Letter to The Editor

To The Australian
     It may be true (‘Indigenous leaders rail at “beads and trinkets”’, 8/5) that, because there was ‘no consent’ by the Kaurareg people to Captain Cook’s claiming British sovereignty over eastern Australia in 1770, a wrong was committed at that time, but it is not an ‘enduring wrong’ and indigenous groups are foolish to see it as a ‘grievance which Australia must now make right.’ Owing to the lack of effective resistance nearly 250 years ago and also to the passage of time the nation of Australia possesses full de iure right to its current territory.

     Any ‘nationwide resistance campaign against minimalist change’ will not be welcomed by most Australians; nor will any tampering with our Constitution, something which will be seen indeed as ‘substantive change’ by most of us.
     Finally, it is inconsistent - if not hypocritical - for a particular ethnic group to demand special treatment while rejecting any discrimination of an ethnic kind.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic