Fred Chaney's absolute deceit – learn from the past

Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia
Asserting Australia's First Nations Sovereignty into Governance
www.sovereignunion.mobi

Media Release 4 August 2014

Fred Chaney's absolute deceit –learn from the past and beware of “Recognise”

Michael Anderson, convenor of the Sovereign Union of Aboriginal Nations and Peoples in Australia and Head of State of Euahlayi Peoples Republic said from Goodooga today:

“The circulating image of Fred Chaney, a former Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Board member of Reconciliation Australia with Adam Goodes promoting “Recognise” rings alarm bells.

“What an absolute joke this is! Fred Chaney had his chances to do something significant for Aboriginal people when he was Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, but he failed.

There is one thing that I know the majority of our people would not know about Fred Chaney.

“At one time he was a lawyer with an Aboriginal Legal Service in Western Australia, prior to entering into politics, just as Robert Tickner was. That is, both became Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs, one with the Liberals and the other with the Labor party.

“No matter what political party you are with, you just have to fall in line and tow the party line, but it is important for our people to know something about each of these characters while they were in parliament and what sort of things they did, in their capacity as Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs.

“In 1979, Fred Chaney committed a major illegal, immoral and unethical act against the Aboriginal Peoples of Aurukun, Mornington Island and Doomadgee when he, as the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, commenced a legal challenge to the Queensland Government's proposal to establish the Deeds of Grants in Trust (DoGiT’s) for these communities.

“Fred Chaney took this action himself without informing the Peoples of these communities and neither did he obtain their consent to do so. When the court ruled against the communities Councils, they were unable to appeal the decision because Fred Chaney had taken the case and would not appeal the decision.

‘Now Fred Chaney wants to promote assimilation once again under the banner of “Recognise”.

“It is frustrating to know that the young Blacks, who want to make an impression, just do not have the corporate knowledge of Aboriginal Affairs and end up working against those of us who understand what we are entitled to as First Nations and Peoples, who have NEVER been defeated in a declared war and who have NEVER ceded to the Invader British.

“They poisoned our mob; they murdered our mob in the name of clearing the land; they massacred our mob because we would not move away from our lands; they stole our patrimony despite us not liking them and we NEVER agreed; they goal us on a regular basis for minor offences, things whites would NEVER get goaled for; they stole and continue to steal our children to stop us from breeding amongst ourselves; they shut down our efforts to be economically independent (Just read all the laws that govern us; we are NOT permitted to control royalty monies; governments falsely promote that the referendum of 1967 gave them the power to pass laws for us, but in reality they still cannot pass laws for Aborigines; they can only pass laws for the people of the Aboriginal Race under the Race power of the Constitution.

“Fred Chaney and his powers that be, lie every day of the week, not to mention put millions of dollars into deceitful programs like the Recognise campaign and I guess the worst of all this is we have Blacks who are prepared to be the new ‘black trackers’, working against us. This is possible because they have NO loyalty to my mob and my mob has NO loyalty to those Blacks who work with Government. They must realise that they do NOT represent all the Nations so why can’t they just be HONEST and say we can only speak for our Mob, whom we belong to and we cannot make decisions for others. Even the government knows this. The courts even know this and say that one mob of people cannot speak for others, so why do these young Blacks persist? MONEY, POSITION, NOTORITY, and/or STATUS? Cannot be, surely?

I do know what happened between the Aboriginal Peoples of Aurukun, Mornington Island and Doomadgee because I was there. If you want to know the details this how it went:

““At one time Fred Chaney was a lawyer with an Aboriginal Legal Service in Western Australia, prior to entering into politics, just as Robert Tickner was. That is, both became Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs, one with the Liberals and the other with the Labor party.

“No matter what political party you are with, you just have to fall in line and tow the party line, but it is important for our people to know something about each of these characters while they were in parliament and what sort of things they did, in their capacity as Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs.

“In 1979, Fred Chaney committed a major illegal, immoral and unethical act against the Aboriginal Peoples of Aurukun, Mornington Island and Doomadgee when he, as the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, commenced a legal challenge to the Queensland Government's proposal to establish the Deeds of Grants in Trust (DoGiT’s) for these communities.

“Fred Chaney took this action himself without informing the Peoples of these communities and neither did he obtain their consent to do so.

“I met with the various Council leaders of these communities in Brisbane at the Aboriginal Legal Service office in George Street. Paul Richards was the principal lawyer at the time. The leaders of these communities refused to have the North Queensland Land Council lead them as their advisers, instead I was engaged.
“On this day, they were informed that a decision on the validity of the DoGiT’s was to be handed down soon. I had long talks with the community leaders and we set a strategy in place. I recall informing them that the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) were meeting in Brisbane and that I would try and get a hearing with them to talk about the communities' objections.

“I contacted Mr. Halfpenny and he arranged for the meeting immediately. We arrived at the Brisbane Trade and Labor Council building and were received by Mr. Bob Hawke, the then President of the ACTU. The late Mr Frankie Yungaporta, Mr Larry Langley and Mr Donald Pienkinna addressed the full membership of the ACTU, where they explained their objections to the DoGiT plans made by the Queensland Government. Moreover, I recall them leaving the ACTU with no doubt that they were not included in decisions being made by the Government.

“The ACTU voted unanimously to give support to the three communities and that they would arrange a meeting with Fred Chaney, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, in Canberra and that the ACTU would arrange all travel for them to get down to Canberra.
“It was decided that the ACTU would arrange for me to come to Canberra in advance to assist Mr Bob Hawke (who was later to become the Prime Minister) with organising the meeting. I met Mr Hawke in Mr Bill Hayden’s office (Bill Hayden was the then Labor opposition leader) in what is now the Old Parliament House. Arrangements were agreed to and Fred Chaney was to meet these community Council Leaders in his office at Parliament House in Canberra.

“On the day the community leaders were to be picked up by a privately hired aeroplane and brought to Canberra, the pilot called me in Mr Hayden's office early in the morning and informed me that the communities' representatives had got on another plan the day before. I made some telephone calls in an attempt to find out who was on the plane, what plane and where did they end up.

“I found out that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs had arranged for the men to be brought to Brisbane to hear the decisions of the Queensland Supreme Court re the validity of the DoGiT’s.

“It was immediately arranged for me to fly to Brisbane and locate the community Council representatives, attend the court and then bring them to Canberra for the meeting with Minister Chaney the following day in Canberra.

“When the decision came down, the court ruled against the objection in favour of the Queensland Government. I explained to the community Leaders that they should instruct their lawyer to lodge an appeal to the High Court immediately.

“We approached the barrister said to be representing the Councils and asked him to lodge an appeal. The barrister informed us all that only the Applicant could file an appeal. I recall the community Council representatives then saying words to the effect of, “Well, we now instruct you to do it.”

“They were then informed that they were NOT the Applicants. They were told that the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Fred Chaney, had taken the action for and on their behalf and that only he could instruct counsel to appeal the decision. As we all know that did not happen. This is one of the most immoral and unethical acts. Talk about circumventing Aboriginal legal rights.

“When we arrived in Canberra the next day, the community councils addressed a media conference where Frankie Yungaporta, and Donald Pienkenna informed the media of their communities' objection to the Queensland Government's action. During the media conference I recall the press conference being interrupted by Senator Neville Bonner (a Liberal senator for Queensland) coming in and taking over the media conference saying words to the effect of, “I have just come back from up in these communities and I can say that these men do not represent what the people are saying and we find that the people have no objections to the changes being planned by the Queensland Government.”

“Here we are once again seeing how the Federal Government can run interference to work against the people themselves by splitting the communities for their own advantage.

“Minister Fred Chaney refused to meet the Councils' representatives from the communities that he had previously agreed to meet and this infuriated Bob Hawke, but the closest we got was Jeremy Long, a first assistant secretary to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. I recall him pointing at me saying words to the effect of, “Michael can you please stop using peoples' issues for your own advantage. These people would not be here if it was not for you using people for your own advantage.” He failed to realise I would not benefit at all in any possible way.

“As for Robert Tickner, well, he caused me to loose my lecturing position at the Newcastle University when he wrote to the Vice Chancellor asking him to provide information about what I was teaching. The Vice Chancellor did not care to stand up for the freedoms of the independence of University and education, but then money speaks all sorts of languages.”

Contact:
Ghillar Michael Anderson,
Convenor for the Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia
ghillar29@gmail.com, 0427 292 492
www.sovereignunion.mobi