Thursday 23rd January 1997
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Executive chairman Ken Arthurson quit his position yesterday in the Australian and New South Wales Rugby Leagues. "I really think that it is in the best interests of the game," Arthurson said, "the truth of the matter is that the fight has mainly been led by John Quayle and myself and some fairly harsh things have been said.
"I really think it will become apparent before the end of the season that two comps is not the best for anybody," with Arthurson predicting that in season 1998 the Rugby League game will merge into one competition... Super League will have won.
You only have to search the news archive on Super League or ARL to see how this battle was won and lost by the ARL and what a joke the law is in this country. A thought that was not lost on Arthurson who remarked that he could not believe how the legal system operated in this country.
You are not alone Ken, you are not alone.
None of this political bunkum from the leader of the Democrats; none of the wheeling and dealing by lawyers with their hands on the bottomless pit of funds available through the Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC); none of the stirred up emotions of ATSIC Commissioners - and away from the "investigative" reporters who's agenda is clouded in mystery but who's source is well known.
No, none of that, just good straight talk on a critical issue which is tearing the Australian rural community apart.
The outcome showed some common sense with Prime Minister John Howard reminding all parties that the preamble to the Native Title Act said, quite clearly, that pastoral leases would extinguish native title claims. "Pastoralists all around Australia were told that," said Howard, "Now the High Court has changed the rules dramatically."
You might recall that just a few days ago we carried the announcement that shires could not afford to fight ATSIC in the courts over native title and were just letting the land go. It has now got so bad that in western Queensland, for example, Barcoo Mayor Peter Douglas claimed that native title uncertainty was crippling developments there.
In recent days three new native title claims had been made in the Barcoo shire and all were on that indeterminable treadmill awaiting resolution while legal council in some city office got fat on the pain of his rural brother..... out of sight - out of mind.
It now appears that Howard understands what is happening and will be holding meetings with the people most effected, the patoralists, miners and Aboriginal leaders during the course of next month. Mr Howard also said that doing nothing about the Wik ruling "was not an option". "The only option that is not on the table is any sort of comprehensive repudiation of the notion of native title, and idea that we would return to a sort of terra nullius - that is not on the table," said Howard.
"If you are asking me for a guarantee we won't touch existing legislation, I can't give that."
Meanwhile back in Cairns at the ATSIC conference attended by Aboriginal elders the long arm of the law was out in force with elders holding their "Yuk puungka" or law stick - a 1.5 metre long wooden pole decorated with feathers.
"This stick is the one which protects our ancestors back in the Dreamtime," said Wik elder Gladys Tybingoompa to 200 summit delegates at the Palm Cove Novotel resort.
"We have a law stick which protects us, our property, our belongings, whatever we own. It protects everything. It is of the Wik people."
ATSIC chairman, Gatjil Djerrkura, gave the Aboriginal position on the Wik issue at Cairns saying, "There must be no extinguishment of common law rights on pastoral leases."
Somehow I think that this statement will not hold up in light of all the events that have and will happen. The irony is that if it is not this issue it will be another that the Aboriginal radicals will find to promote as Australia's "inhumanity to its indigenous people" come the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
For the second year, I would like to extend holiday greetings to you and thank you for your efforts and dedication in posting "Today's Headlines." I drop by 4 or 5 times a week and find the effort always enjoyable. I believe it is a sign of increasing "readership" that you are beginning to receive more critical comment. Your views are independent and are yours, right or wrong, so keep expressing yourself as you see fit.
Robert Ward
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