PM Transcripts

PRESS INTERVIEW WITH PRIME MINISTER, SYDNEY. 25 March 1978
QUESTION: Mr Fraser, what do you say to Mr Bjelke-Petersen' s
claim that your Government is pursuing apartheid policies in
the Northern Territory?
PRIME MINISTER: I think it is complete nonsense. Everyone in
Australia, I am quite certain, knows that it is nonsense. For
a long while in the past there were very patronistic policies
in relation to the Aborigines. White faces went around saying
" This is what is good for you". The Federal Government has
long believed that Aboriginal people should have as much right
as anyone else to determine their own future to do it in the
manner that they think is best for thems * elves. That is what
it is all about. And the legislation Ian Viner has envisaged
would give the Aboriginal people of Araukun and Mornington
Island that right.
QUESTION: The Premier says you have tried to divide Queensland
into black and white states.
PRIME MINISTER: This is just fanciful. It is nonsense.
QUESTION: Where do you stand now in regard to the Aboriginal
reserves in Queensland?
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly where Ian Viner indicated a few days
ago. As you know the Uniting Church has been involved in
Araukun and Mornington Island for a very very long while, and
suddenly the Queensland Government says the Uniting Church is
to move out and at the same time the State Department is going
to take over. While this was against the wishes of the Church,
it was against the wishes of Araukun and Mornington Island.
And so we will be using our powers under the Constitution to
enable the people to determine their own futures.