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A testimony of injustice : Comments
By Stephen Hagan, published 31/1/2007Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has failed dismally in his handling of the Mulrunji controversy.
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In Queensland The 1897 Protection and Sale of Opium Act was passed.
• Long title : An Act to make Provision for the Better Protection and Care of the Aboriginal and Half-Caste Inhabitants of the Colony, and to make more Effectual Provision for Restricting the Sale and Distribution of Opium (Queensland Act No. 17 of 1897)
This was strengthened by Amendment Acts in 1899, 1901, 1928, 1934, 1939 and 1946. Then, in 1965 and 1971, new Protection Acts were passed which were also closely moulded on the original 1897 legislation. Although presented at the time as a charitable, humane and philanthropic measure, the 1897 Act in its practical outcome was oppressive and restricted the freedom of Aboriginal people more effectively than the sale of opium.
These were the same laws that were applied to regulating and controlling Aboriginal people living on Palm Island as well as a multitude of othe ‘Aboriginal reserves’
When I was born my birth details were registered with relevant controlling authorities. The Acts allowed the “Chief Protector of Aboriginals” and local Protectors to control the lives of Aboriginal people including who they could marry, where they could work and, if they received their wages, how they could spend their money.
These same acts preceded and inspired the framework for aparthied laws in South Africa.
Sources
Evans, Raymond, Kay Saunders and Kathryn Cronin, Race Relations in Colonial Queensland: A History of Exclusion, Exploitation and Extermination, University of Queensland Press (Second edition) Brisbane, 1988.
Kidd, Rosalind, The Way We Civilise: Aboriginal Affairs – The Untold Story, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1997.
Loos, Noel, Invasion and Resistance: Aboriginal-European Relations on the North Queensland Frontier, 1861–1897, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1982.
See this chronology: http://www.hreoc.gov.au/bth/laws/wa.html