AUSTRALIA’S former Aboriginal leader Geoff Clark has welcomed the move to form the nation’s first indigenous political party and warned it could be a force almost immediately.
Framlingham-bas ed Mr Clark, the former chairman of the now-defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, applauded the efforts of Northern Territory indigenous rights campaigner Maurie Ryan to have the First Nations Political Party registered with the Australian Electoral Commission.
He said being part of major political parties had failed Aboriginal people and with the balance of power on a knife edge both federally and in Victoria, the time was right for Aboriginal people to unite.
Mr Clark said that Aboriginal people had up to 12 per cent of the vote across Australia, particularly in the northern states.
“Up until now we’ve found it difficult to counter the prevailing negative attitudes and we’ve not moved the agenda along at all,” he said.
“If you look around the country there are opportunities in proportional representation whether that be in local, state or federal governments.
“There is a need for something to occur and anything that is self-determining in nature has to be supported. Aboriginal people used to control up to 12 per cent of the vote, particularly in the north. That’s a crucial share,” he said.
Mr Clark said he was heading to a meeting in Adelaide next week, where Aboriginal leaders from across Australia would discuss major issues, with political representation likely to be a key one.
“If I can say this tongue in cheek, if we could get the rabbits to vote for us we would certainly do all right,” he said in reference to the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust being convicted and fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $19,500 costs in August for failing to properly undertake rabbit control work.
Mr Clark also refused to rule out a return to political life.
“Who knows, things move in cycles. Political change is afoot and we need to be imaginative and not close doors. With change a lot of different things can happen,” he said.
“At least we are having this debate and that alone is crucial. I applaud independents like James Purcell for putting up their hands and trying to make seats marginal. The federal seat of Wannon is basically a one-party seat. It’s not marginal and we all get very little. You shouldn’t be afraid of a change in circumstances,” he said.
Australia’s first indigenous political party will be officially registered early next year and Mr Ryan, a former Labor Party member, predicted the new party would eventually field candidates in federal, state and territory elections.
“Political parties are created to govern and I hope one day this political party will be in power,” Mr Ryan said.
“There are first nations political parties all around the world. But in Australia there hasn’t been any representation of indigenous people except the times of Neville Bonner, Aden Ridgeway and now Ken Wyatt.”
Mr Ryan ran as an independent in the Northern Territory seat of Lingiari at the 2007 and 2010 federal elections.
The seat is named after his grandfather, early land rights activist Vincent Lingiari, and presently held by Labor minister Warren Snowdon.
“Warren’s been there 20 years and done nothing,” Mr Ryan said.
“I’ll be contesting against him next time and I’ll have a political party behind me,” he said.
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