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Labor’s Stronger Futures draft laws are before the Senate and likely to pass with bipartisan support after federal parliament resumes in May. The measures are widely opposed by NT Aboriginal communities, who say they were not properly consulted on the Government’s plans and that the laws are racist.

A group of traditional owners representing 8000 people in west, central and east Arnhem Land have written to the prime minister, indigenous affairs minister, opposition leader, senators and NT Government calling for the Stronger Futures laws to be scrapped.

“Traditional owners of prescribed community lands have been placed under extreme pressure from the Federal Government to grant them head leases over these communities,” Dr Djiniyini Gondarra wrote.

Dr Gondarra also criticised Aboriginal land councils, saying many were failing the people they were supposed to represent.

“Land councils are increasingly being pressured to act outside their roles and become agencies of government,” he wrote.

Their independence was also being “curtailed by government funding arrangements and political interference”.

Dr Gondarra called for the Commonwealth Auditor-General to review the relationship between the Federal Government and NT land councils…. Indigenous elder Djungadjunga Yunupingu said in the letter the intervention has taken Aboriginal communities back to the 1920s era to the early mission days. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news-old/nt-elders-fight-stronger-futures-law-plans/story-fn3dxity-1226344299672