Letter to The Editor - Most so-called Aboriginal Australians having some non-Aboriginal ancestry

To THE AGE          It is not the business of any state government to sign a treaty with Aboriginals (‘First steps on a long road’, 24/3) and it is scandalous that the fanatical Andrews government has set aside $28.5 million in an attempt to bring this about. Signing treaties is purely the prerogative of the federal government. Jill Gallagher complains that ‘we’ (a group not clearly defined) ‘never ceded sovereignty’. Well, it must have been lost, for the sovereignty of Australia is now held by the Queen on behalf of the Australian people as a whole. It is impossible that any constitutionally valid agreement could be arrived at today with ‘the first people of this country’, for there is no way such an entity could be recognized at law, most so-called Aboriginal Australians having some non-Aboriginal ancestry. Moreover, the majority of Australians will never support a separatist agenda at the ballot box.
  NJ, Belgrave, Vic