetings held on 4 & 5 April 2008?

 

Whatever local summit media release went out after these meetings obviously didn't contain much about Clarence indigenous views because nary a word from this perspective appeared in the online news media or any newspapers which came my way.

 

I await media coverage of the Lismore 2020 local summit next week with interest.

Perhaps that media release might also tell those without the means to attend exactly who was there creating the documents supposedly carrying our collective voices to Canberra at the end of the month.